TL;DR

Create an autonomous Copilot Workflow Agent in Microsoft 365 that automatically reads incoming emails, drafts responses using company data, and sends Teams summaries while using simple rules to prevent email loops.

Copilot Workflows with Microsoft 365

I want to show you some new functionality that Microsoft recently released through the Frontier program, and that’s Copilot Workflow Agents. This allows you to easily create agents in Copilot using a conversational AI building tool, and we’ll take a quick look at it. Copilot Workflows is available in Microsoft 365, and we’ll walk through how to set it up, how to get it running in your system, and how to create an autonomous agent with a trigger. This is especially useful because it takes advantage of built-in connections across different Microsoft 365 products and can run automatically once triggered. I’ll also show you how to set up a simple email rule to make sure everything works the way you want it to.

Getting Started with Copilot Workflows

Accessing Copilot Workflows in Microsoft 365

Let’s get started. This is my Microsoft 365 environment. If you look at the menu on the left, you’ll see that I already have Copilot Workflows added. If you don’t see it, you can easily add it by going to “All agents” and selecting Copilot Workflows from the list. Once added, you can start using it right away.

Creating an Autonomous Copilot Agent

Using a Prompt to Build Your Agent

What we’re going to do is create an autonomous agent in Copilot using a simple prompt. This is a prompt I’m using that I got from a Microsoft engineer. The agent we create will monitor Outlook, generate responses to incoming emails, and also create messages in Teams. It will be triggered automatically, which makes it powerful for ongoing workflows.

I’ll copy the prompt and paste it into Copilot. The agent will monitor Outlook for incoming messages, review information in my company data, and use that to generate a response email. It will also create a Teams message to keep me informed. Since I have multiple projects stored in my system and often use Loop for collaboration, I’ve included instructions in the prompt so that any relevant Loop data is formatted into tables.

How the Agent Works

Now I’ll run Copilot to create the agent. You can see that it has created a trigger that activates when a new email arrives in my inbox. It scans the email, searches my company data for relevant information, formulates a response, drafts an email, and sends a summary to Teams. The agent is now complete.

Let’s take a closer look. The agent is configured so that when a new email arrives, it starts automatically, analyzes the content, gathers the necessary information, drafts a response in Outlook, and sends a Teams message summarizing the activity. The agent is saved, turned on, and ready to go.

Testing the Copilot Workflow Agent

Sending a Test Email

To test it, I’ll send a quick email from another account asking about the status of two projects. Once the email is sent, we can monitor the agent’s activity. In the activity view, you can see that it’s running. The agent is reviewing my system data, generating a response email, and preparing a Teams notification.

Reviewing the Generated Email

Now let’s look at the email created by the agent. The original email has arrived in my Outlook inbox, and the agent has created a draft response in a separate folder. I configured the agent not to automatically send replies, so I can review the response before forwarding it to the sender.

Looking at the draft, you can see that it includes a detailed response to the project status questions. It has also pulled in relevant Loop data and formatted it into tables. Both questions from the original email are answered clearly, and the original message is included for reference. At this point, I can simply forward the response to the sender to complete the process.

Viewing Activity in Microsoft Teams

Teams Notifications and Workflow Summary

Next, let’s check Teams. A message has been created in a workflows channel summarizing the agent’s activity. This gives me a quick overview of what was done and allows me to revisit the information at any time. The agent then resets itself and is ready to handle the next incoming email.

Preventing Email Loops with Rules

Creating an Outlook Rule

To prevent an endless loop of emails, I also created a simple rule in Outlook. Since the agent-generated email appears to come from me, I set up a rule that automatically moves those emails into a specific folder instead of letting them re-enter my inbox. This prevents repeated triggers and keeps everything organized.

To create this rule, go to Settings, then Mail, then Rules. The rule detects emails sent from my address and moves them to a designated folder. This ensures that the workflow runs smoothly without creating an infinite loop of responses.

Key Benefits and Considerations

Why Use Copilot Workflow Agents

As you can see, creating agents with Copilot Workflows is straightforward. One of the biggest advantages is that it leverages the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, with built-in connections to tools like Outlook and Teams, so you don’t have to configure integrations manually.

Important Limitations to Know

There are a couple of things to keep in mind. This functionality is not yet generally available and requires access through the Frontier program. Also, once an agent is created, you currently can’t edit it. Instead, you should save your prompt externally, such as in Word, so you can refine and recreate the agent as needed. Each time you run the prompt, a new agent is created, and you can delete any older versions you no longer need.

Final Thoughts

The real value here is getting familiar with agent-based AI in Microsoft 365. It’s easy to use, requires minimal setup, and demonstrates how automation can be applied across your business processes. The agent can pull information from both your internal systems and the web, showing the potential for broader use cases.

In this walkthrough, we explored Copilot Workflows, created an autonomous agent with a trigger, and set up a simple email rule to support it. Give it a try yourself. It’s easy to get started, and this example is just the beginning of what you can build. If you’re ready to deploy Copilot in Microsoft 365, you can download the free guide linked in the video description.