Status November 2026
I have revised this post. The Workflows agent does not sit in the Copilot pane in Outlook. It is an agent in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app that Microsoft offers in the Frontier programme (early access). According to Microsoft’s guide it currently only understands English and can only run a limited set of actions. The steps below follow Microsoft’s guide.
Sound familiar? An important client email lands in your inbox and three days later it hits you that you still have not captured the task hiding inside it. Or you spend twenty minutes every morning reading emails, creating tasks and keeping colleagues in the loop. That is not bad time management, that is routine work that can partly be automated.
This is exactly where the Workflows agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot comes in. You describe in natural language what should happen. Copilot turns it into a process that runs in the background. In this post I show you what the agent can do today, where its limits are and when the classic Outlook rules remain the better choice.
What is the Copilot Workflows agent?
Microsoft introduced the Workflows agent in October 2025 and made it available in the Agent Store for customers in the Frontier programme (Microsoft announcement). 📬 You describe what should happen and the agent builds a workflow with a trigger and actions. A workflow runs on a schedule, for example every morning at 8 am, or in response to an event.
According to Microsoft’s guide (as of January 2026), the agent can run these actions, among others:
- Outlook: get emails and events, send, reply to or save a draft email, create events, find a meeting time
- Teams: post a message in a chat or channel, create a chat
- SharePoint: add, list and delete list items
- Planner: list your tasks
- Approvals: create an approval and wait for the response
Important: The Workflows agent requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence and your organisation has to be part of the Frontier programme. According to Microsoft it is only available in English for now. The classic Outlook rules remain available without an additional licence.
Quick thought: which of these tasks does the Workflows agent not handle, according to Microsoft’s guide?
Step 1: Open the Workflows agent
Open the Microsoft 365 Copilot app and under Agents in the left pane choose Workflows Agent (Frontier). If it is not there, add it from the Agent Store. If you cannot find it there either, it has not been enabled in your organisation. Your IT team is then the right place to ask.
Step 2: Describe a workflow in natural language
Describe in the text box what should happen automatically. Name the mailbox, the Teams chat or channel and the SharePoint list as precisely as possible, otherwise the agent will ask or, in the worst case, pick the wrong place. A few examples: 💡
- «Every weekday at 8 am, get my emails from yesterday marked as high importance and send me a summary in a Teams chat.»
- «Every Friday at 4 pm, list my Planner tasks and post the open ones in my Teams chat with myself.»
- «Every hour, get new emails with ‹Quote› in the subject and add an item for each one to the SharePoint list ‹Quotes› on the site ‹Sales›.»
Write your process as if you were explaining it to a colleague: when it starts, what is checked and what should happen next.
Step 3: Test the workflow and switch it on
The agent shows you the workflow with its trigger and actions. After saving, it prompts you to test it, or you select Test at the top of the workflow page. The test simulates the trigger. Afterwards you can see which steps worked and where errors occurred.
Microsoft explicitly recommends reviewing and testing every AI-generated workflow before using it in production. A second look is especially worthwhile for workflows that send emails on your behalf.
Step 4: Use classic Outlook rules for simpler cases
Not every automation needs Copilot. For folders, flags and forwarding, the classic Outlook rules are still the quickest solution:
| Aspect | Outlook rules | Copilot workflows |
|---|---|---|
| Ideal for | Simple actions (folders, flags, forwarding) | Processes across several apps |
| Licence | No additional licence | Microsoft 365 Copilot and the Frontier programme |
| Setup | Pick conditions and actions | Natural language, English for now |
| Connections | Within Outlook | Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Planner, Approvals |
In the new Outlook you find rules under Settings, Mail and Rules.
Exercise
Rule or workflow?
Step 5: Switch on Focused Inbox
Regardless of workflows, it is worth switching on Focused Inbox if you have not done so yet. Outlook then sorts your emails into two tabs: 📂
- Focused: emails Outlook considers important, for example from clients and colleagues
- Other: newsletters, automatic notifications and the like
In the new Outlook you find the setting under Settings, Mail and Layout, in classic Outlook on the View tab. Depending on your version the label may differ slightly. If an email lands in the wrong tab, move it with a right-click and choose to always move emails from this sender there.
Step 6: Manage your workflows
The Workflows agent’s home page lists all your workflows. There you can:
- Turn workflows on and off via More (the three dots). Turning one off pauses it, handy for seasonal processes.
- Follow every run under Activity, step by step with success or failure.
- Delete workflows. According to Microsoft this cannot be undone.
Take a look at the activity after two weeks. Often you only notice then that a workflow runs too often or too rarely. Then sharpen the description. According to Microsoft, workflows cannot be shared with others. Everyone sets up their own.
Practical tip: follow meetings instead of declining
If you cannot attend a meeting but want to stay in the picture, reply with Follow in Outlook instead of declining. According to Microsoft, the organiser is then reminded to record the meeting and take collaborative notes. Afterwards you find the recording and transcript in the meeting recap. Your calendar shows the time as free. 🚀
Follow is available in the new Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web. Since August 2026 it has also been available in Outlook Mobile. Combine it with a workflow, for example: «Every Friday at 3 pm, get my calendar events for next week and send me the list in a Teams chat.» On Friday you then see which meetings are coming up next week and where following is enough.
Quick check
Three questions to take away
Conclusion & call to action
Your Outlook inbox does not have to be a time sink. Outlook rules handle the simple cases straight away and without an additional licence. The Workflows agent adds to them where several apps work together, provided it is available in your organisation. How to work through the remaining emails with a few decisions is something I show in the post Process email efficiently.
Try it now: set up an Outlook rule for your most frequent sorting step and check in the Copilot app whether the Workflows agent is already available to you. 💡