Many Microsoft Teams users are likely familiar with the concept of workflows. This feature allows users of the collaboration service to get updates about any tasks assigned to them in Teams, along with ways to manage online meetings and a way to take action after receiving a message.
Today, Microsoft announced that it will be integrating workflow features more directly in its Teams app. It will begin with a dedicated Workflow app inside Teams.
In a blog post, Microsoft stated:
Microsoft Power Automate is the underlying platform which facilitates the automation of processes and activities by connecting disparate applications, both within and beyond Microsoft 365 programs. The entire experience is now branded as ‘Workflows’ across Microsoft Teams. You can now use the Workflows app to discover, create, edit and manage all your workflows.
In addition, the Teams story now has a large number of templates in the Workflows section of the Teams Store. Many are for Microsoft programs and others are from third-party companies, such as Jira, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Bitbucket, Zendesk, Freshdesk, and YouTube. The blog post adds:
The redesigned landing page highlights new useful categories such as ‘Calendar’ and ‘Notifications’ and surfaces the most recently published templates you might have missed.
Teams has also added a new menu option in its channel and chat list that will allow users to create and configure new workflows from each Teams chat or channel you are involved in. Workflow templates can also now be found in individual chats as well.
It would not be a Microsoft app without some kind of upcoming AI feature. In the case of workflows in Teams, the company is working on a future edition that will create any type you want:
By harnessing powerful AI from Power Automate, you can simply describe the workflow you want, and the tool will design a workflow with triggers and actions to bring it to life!
There’s no work on when this AI workflow creation system will go live in Teams.