Preface

There was a time when “automation” meant writing a script that only worked on your laptop, broke every Friday, and required you to fix it before anyone noticed. Thankfully, those days are (mostly) over. Microsoft Power Automate has continued to evolve over the past few years since the last edition of this book. It’s moved from just being the duct tape of digital productivity (except smarter, cleaner, and slightly less sticky) to something that can be used to streamline both your business and your daily tasks.

This third edition of Workflow Automation with Microsoft Power Automate takes things further. Robotic process automation lets you automate the previously unautomatable—the old apps that refuse to retire and the screens that pretend it’s still 2003. Copilot now helps you build flows by simply explaining what you want in plain English, which means you can finally stop arguing with your syntax (again, mostly). And with access to AI tools and models built into the platform, your automations can analyze, predict, and respond faster than you can get ChatGPT to spit out a rap about oatmeal.

You’ll still find the familiar foundations from the previous edition: how to connect cloud and on-premises systems, streamline repetitive work, and reclaim the hours you’ve been donating to manual tasks. But this time, we’ll do it with a little more intelligence—and a little more personality. Hopefully, you’ll pick up some ideas along the way on how low-code automation and AI can make everything just a little easier.