The past pandemic has accelerated digitalization within the business (Amankwah‐Amoah et al., 2021). Not only was there an explosion in online sales (U.S. Census Bureau, 2023), but more and more organizations were using platforms such as Microsoft Teams or Slack to collaborate digitally (Zaveri & Gould, 2020). As the pandemic came to an end, all kinds of companies of various sizes and industries faced their next challenge – a shortage of staff (Randstad & Randstad, n.d.). Digital skills and a strong digital foundation are now more important than ever to stay competitive.
To support organizations in this, Microsoft jumped into an important gap. With its far-developed ecosystem Office 365, now better known as Microsoft 365, manages to support both SMEs and Multinationals in its operations. A platform such as Microsoft Power Automate is a low-threshold empowering hand from Microsoft to accelerate digitization and thus efficiency. Power Automate, formerly known as Microsoft Flow, is a Cloud-based service that allows users to automate time-consuming (repetitive) business tasks and processes within and outside the Microsoft ecosystem in a practical and easy way (Microsoft, 2023). Examples of these tasks include, for example, automatically saving attachments from emails, sending push notifications within teams, or creating flows for approvals (Microsoft, 2023).
Of course, Power Automate cannot be left behind when it comes to emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). So, in September, Microsoft announced an integration with ChatGPT (MatoW, 2023). The Power Automate plugin for ChatGPT makes it possible to create direct cloud flows based on a conversation within ChatGPT (MatoW, 2023). To take advantage of this feature you need to have a subscription to OpenAI, ChatGPT Plus. To make ChatGPT work for you, you need to start a prompt with creating a flow or automation and clearly stating what you want to achieve. Then ChatGPT can create a flow in your own environment (MatoW, 2023).
(MatoW, 2023a)
Besides using it to create new flows, you can also use the plugin to lose possible errors in your own built flow and use ChatGPT as a tool. Personally, I have used the latter application myself during my work to extract XML files from an automated mail from another department, save it to a SharePoint environment, and then merge it into a weekly total file.
The integration between Microsoft Power Automate and ChatGPT makes it possible for anyone to become an expert in process automation and thereby speed up business operations. In particular, the technology will be able to make a difference within mid-size organisations that can automate a high number of repetitive tasks to save their resources.
References
Amankwah‐Amoah, J., Khan, Z., Wood, G., & Knight, G. (2021). COVID-19 and digitalization: The great acceleration. Journal of Business Research, 136, 602–611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.08.011
MatoW. (2023a). Create a Flow Power Automate – Chat GPT. Microsoft.
MatoW. (2023b, September 21). Use the Power Automate plugin for ChatGPT – Power Automate. Microsoft Learn. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/use-chatgpt-plugin
Microsoft. (2023). Power Automate | Microsoft Power Platform. https://powerautomate.microsoft.com/en-us/
Randstad & Randstad. (n.d.). Randstad. www.randstad.com. https://www.randstad.com/workforce-insights/talent-acquisition/why-there-a-global-labor-shortage/
U.S. Census Bureau. (2023, June 12). Annual Retail Trade Survey shows impact of online shopping on retail sales during COVID-19 pandemic. Census.gov. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/04/ecommerce-sales-surged-during-pandemic.html
Zaveri, P., & Gould, S. (2020, May 2). These charts show how use of Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Zoom has skyrocketed thanks to the remote work boom. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-teams-slack-zoom-usage-charts-increased-remote-work-pandemic-2020-4?international=true&r=US&IR=T
Very interesting development with, in my opinion, a potentially large impact on the workflow of medium-sized businesses. Entire companies are currently being formed to provide RPA, or Robotic Process Automation, solutions for similar everyday digital activities, which are a slog to do manually. It seems that with this integration between MS Power Automate and ChatGPT, companies and their employees can set the first steps to automating such processes more easily on their own. This way, these medium-sized companies will no longer have to invite an external company to create such automation solutions for them, saving time and costs. If you are planning on following this blog post up with another one containing more information regarding this development, I look forward to reading it!