Latest Power Automate Features to Boost Productivity

December 31, 2024January 3, 2025Evelyn Dennis

Application Insights Integration for Monitoring Power Automate Flows
The integration of Power Automate with Application Insights allows users to monitor and analyse the performance of their automated workflows. By connecting Power Automate with Application Insights, you can track flow execution, view real-time telemetry data, and gain insights into failures, performance bottlenecks, and usage patterns. This integration helps improve workflow reliability, optimize performance, and enhance troubleshooting, making it easier to maintain and troubleshoot automation processes.

Latest Power Automate Features — The above image refers to the Overview panel in Application Insights, providing key metrics and data to monitor and troubleshoot workflows.

Failures panel in Application Insights, displaying information on workflow errors and issues for troubleshooting.

Availability: This feature is generally available from Aug 2024.
Reference: Overview of integration with Application Insights – Power Platform | Microsoft Learn
Video: Power Automate Telemetry Integration with Application Insights | TechTalk

Simplify Flow Creation with Copilot in Power Automate
Copilot Assistance for Streamlining Automation in Power Automate helps accelerate automation by using natural language instructions to suggest solutions. It guides you throughout the entire process, from creation to completion, making it easier to adopt automation and transform your workflows.

Note: Copilot Assistance for Streamlining Automation in Power Automate is enabled by default in the UK, Australia, US, and India, and can be disabled at the tenant level via PowerShell.

Copilot Assistance for Streamlining Automation

Availability: This feature is generally available from September 2024.

Reference: Copilot in Power Automate – Power Automate | Microsoft Learn

Video: Building Flows with Copilot

Effortless Expression Creation and Editing Using Copilot’s Natural Language Support
With this feature, makers can easily create or edit complex expressions in Power Automate using natural language prompts. No need for complex coding—just submit your request to Copilot. To use this, Copilot must be enabled in your tenant.

Availability: This feature is generally available from Mar 2025.

Reference: Create and edit expressions with Copilot | Microsoft Learn

4. Task Mining and Process Mining in Power Automate for Automation Opportunities

Task Mining and Process Mining in Power Automate help find tasks and processes that can be automated. Task Mining looks at repetitive tasks done by users, like clicks and typing, and suggests ways to automate them. Process Mining looks at entire workflows to find delays and problems. Together, they help businesses work faster and more efficiently.

Task Mining vs. Process Mining

Both tools aim to uncover automation opportunities, but they operate at different levels:

Availability: This feature is generally available from August 2023.

Reference: Microsoft launches Power Automate Process Mining and next-generation AI – Microsoft Power Platform Blog

Video: Improve Efficiency with Power Automate Process Mining and RPA | BRK213H

Integrate Visuals in Power BI with Power Automate for Interactive Dashboards
Integrating Power Automate with Power BI allows you to automate workflows and visualize data seamlessly. By creating a flow in Power Automate, you can process and send data to Power BI for real-time reporting. In Power BI, build a report based on this data and embed a Power Automate button to trigger workflows directly from the dashboard. This integration streamlines tasks, improves efficiency, and offers a more interactive experience for users.

Settings:

Select the Power Automate icon from the Visualizations pane.

2. In Power BI Desktop, you can also add the visual from the ribbon. On the Insert tab, select Power Automate in the Power Platform section.

3. Scroll, resize the visual, or select the Focus mode icon to see all the instructions.

Availability: This feature is generally available from November 2024.

Reference: Create a Power Automate visual for Power BI – Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Cancel Active Flow Runs for Specific Flow Versions in Power Automate
In Power Automate, you can cancel all active flow runs for a specific version of a flow. This is useful when you need to stop unnecessary or problematic runs without impacting the entire flow. By targeting a specific version, you maintain control while ensuring your flow processes run smoothly. This feature helps clean up unwanted executions and avoids conflicts or errors, making flow management more efficient and reliable.

The image above indicates that the flow is in the process of being cancelled.

Availability: This feature is generally available from Apr 2024.
Reference: Cancel all flow runs for a version of a flow | Microsoft Learn

Cloud-Based Automation and Task Management with Hosted RPA and Work Queues in Power Automate

Hosted RPA in Power Automate allows automation to run on cloud-based virtual machines without human intervention, making it scalable and efficient. Work Queues manage tasks by placing them in an organized queue for automation, ensuring smooth and timely processing. Together, these features streamline workflows, improve productivity, and reduce manual effort, helping businesses automate complex processes more effectively.

Availability: This feature is generally available from November 2024.

Reference: Introduction to the Power Automate Hosted RPA – Power Automate | Microsoft Learn

Video: Power Automate Hosted RPA – Efficiently scale RPA operations

View and Compare Multiple Action Properties Panes Simultaneously in Power Automate
This feature lets you pin an action properties pane and open another one side-by-side. It allows for easy comparison of properties, copying values between panes, and taking screenshots, improving workflow efficiency.

Availability: This feature is generally available from Aug 2024.
Reference: View two action properties panes simultaneously | Microsoft Learn

Mark Input Parameters as Optional in Manual Triggers for On-Demand Flows

This feature allows you to mark input parameters in manual or Power Apps triggers as optional in Power Automate’s modern designer, a capability previously available only in the classic designer. This makes it easier to run flows on demand without requiring all input parameters.

The image shows that you can now mark any input parameter in a manual trigger as optional in the modern designer.

Availability: This feature is generally available from Mar 2024.
Reference: Mark input parameters in triggers as optional | Microsoft Learn

10. Enhanced Creation and Testing of Seamless Approval Workflows in Power Automate

Streamline approvals with Power Automate. Easily create and test workflows to manage document and process approvals across platforms like SharePoint, Dynamics 365, and Salesforce.

Example:

Trigger: The workflow starts when someone creates a vacation request in a SharePoint Online list.
Add to Approval Center: The request is added to the approval center and emailed to the approver.
Notify Requester: An email with the approver’s decision is sent to the person who requested the vacation.
Update List: The SharePoint Online list is updated with the approver’s decision and comments.

Availability: This feature is generally available from October 2024.

Reference: Create and test an approval workflow with Power Automate – Power Automate | Microsoft Learn

Streamline and automate business process workflows

July 28, 2021August 7, 2021HABY JOSEPH

With Power Automate (previously Microsoft Flow), that automate business process workflows where you can use robotic process automation (RPA) to transform repetitive operations from human, time-consuming chores into efficient workflows.
It is a part of the Microsoft Power Platform and acts as a single solution that combines the capabilities of both robotic process automation (RPA) and digital process automation (DPA), with artificial intelligence added on top (AI).

When a flow is initiated, an integrated ecosystem with thousands of prebuilt templates and hundreds of connectors allows you to establish automated workflows between applications and services. This allows you to connect files, receive notifications, and gather data, all while streamlining your business processes and increasing productivity.

What is Power Automate?

Microsoft’s Power Automate is a new business system that allows us to automate the integration and synchronization of all of our data analysis and apps in order to boost productivity and business efficiency.

Apart from automating procedures and operations in a straightforward and intuitive manner, this online service also allows for the creation of a functional flow without the use of code (or with a minimum code).Power Automate connects two or more applications and performs actions that automate the most common business activities.

This programme can transport data between systems, give task reminders, support data from any API, and automate tasks from a local device, to name a few of its capabilities.

Feature of Microsoft Power Automate

With the renaming to Microsoft Power Automate, Flow, which was previously feature-rich, now has a longer list of capabilities.

AI Builder
Peek code feature
UI Flows (RPA), DPA.
Many prebuilt connector
No-code platform guidance
Manage user identity and access
Cloud-basedExpression editor for dynamic content

Also Read More about – Microsoft Power Automate in detail

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Microsoft Power Automate

August 8, 2020February 8, 2021HABY JOSEPH

Microsoft Power Automate

Formerly Microsoft Flow, is a solution developed by Microsoft to allow individuals to efficiently build workflow implementations across a wide range of applications and services. Thanks to its easy-to-use GUI that requires no professional experience, Power Automate helps everyone to build workflows.

Enhance your workflows with AI Builder

Bring intelligent automation to your business processes with AI that’s easy to train and configure within Microsoft Power Automate.

Easily add AI to workflows

Easily build, train, and publish AI models without writing a single line of code, using templates and a guided process, or quickly embed prebuilt components directly into your workflows.

Increase efficiency throughout your organization

Quickly simplify tasks using AI models such as prediction, form processing, object detection, category classification, and entity extraction via a simple, intuitive interface. Get straight to productivity with prebuilt AI scenarios including key phrase extraction, language detection, sentiment analysis, text recognition (OCR), business card reader, entity extraction, receipt processing, and category classification.

Automate your workflows and apps

Focus on high-value work by automating your time-consuming manual processes with AI Builder and the robotic process automation (RPA) capability in Power Automate. Quickly access AI Builder components in Microsoft Power Apps to extract text and visual information using your camera or from available images and documents.

Gain value from your data

Built on the strength of Azure AI capabilities, AI Builder in Power Automate allows you to train and build no-code models and enhance the intelligence of your business apps using your data in Dynamics 365, Office 365, and Common Data Service.

Use pre-built automation templates for common automations (within the Flow Gallery)
Create you own automations by connecting various applications, such as Outlook, SharePoint Dynamics 365 or non-Microsoft apps like Twitter, Asana, Gmail, MailChimp etc.
Set up triggers, alerts, automated emails, push notifications and much more – with no coding and in minutes
Overall it allows you to save time, reduce human error and streamline your processes