Copilot App Builder: Create Apps and Workflows in Microsoft 365

Understanding app components

Behind the scenes, App Builder creates a new SharePoint site with a Microsoft List to store your data. You can't connect to existing Lists or other data sources. This is for good reason; it keeps things simple and secure.

The benefit? You can open SharePoint directly and add data there. It syncs instantly with your app. Bulk-adding entries in SharePoint is often faster than clicking through the app interface.

Apps live inside the App Builder agent, not in your app launcher. To open an app, return to App Builder and select it from My apps. This can be confusing at first—the apps don't appear in your Microsoft 365 apps menu.

When to use App Builder

App Builder excels at tracking data where multiple people need to see and update information. Equipment tracking, article ideas, and project milestones are all good use cases. It's also perfect for simple data collection.

It's also valuable for quick prototypes. Building something in ten minutes, showing your team, and getting feedback beats investing hours in planning.

What doesn't work: App Builder can't send emails or trigger actions. Building an app that emails you when someone checks out equipment requires combining it with Workflows. You also can't upload images directly; you need to use image URLs instead.

Automating Tasks with Workflows

I had a colleague who spent two hours every Monday copying tasks and sending emails. Workflows would solve exactly this kind of business process inefficiency. It connects Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Planner, and other M365 apps to automate repetitive work.

Creating a weekly deadline reminder

Here's how to build a workflow that sends weekly deadline reminders every Monday morning.

Step 1: Open Copilot and navigate to the Workflows feature 

The interface focuses on conversational workflow creation rather than visual flow builders.

Step 2: Describe the workflow in natural language

Instead of building logic with triggers and connectors, you simply tell Copilot what to do:

Send a Teams message every Monday with the upcoming week's deadlines from Planner

Step 3: Watch Copilot build it 

You'll see how it figures out the trigger (every Monday), the data source (Planner), and the action (Teams message). This takes about 30 seconds.

Step 4: Refine through conversation 

Adding conditions is straightforward:

Also send a reminder one day before approval deadlines

Copilot adds that logic automatically.

Step 5: Preview before activating 

Check what the messages will look like and when they'll be sent. Catching timing issues here prevents problems later.

Step 6: Activate it 

The workflow runs automatically from then on. Typical workflows take 30-45 seconds to execute. You can see execution times for each step, which helps troubleshoot issues.

What Workflows can connect to

Workflows uses the same infrastructure as Power Automate, so it connects to most M365 services: Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Planner, OneDrive, and even Salesforce. It also connects to Microsoft Dataverse.

Some connectors might not be available depending on your environment configuration. Gmail, for example, may not be accessible in certain enterprise setups.

Workflows can also perform calculations. Asking it to find the shortest time between tasks makes it figure out the logic automatically.

Modifying workflows after they're running

Changing a workflow is conversational:

Change the Monday message to 9AM instead of 8AM

No clicking through menus. No finding settings. Just describe the change.

The execution history in the M365 admin center shows when workflows ran and whether they succeeded. This helps troubleshoot failures, like when a workflow tries to email someone who doesn't exist in your organization.

Creating Intelligent Agents with Copilot Studio

Agents differ from apps and workflows. Instead of tracking data or automating tasks, they answer questions using your organization's information. An agent can field repeated questions like "When is the next product launch meeting?" or "Who's handling marketing?" so you don't have to.

Building a product launch assistant

Here's how to build a product launch agent. The process is simpler than it sounds.

Step 1: In Copilot, select "Create agent" 

This opens the lightweight Copilot Studio interface designed for quick agent creation.

Step 2: Describe what you want

Use a prompt like this one:

Build an agent that answers questions about our product launch milestones

Be specific. Vague descriptions produce agents that don’t know what to do.

Step 3: Connect your data sources 

Copilot suggests relevant sources, but you can select manually. Good sources include:

• SharePoint project sites
• Teams chat from relevant channels
• Meeting transcripts from planning sessions

Start with core documentation. Connecting too many sources confuses the agent and dilutes answer quality.

Step 4: Test with realistic questions

It's always wise to do a little QA.

When is the next product launch event?

Who is responsible for the marketing campaign?

You will see that the agent cites where it found each answer. When answers are wrong, you know which source needs fixing.

Step 5: Refine based on results

Vague answers usually mean the agent needs more detailed source documents. Add them and test again.

Copilot Studio agents answer questions from an organization's knowledge base

Tips for better agent responses

Agent quality depends on source quality. Connecting an agent to messy, outdated SharePoint pages produces terrible answers. Clean documentation produces good answers.

You can also specify the output format in your initial prompt. Instead of "summarize my emails," try "summarize my unread emails as a bulleted list in HTML, prioritized by urgency." Specific instructions produce better results.

Lightweight vs. full Copilot Studio

The full Copilot Studio is for IT teams deploying agents organization-wide. It connects to external tools like ServiceNow and Jira, has custom security controls, and handles complex branching logic. Most users don't need these features, and the lightweight version will handle the most common problems. 

Important note: App Builder and Workflows are actually agents themselves; they are specialized agents that Microsoft built to help you create other things. You'll find them in the Built by Microsoft section alongside Researcher and Analyst. Add them to your sidebar and pin them for easy access.

Managing Security and Permissions

IT admins often ask, "Who can see what?" when they first encounter these tools. It’s a fair question, and the answer lies in how security and permissions are built directly into the M365 environment.

How security works

Everything stays in your M365 tenant. Your data doesn't leave your organization. Existing security applies automatically. If someone can't access a SharePoint document normally, an agent won't show it to them either.

Security doesn't need a separate configuration for apps or workflows. They inherit M365 permissions. An equipment tracker uses the same permissions as the SharePoint List it's built on.

For IT admins: App Builder creates SharePoint sites automatically for each app. You'll want visibility into what employees are creating. The good news? Users can only connect to their personal SharePoint instances, not enterprise data sources. This limitation helps with governance.

Admin controls

Admins can control who creates and shares these tools through the M365 admin center. Go to the Agent Inventory section to see everything people have built.

You can set permissions by group: who can create tools, who can share them, and who can only use shared tools. You can also control whether tools can connect to external data sources or send external communications.

Compliance

Everything generates audit logs, including who created what, when, and who accessed it. These logs work with your existing M365 audit setup.

Data residency follows your M365 configuration. If your tenant stores data in specific regions for compliance, Copilot tools respect those boundaries. GDPR, HIPAA, whatever applies to your M365 environment applies here, too.

Best Practices

Experience with these tools reveals patterns that work and mistakes to avoid.

Write effective prompts

Here are things I've learned.

• Be specific. "Create an app to track stuff" produces poor results. "Create an app to track marketing campaign tasks with fields for task name, owner, deadline, status, and priority" works better.
• Name your app in the prompt. Without a specified name, Copilot generates generic names like Untitled_App_2847 that are difficult to change later. Add "The app should be called [name]" to your initial prompt.
• For workflows and agents, add context. Instead of "summarize my emails," use "summarize my unread emails, prioritizing messages from our CEO and key clients. Format as a bulleted list with action items by priority." The extra detail significantly improves results.
• Don't specify everything upfront. Start with the basics, test, then refine. This reveals actual needs versus assumed needs.
• Delete the sample data. App Builder includes fake data when it creates apps. Forgetting to delete it can cause confusion when someone thinks "Sample Client A" is real.

Know when to use each

I hope by now you have an idea of when to use each of these exciting new tools:

• Use App Builder when multiple people need to see and update the same structured data. Equipment tracking, project tracking, campaign planning.
• Use Workflows for repetitive tasks across M365 apps. Monday deadline reminders, automatic status updates, and scheduled emails.
• Use Copilot Studio when people repeatedly ask the same questions. Product launch information, onboarding FAQs, project status queries.

Tools can be combined. An app tracks project data, a workflow sends weekly updates about those projects, and an agent answers questions about project status. Each tool handles what it does best, but they also work together.

Conclusion

These tools have changed how many people approach workplace automation. Instead of waiting days for IT to build solutions or spending hours learning Power Apps, you can describe what you need and get a working solution in minutes.

Start small. Build an app to track one thing your team needs. Automate one task that wastes time each week. Create an agent that answers one frequently asked question. A simple equipment tracker takes ten minutes to build and can save hours of manual work.

To learn more about Microsoft 365 and AI tools, check out our Introduction to Microsoft Copilot course and Understanding Prompt Engineering course. For related tutorials, see our tutorials on Excel Copilot and Copilot in Word.

The technical barriers to automation are dropping. You don't need coding skills or IT tickets anymore. You just need to understand your work well enough to describe what you need.