Microsoft Copilot Studio is pleased to announce the public preview launch of advanced approvals, exclusively in agent flows! With advanced approvals, organizations can now design complex and robust approval workflows that reflect the real-world dynamics of their approval processes. Whether you’re automating a single decision point or coordinating across departments, this feature gives you the control and flexibility you need.
Approvals are foundational to almost every business process. And now, advanced approvals offer a better way to build these crucial approval workflows. “Advanced approvals,” said one customer, a regional IT manager at a global manufacturing firm, “will unlock and unblock the complex processes we need in our organization.”
Key features of advanced approvals
Copilot Studio has launched advanced approvals with two powerful capabilities: multi-stage and conditional approvals (more coming soon!). These are designed to unlock new scenarios and meet the needs of even the most sophisticated workflows.
Multi-stage approvals
With multi-stage approvals in agent flows, you can configure complex approval processes that require multiple levels of sign-offs. Each stage has its own set of stakeholders who make approval decisions, and each stage can be separately configured to meet the specific needs of each level of stakeholders. This feature reflects the real-world approval workflows of organizations.
Conditional approvals
You can also add conditions between stages to account for often-needed flexibility in decision-making. Use conditions so that the agent flow automatically approves or rejects approvals, moves to another stage, or skips stages based on specific criteria. This feature enhances the adaptability and efficiency of the approval process as circumstances change.
What’s next?
This public preview is just the beginning of advanced approval capabilities that bring additional flexibility and control to your teams. Based on customer feedback, the Intelligent Automations team is working on expanding capabilities.
Advanced approvals are available now in public preview, so put them to work in agent flows today and start building smarter, more agile workflows that adhere to the ways your specific organization makes decisions. As always, your feedback is welcome and encouraged, because your insights help shape what’s next.
Learn more and get started with the Advanced approvals in agent flows page on Microsoft Learn.
