Microsoft plans to let SharePoint users build and modify live workflows simply by describing the automation they need to Copilot. According to a newly published entry on the Microsoft 365 roadmap, the feature—tracked under ID 567009—is now in development for SharePoint on the web, with general availability targeted for December 2026.

The Concrete Details So Far

Roadmap entry 567009 carries the title “Copilot Workflows in SharePoint” and describes a natural-language interface capable of generating functional, live workflows from plain-text prompts. The feature will allow users to create new automations and revise existing ones without opening Power Automate’s designer or touching JSON expressions.

Microsoft’s description in the roadmap is deliberately lean, but key points emerge:

  • In development status means the team is actively building the feature; private previews could arrive months before the listed GA date.
  • SharePoint on the web is the initial surface. Integration with Teams, SharePoint lists, and document libraries is a natural fit.
  • “Revise live workflows” suggests an editing loop: a user can prompt Copilot to adjust triggers, actions, or conditions in a flow that is already running, then apply the changes through a confirmation or diff-like experience.
  • No mention of specific languages or regions, but Copilot features usually roll out first to English-speaking tenants before broader localization.

A long runway to December 2026 signals that Microsoft is treating this as a multi-phase engineering effort. Under the hood, the feature must translate natural language into Power Automate cloud flows—choosing the right connectors, mapping dynamic content, and maintaining governance boundaries that already exist for manually authored flows.

What It Means for You

For the everyday SharePoint user

If you manage a team site, a document library, or a list and have ever wished for a simple way to send an approval email when a column changes, Copilot Workflows promises to lower the barrier to near-zero. Instead of learning the Power Automate trigger-action paradigm, you could type: “When a new file is added to this library, send an email to the team with a link and a summary of the file’s content.” Copilot would compose the flow, surface it for review, and—with your OK—turn it on.

This targets the same audience that today uses SharePoint’s “Create a flow” button only to bounce off Power Automate’s canvas. If the AI’s suggestions are accurate and transparent, it could finally unlock citizen automation for roles that have no bandwidth for learning a low-code tool.

For IT administrators and governance teams

Automation sprawl is the immediate concern. Power Automate already gives admins an avalanche of flows to monitor, many of them orphaned or poorly scoped. Copilot Workflows could multiply that volume because the creation friction drops dramatically. Key questions for IT:

  • Will flows created by Copilot inherit the same Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies, connector restrictions, and run limits as manually authored flows?
  • How will the new experience handle privileged actions—like sending an email as the user or reading SharePoint data—without training users on least-privilege principles?
  • Will there be a review queue or “suggested approval” mode to let site owners vet automated workflows before they go live?

If Microsoft ships the feature without governance tiering, SharePoint site owners will gain a powerful tool that can easily breach internal compliance rules. Early planning around a Copilot-specific DLP strategy, perhaps scoped to certain site templates or group memberships, will save a lot of cleanup later.

For developers and Power Platform pros

The “revise live workflows” capability hints at a mixed-authoring model. A developer could draft a complex flow skeleton and hand it to a business analyst who refines it conversationally. It could also mean that troubleshooting a misbehaving flow involves Copilot: “Why did this approval step fail last Tuesday?”—turning natural language into an audit trail interrogation.

However, the feature is unlikely to replace pro-code tools. Power Automate’s connector ecosystem, custom connectors, child flows, and complex expressions will still need expert authoring. Copilot Workflows will likely handle the 80% of simple automations that account for most tickets and shadow-IT requests.

How We Got Here

Microsoft has spent the better part of a decade marching SharePoint toward a modern, cloud-first automation model. The timeline is instructive:

  • 2013–2016: SharePoint Designer and classic workflows (2010 engine) served as the primary on-prem automation tools.
  • 2016–2021: Microsoft introduced Flow, later rebranded Power Automate, as the cloud successor. Classic workflows in SharePoint Online were gradually deprecated, with a final retirement date for 2010 workflows set for 2026.
  • 2021–2023: Power Automate became deeply embedded in SharePoint lists and libraries via the “Automate” dropdown. Templates made it easier to start, but creation still required navigating the designer.
  • 2023–2024: Copilot arrived across Microsoft 365. SharePoint got Copilot-assisted page authoring, but workflow creation remained manual. Meanwhile, Power Automate gained its own Copilot pane for explaining flow steps and suggesting expressions.

Roadmap 567009 is the logical fusion of these two threads. The platform team has already proven that Copilot can understand SharePoint’s data model—lists, columns, content types—because Copilot in SharePoint can answer questions about your data. Building a flow is the next step in putting that understanding to work.

It also fits a broader industry pattern. Competitors like Atlassian and ServiceNow have been infusing AI into their workflow builders, and startup tooling (e.g., Relay.app, Bardeen) already offers natural-language flow creation. Microsoft’s timeline suggests it’s willing to take the time to integrate deeply rather than ship a demo-ready feature that breaks under real-world workloads.

What to Do Now

December 2026 is far enough away that no one needs to panic. But several low-effort, high-impact actions can position an organization to adopt Copilot Workflows safely when previews arrive.

1. Get your Power Platform governance house in order

If you haven’t already:
- Enable tenant-level DLP policies that restrict sensitive connectors (like HTTP with Azure AD, SQL Server) to specific environments.
- Use Environment routing to direct new makers into a default “personal productivity” environment where they can experiment without touching production resources.
- Turn on the CoE Starter Kit to inventory existing flows and identify ownerless or high-risk automations.

These steps will create a safety net whether flows are created by human hands or natural-language prompts.

2. Start experimenting with the Power Automate Copilot

While the SharePoint-specific feature is still in development, Power Automate already has a limited Copilot experience. Makers can open the Copilot pane to ask “Add an approval step” or “Format the date in this action.” Getting comfortable with the current AI assistance will help you understand its limits—and provide useful feedback to Microsoft via the Power Automate community forums.

3. Monitor the Microsoft 365 roadmap and message center

Roadmap entries often evolve. Set an alert for roadmap ID 567009 in the Microsoft 365 admin center (if your tenant supports watching specific items) or subscribe to a third-party tracker. Look for mentions of private preview or targeted release announcements around Ignite 2025, which falls in November.

4. Build a governance pilot for citizen automators

If you expect a wave of Copilot-created flows, recruit a small group of business users now to define what good automation looks like. Document common patterns—like approval emails, file move-and-tag, and simple notifications—and create a lightweight review process. When Copilot Workflows arrives, this group can become your first cohort, testing whether the AI respects existing DLP guardrails and whether the results are production-ready.

What to Watch Next

The December 2026 GA target sets an unusually long horizon for a roadmap entry, which suggests Microsoft is still solving hard problems: deterministic flow generation, secure execution in the browser, and a UX that balances power with simplicity. Watch for a deeper dive at Microsoft Ignite 2025 and a possible private preview invitation program later that year. If the feature lands with the governance controls power users and admins need, it could reshape how document-centric teams think about SharePoint automation—turning every site owner into a potential automation builder.