// Use case · Microsoft 365 & Outlook · UK SMEs
AI email workflows for Microsoft 365 and Outlook
Faster replies on customer enquiries, steadier sales follow-up, and shorter quote turnaround — inside Outlook, with your team approving anything that goes to a customer.
Watch steel RFQ demonstration (illustrative workflow — not a live client deployment)
When an SME asks for an “AI email assistant”, they usually mean three things: handling inbound enquiries, keeping follow-up consistent, and getting quotes out faster. We wire that into Microsoft 365 and Outlook through Graph — your templates, your pricing rules, and a human sign-off before anything customer-facing leaves the building. That is workflow automation sized for operational teams, not a transformation programme.
Who this is for
- B2B SMEs where sales and service share one or two mailboxes.
- Founder-led Microsoft 365 teams losing leads to slow replies.
- Trade and professional services firms still quoting from email threads.
- Anyone who wants Copilot-style help but needs clear rules on what the system may draft or send.
Problem signals
- Enquiries sit in a shared inbox until someone has a free half-hour.
- Follow-up depends on who is busiest — leads go cold.
- Quotes take hours because scope lives across a long thread.
- CRM notes lag because updating the pipeline feels like extra admin.
Three workflows, one architecture
The same pattern runs underneath each stream: trigger, classify, pull context, draft, human gate, log. Pilot one first; add the others when the first is stable.
Customer enquiry handling
Inbound mail gets classified and assigned. Missing details are flagged before anyone drafts a reply. Pricing, complaints, and contractual topics stay with a human until you are happy with the wording. See inbound enquiry triage.
Sales follow-up
After first contact, the workflow suggests follow-up drafts, surfaces thread context, and proposes CRM notes so pipeline reviews match what actually happened. See sales follow-up workflow and sales outreach agent.
Quotation and proposal assistance
Enquiry and discovery context becomes a structured quote or proposal draft — scope, assumptions, milestones, risk flags — reviewed by your team before pricing goes out. See proposal drafting from discovery notes.
How it works in Microsoft 365
- Connect mailboxes — shared inboxes or sales@ via Graph, with least-privilege Entra ID permissions.
- Set rules — enquiry types, escalation paths, tone templates, and topics that always need a human (pricing, complaints, technical commitments).
- Draft from approved context — the thread, your FAQs, and past examples; not the open web.
- Approve in Outlook — staff review, edit, and send. Nothing customer-facing goes out without sign-off unless you explicitly scope otherwise.
- Write back — notes to CRM, tasks, or a shared tracker, whichever you use as the record today.
For triggers, tool use, and approval gates in more detail, see How agentic workflows run.
Boundaries
This is not an auto-responder for quotes or contract language. It will not replace your CRM — it makes keeping it accurate less painful. It runs on the Microsoft stack you already pay for; staff stay in familiar Outlook workflows.
Controls your ops team can defend
- Human approval on outbound customer email by default.
- Drafts cannot invent meetings, references, or prices outside approved sources.
- Activity is logged for coaching, audit, and disputes.
- Data stays in your Microsoft 365 tenant unless you scope otherwise.
What to measure
- Time to first reply on inbound enquiries.
- Quote turnaround from enquiry to sent draft.
- Days since last touch on open opportunities.
- Hours saved on triage, drafting, and CRM admin.
Baseline discipline: KPIs for AI pilots that hold up.
Pilot timeline
- Week 1 — one mailbox, sample threads, tone and rules, M365 permissions.
- Weeks 2–4 — pilot triage and first-response drafting, or follow-up; pick one stream.
- Weeks 5–8 — add quoting, CRM write-back, or a second mailbox.
Delivery follows how we work and quality standards.
Related workflow pages
- Inbound enquiry triage workflow for SMEs
- AI sales follow-up workflow for B2B SMEs
- Lead qualification automation for SME teams
- Proposal drafting from discovery notes
- Sales outreach agent
Frequently asked questions
Does this work with our existing Microsoft 365 setup?
Yes. We connect to mailboxes through Graph, using Entra ID permissions you control.
Will it send emails on its own?
Not by default. Someone on your team approves customer-facing mail first. Low-risk auto-acknowledgements can be scoped later if you want them.
How long until we can pilot?
Most teams run a focused pilot on one shared mailbox within two to four weeks once templates and rules are agreed.
Do we need a CRM?
No. Many pilots start from Outlook alone. CRM write-back comes in when it helps pipeline visibility.