// Use case · Microsoft 365 & Outlook · UK SMEs
AI email workflows for Microsoft 365 and Outlook
Handle customer enquiries faster, keep sales follow-up consistent, and shorten quotation turnaround — inside the inbox your team already uses, with human approval before anything customer-facing goes out.
Most SMEs asking for an “AI email assistant” need three connected workflows, not a generic chatbot: inbound enquiry handling, sales follow-up, and quotation or proposal drafting. We engineer these as governed workflows on Microsoft 365 / Outlook via Microsoft Graph — with your tone, pricing rules, and approval gates built in. This is AI workflow automation sized for operational teams, not a board-level transformation programme.
Who this is for
- B2B SMEs where sales and service share one or two shared mailboxes.
- Founder-led teams on Microsoft 365 who lose leads to slow replies or inconsistent follow-up.
- Trade, professional services, and light manufacturing firms where quoting from email threads is still manual.
- Organisations that want Copilot-style productivity with explicit guardrails and audit trails.
Problem signals
- Customer enquiries sit in a shared inbox until someone has time to respond.
- Follow-up timing depends on who is busiest that week — leads go cold.
- Quotations take hours because scope has to be reconstructed from email chains.
- CRM notes are incomplete because updating the pipeline feels like extra admin.
- Leadership cannot see response-time or quote-turnaround baselines.
Three workflows, one architecture
Each stream uses the same pattern: trigger → classify → retrieve context → draft → human gate → log. You can pilot one stream first, then expand.
1. Customer enquiry handling
Classify intent, route to the right owner, flag missing information, and prepare a first-response draft aligned to your policies. High-value or sensitive threads escalate to a human before any reply is suggested.
Detail: Inbound enquiry triage workflow for SMEs
2. Sales follow-up assistant
After first contact, the workflow proposes cadence-aware follow-up drafts, surfaces conversation context, and suggests structured CRM notes — so pipeline reviews reflect reality.
Detail: AI sales follow-up workflow for B2B SMEs · Sales outreach agent
3. Quotation and proposal assistance
Turn enquiry and discovery context into a structured quote or proposal first draft: scope, assumptions, milestones, and risk flags — always reviewed by a human before pricing goes to the customer.
Detail: Proposal drafting from discovery notes
How it works in Microsoft 365
- Connect mailboxes: shared inboxes or sales@ addresses via Microsoft Graph, under least-privilege Entra ID app registration.
- Define rules: enquiry types, escalation paths, tone templates, and topics that always require human review (pricing, complaints, technical commitments).
- Draft in context: the workflow reads the thread, approved FAQs, and past examples — not the open internet — to propose replies and next actions.
- Human approval: staff review, edit, and send from Outlook (or a simple review queue). Nothing customer-facing posts without sign-off by default.
- Write back: structured notes to CRM, task lists, or a shared tracker — whichever system of record you use today.
For execution mechanics — triggers, tool use, and approval gates — see How agentic workflows run.
What this is not
- Not an unsupervised auto-responder on pricing or contractual terms.
- Not a replacement for your CRM — it reduces the admin of keeping it accurate.
- Not locked to a single vendor UI — we integrate with the Microsoft stack you already pay for.
Human controls and risk guardrails
- Default send gate is human approval for outbound customer email.
- Drafts avoid invented meetings, references, or pricing not in approved sources.
- Activity logging supports coaching, audit, and dispute resolution.
- Data stays within your Microsoft 365 tenant boundaries unless you explicitly scope otherwise.
KPIs worth measuring
- Time-to-first-reply on inbound enquiries.
- Quote or proposal turnaround from enquiry to sent draft.
- Follow-up consistency (days since last touch on open opportunities).
- Internal hours saved on triage, drafting, and CRM note-taking.
See KPIs for AI pilots that hold up for baseline and review discipline.
Pilot-to-production timeline
- Week 1: scope one mailbox, sample threads, tone and rules, M365 permissions.
- Weeks 2–4: pilot enquiry triage and first-response drafting (or follow-up — pick one).
- Weeks 5–8: add quotation scaffolding, 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 Microsoft 365 and Outlook?
Yes. We integrate with Microsoft 365 mailboxes via Microsoft Graph, under your Entra ID permissions and data boundaries.
Will the AI send emails automatically?
Our default is human approval before every customer-facing send. Auto-send can be scoped later for low-risk acknowledgements if you choose.
How quickly can we run a pilot?
Most SME teams run a focused pilot on one shared mailbox within two to four weeks after templates and rules are agreed.
Do we need a CRM?
No. Pilots can start from Outlook inboxes alone. CRM integration is added when it improves pipeline visibility.