The way work gets done continues to evolve. Across organizations, everyday tasks are moving beyond manual handoffs toward intelligent, connected workflows where AI helps coordinate activity and people focus on outcomes.
In this month’s SharePoint Showcase, we’re spotlighting updates that make business process automation simpler, more flexible, and more closely aligned where you work. Creating automation now lives right where work happens for SharePoint files, lists, and pages enabling teams to define processes with less setup and lower technical effort.
These updates also lay the groundwork for what’s next. As Copilot and Knowledge Agent experiences expand, organizations can modernize everyday processes today with workflows that are easier to build, easier to evolve, and ready to scale alongside AI‑powered experiences.
Bringing automation closer to your content with Workflows
As work becomes more connected across Microsoft 365, automation needs to feel natural, not something separate or abstract. The updated Workflows experience in SharePoint brings automation directly into the context of the content you’re working with, whether that’s a document library or a list.
This is a unified experience across SharePoint and Teams, where you can discover, create, and manage workflows without leaving your flow of work.
Available early February for SharePoint Targeted Release users, and the Teams Workflows appWhat’s new in Workflows:
- Unified Workflows experience across SharePoint and Teams: Create and manage workflows directly from your files and lists, using the same interface across apps.
- Template‑driven scenarios for common SharePoint needs: Start with ready‑to‑use templates that already understand your site, list, or library context.
- Build from scratch when needed: Choose triggers and actions manually for fully customized scenarios, then extend further in Power Automate if required.
These improvements reduce the time and effort required to move from idea to automation, while still giving advanced users a clear path to build more sophisticated workflows when needed.
Available early February for SharePoint Targeted Release customers and in the Teams Workflows app
See the new workflows in action
Join Vesa Juvonen (Principal Product Manager) and product lead Nate Tennant (Principal Product Manager) for a deeper dive into all the latest updates coming for automation in SharePoint!
Watch now:
From idea to action with guided “Mad-Lib” style automation
Many automation scenarios follow familiar patterns, routing documents for review, notifying Teams when content changes, or kicking off follow-up tasks based on list updates. The refreshed workflow creation experience makes these scenarios easier to build by guiding users through a simple, structured setup.
Instead of starting from a blank canvas, you are prompted with context aware options that prefill sites, libraries, and lists. This results in workflows that are quicker to configure and easier to maintain.
Why this matters:
- Easy to use templates already connected to Microsoft 365 applications
- Ensures workflows remain aligned to SharePoint content structure
- Makes business process automation accessible to a broader set of users
Workflows created this way can always be further customized in Power Automate, but many common scenarios can be completed entirely within SharePoint.
Quick steps provide lightweight automation right in the grid
Not every automation is predictable when you want to run it. For frequent, repeatable actions, Quick steps bring lightweight automation directly into the grid view of your lists and libraries, without custom code or complex configuration.
With quick steps you can add action buttons that execute predefined logic on selected files or list items, helping you act faster without context switching.
With Quick steps, you can:
- Create custom action buttons without code
Build reusable actions in a few guided steps without custom JSON or complex configurations required. - Leverage SharePoint metadata as logic
Use existing columns and metadata to drive actions, keeping automation aligned with how your content is already structured.
- Automate common, repeatable scenarios:
- Move one or more files to a predefined folder
- Compose an email to users referenced in a person or group column
- Set or update values in choice, text, or metadata columns
- Translate selected files into a predefined language
- Apply conditions to control when actions appear
Configure Quick steps so they’re only available when specific criteria are met—for example, based on file status, metadata values, or content type.
Available to Targeted Release users now. Generally available in all lists and libraries in February.
Learn more about quick steps: Create a quick step for your list or library - Microsoft Support
Built-in approvals that keep work moving
Approvals remain a core requirement for many business processes, and SharePoint continues to simplify how approvals are configured and managed directly within lists and libraries.
With built-in approvals, teams can bring governance and accountability into their content without building custom flows for common review scenarios.
Enable with one toggle and use the new default approver with custom ordering.Approval enhancements
- Enable approvals with a single toggle: No separate flow creation required.
- Default approvers: Define approvers’ upfront so you don’t need to select them each time.
- Ordered, multi‑stage approvals: Support more structured review processes with clear sequencing.
- In-context tracking: View approval status, history, and notifications directly from SharePoint and the Teams Approvals app.
Approvals available in both lists and libraries and default approvers available to Targeted Release users.
Learn more: Approvals in Lists & Document Libraries - Microsoft Support
Collecting content and metadata with Forms
Capturing the right information upfront is critical for effective automation. Forms in SharePoint provide a simple way to request content and metadata directly into lists and libraries ensuring downstream processes start with complete, structured data.
Forms are easy for contributors to fill out, while content owners retain full control over where files land, how metadata is applied, and what happens next.
Choose the fields you care about and create a simple form to collect files and metadataHow Forms support automation
- Gather consistent metadata at the point of submission
- Route new content into existing libraries with proper governance
- Trigger workflows or approvals automatically after submission
Forms are now available across SharePoint lists and libraries.
Together, Workflows, Quick steps, Approvals, and Forms shift everyday work from manual handoffs to streamlined, customizable business processes without adding complexity. This set of updates lays important groundwork for deeper Copilot and agent based experiences coming later in 2026. By modernizing how content, metadata, and automation intersect today, organizations are better prepared to take advantage of what’s next without needing to rethink their foundations.
Join us in celebrating 25 years of SharePoint!
This year marks a major milestone; SharePoint is turning 25!
To celebrate, we’re bringing the community together for a special SharePoint 25th Birthday event with a look back at the moments that shaped SharePoint and a look ahead at what’s next in the AI era.
What you can expect:
- Explore new content AI capabilities that help structure and enrich information to improve Copilot responses.
- Discover what’s changing in the way teams create, manage, and collaborate on content in SharePoint.
- Understand how SharePoint continues to serve as the knowledge platform for Copilot and agents, and what that means for organizations adopting AI at scale.
Join the celebration
- Register today-aka.ms/Spat25
- For more details-aka.ms/Spat25/blog
- Get ready for the SharePoint Hackathon-aka.ms/SharePointHackathon
Whether you’ve been building on SharePoint since the beginning or just getting started this is a moment to celebrate the history and our momentum for the future.
Stay tuned every month for the SharePoint Showcase , where we’ll continue to share updates, best practices, and real-world examples of how SharePoint helps teams move faster and work smarter.
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