Can I set up an automated employee recognition system with copilot?

I honestly dont think you should be jerry-rigging this. Microsoft does some have basic recognition features in Praise that you can use and you could set some automations up with power automate but it would be a bit of a roundabout way of doing things. I've been in the HR space for decades, and automation is a pretty common and sought-after feature in recognition software. There are some Teams-native recognition tools you can look into that have birthday and anniversary recognitions. I know for a fact that Teamflect has those automations built in. I also know that 15five has a recognition tool called high-fives that connect to MS Teams. You can check both options out.