⚡ A9: Email Powerhouse¶
Primary Feature: Email-Deep Productivity (5 email superpowers) Status: ✅ Built (Corp) Built in: Corp ✅ 2026-04-09 | Lab ⬜
Originally planned as: "Email Drafting Agent" with Tool Groups — repurposed because Tool Groups are a Copilot Studio feature, NOT available in Agent Builder. See design decisions below.
🎯 Problem It Solves¶
"I spend too much time searching, reading, and composing emails. I need a dedicated email assistant that goes deep — not just search, but summarise, draft, extract action items, and suggest follow-ups."
Why This Agent?¶
This agent was originally planned to showcase Tool Groups (Outlook actions). During building, we discovered Tool Groups are only available in Copilot Studio, not Agent Builder. This is a critical limitation we documented.
We repurposed A09 as an email-focused powerhouse — still using email as knowledge, but going deep with 5 specialised email superpowers through instructions alone.
Key Contrast with A05¶
| Aspect | A05: My Comms Assistant | A09: Email Powerhouse |
|---|---|---|
| Sources | Teams + Email (broad) | Email-deep (focused) |
| Purpose | "Find what was said" | "Find, summarise, draft, extract, schedule" |
| Output | Search results | Structured: urgency coding, draft format, action tables |
| Drafting | ❌ No | ✅ Full email draft composition |
| Demo point | Comms as knowledge | Email productivity + Studio limitation |
🏗️ Architecture¶
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 5 Email Superpowers │
│ │
│ 🔍 FIND 📊 SUMMARISE ✉️ DRAFT 📋 EXTRACT 📅 SCHEDULE │
│ │
│ All powered by: │
│ 📧 Email knowledge (toggle ON) │
│ 💬 Teams knowledge (toggle ON — for calendar context) │
│ 📝 Rich instructions (5 scenario handlers) │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
✅ Capabilities Used¶
| Capability | Used? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| SharePoint Knowledge | ❌ | Not used |
| Web Grounding | ❌ | Not used |
| File Uploads | ❌ | Not used |
| Graph Connectors | ❌ | Not used |
| Office Artifacts | ❌ | Not used |
| Tool Groups | ❌ | NOT AVAILABLE in Agent Builder — Copilot Studio only! |
| My Emails | ✅ | Searches real inbox and sent mail |
| My Teams Chats | ✅ | For calendar/scheduling context |
| Instructions | ✅ | 5 email superpowers with structured output formats |
| Starter Prompts | ✅ | 5 working + 1 boundary |
📝 Instructions Used¶
Copy-paste these instructions when building the agent:
You are the Email Powerhouse — a dedicated email productivity assistant. You go deep on email: finding, summarising, drafting, extracting action items, and suggesting follow-ups.
## Your Five Email Superpowers
### 1. FIND — Smart Email Search
When the user asks to find emails:
- Search by sender, topic, date, keyword, or combination
- Show results as: Subject | From | Date | Key point (one-line summary)
- Suggest "Open in Outlook" for full thread
### 2. SUMMARISE — Email Thread Digest
When asked to summarise:
- Condense long threads into: participants, key points, decisions, outstanding items
- For inbox summary: group by urgency (🔴 Urgent | 🟡 Important | 🟢 FYI)
- Include sender, date, and one-line summary for each
### 3. DRAFT — Email Composition
When asked to write or reply:
- ALWAYS show the draft in this format:
📧 DRAFT EMAIL
To: [recipient]
Subject: [clear, specific subject]
---
[email body]
---
✏️ Copy this draft and paste into Outlook, or ask me to adjust the tone, length, or content.
- Professional but warm tone, NZ English spelling
- Max 200 words unless user requests longer
- Clear subject lines (not "Follow up" but "Follow up: Portal timeline — decision needed by Friday")
### 4. EXTRACT — Action Items & Deadlines
When asked to extract from emails:
- Pull out: action items, owners, deadlines, decisions
- Format as a table: Action | Owner | Deadline | Source Email
- Flag overdue or upcoming deadlines
### 5. SCHEDULE — Follow-Up Suggestions
When asked about scheduling or follow-ups:
- Suggest timing based on email context
- Draft the follow-up email
- Note: "Open Outlook Calendar to book the meeting"
## Rules You MUST Follow
1. When drafting, ALWAYS show the draft — NEVER imply it was sent
2. ALWAYS end drafts with: "✏️ Copy to Outlook to send, or ask me to adjust"
3. For inbox summaries, use the urgency colour coding (🔴🟡🟢)
4. When extracting action items, ALWAYS include the source email reference
5. Keep all outputs concise and actionable
6. NEVER access other people's emails — only the user's own
## What You Do NOT Do
- NEVER send emails (you draft them, the user sends from Outlook)
- NEVER write personal or non-work emails. If asked, respond: "I handle professional work emails. For personal messages, I'd suggest composing those yourself! Need help with a work email instead?"
- NEVER give HR, legal, or disciplinary advice via email drafts
🛠️ Quick Build Guide (Copy-Paste Ready)¶
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Go to microsoft365.com/chat → Agents → Create Agent → Skip to configure |
| 2 | Name: A09: Email Powerhouse |
| 3 | Description: Your email command centre — finds, summarises, drafts, extracts action items, and helps schedule follow-ups |
| 4 | Instructions: Paste the full instruction block from above |
| 5 | Knowledge → My emails: ✅ Toggle ON |
| 6 | Knowledge → My Teams chats and meetings: ✅ Toggle ON (for calendar context) |
| 7 | Knowledge → Everything else: OFF (no SP, no web, no files) |
| 8 | Search all websites: OFF |
| 9 | Generate documents, charts, and code: OFF |
| 10 | Starter Prompts: Add all prompts from the table below — use real topics for T3! |
| 11 | Create and test with T2 (inbox summary) first — urgency colour coding is the wow moment |
🚨 Gotchas & Design Decisions¶
🔴 Gotcha 1: Tool Groups Are NOT in Agent Builder — Copilot Studio Only¶
⚠️ Critical Discovery
During this build, we confirmed that Tool Groups (Outlook actions, SharePoint actions, etc.) are a Copilot Studio feature only. Agent Builder's Configure tab has:
- ✅ Name, Description, Icon
- ✅ Instructions
- ✅ Knowledge sources
- ✅ Starter Prompts
- ✅ "Generate documents, charts, and code" toggle
- ❌ NO "Actions", "Tools", or "Tool Groups" section
This means Agent Builder agents can read emails but cannot send emails, create calendar events, or take any actions in M365 apps.
This is documented in the main overview page as a key limitation.
Customer positioning: "Agent Builder is for knowledge and content. If you need actions — sending emails, creating tasks, updating records — that's when you promote to Copilot Studio."
🔄 Gotcha 2: "Draft" Doesn't Mean "Send"¶
The agent can compose email drafts in the chat, but it cannot send them. The user must: 1. Copy the draft from the chat 2. Open Outlook 3. Paste and send manually
This is still valuable (saves composition time) but manage customer expectations.
💬 Starter Prompts¶
| # | Title | Prompt | Superpower |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | 🔍 Find | Find any emails from this week about project deadlines or deliverables | FIND |
| T2 | 📊 Summarise | Summarise my unread inbox — group by urgency and tell me what needs attention first | SUMMARISE |
| T3 | ✉️ Draft | Draft a reply to the last email about [real topic]. Thank them and confirm I will have the update by Friday. | DRAFT |
| T4 | 📋 Extract | Extract all action items and deadlines from my emails this week as a table | EXTRACT |
| T5 | 📅 Follow-up | What emails from last week still need a follow-up from me? Draft the follow-up messages. | SCHEDULE |
| B1 | 🚫 Personal | Write a birthday message to my friend | Boundary |
👍 Pros & Cons¶
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✅ Five distinct email superpowers in one agent | ❌ Cannot actually SEND emails (draft only) |
| ✅ Structured outputs (urgency coding, action tables) | ❌ Tool Groups not available (Studio only) |
| ✅ Documents a critical limitation for customers | ❌ Email cannot be scoped to folders |
| ✅ Clear contrast with A05 (general vs deep) | ❌ "Draft" workflow requires manual copy-paste to Outlook |
🎤 Demo Talking Points¶
- "Five email superpowers" — Find, summarise, draft, extract action items, suggest follow-ups
- "The honest limitation" — Agent Builder can READ your email but can't SEND email. For that, you need Copilot Studio. This is the upgrade story.
- "Structured outputs" — Not just search results but urgency-coded inbox summaries and action item tables
- "Draft, don't send" — The agent composes the email, you review and send. Human in the loop.