Internal Escalation Workflow Automation
An internal escalation workflow with a human approval gate and automatic closure detection.
Problem
A time-sensitive internal escalation path was fully manual: a human had to notice the trigger condition, assemble context from the case record, compose an outbound communication, then watch for a response to know whether the path could close. Every step was reliable only as long as someone remembered to do it.
Constraints
Had to run entirely within approved internal tooling. Had to keep a human in the approval path. Had to detect closure conditions without polling anything it shouldn't.
Architecture
A Copilot Studio agent as the intake and interaction surface, Logic Apps orchestrating state transitions between stages, and an inbox-monitoring trigger for reply detection and automatic closure.
Decisions and tradeoffs
Copilot Studio over a custom front end because adoption depends on the tool living where users already are. Logic Apps over a function app because the workflow is long-running and stateful, and the visual definition is itself the documentation for the next engineer. Reply detection over manual closure because a workflow that needs a human to remember to close it inherits the original problem.
What I'd do differently
Instrument stage transitions from day one. Retrofitting telemetry to answer "where do instances stall?" was harder than building it in.