STOP Building Cloud Flows! Use Agent Flows Instead

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You keep building cloud flows like it’s still 2019.

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Everyone does its muscle memory at this point.

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Open Power Automate, select Automated Cloudflow,

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pick your trigger, chain a few connectors,

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hit save and feel productive.

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Unfortunately, you’ve just constructed a very expensive habit.

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Because every time you do this under the old licensing model,

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you’re paying premium for the plumbing

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Microsoft has already decided to replace.

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The problem isn’t the flow itself,

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it’s the license that drags behind it like an anchor.

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Cloud flows live under per user or per flow plans,

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both tied to execution limits,

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connector classifications and enough small print

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to qualify as bedtime reading.

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Add a single premium connector like Dataverse, SQL,

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or Salesforce, and congratulations.

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You’ve just promoted everyone who touches that process

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into the premium licensing tier.

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Translation, one department’s automation

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becomes another department’s budget crisis.

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And yes, cloud flows are reliable.

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They’ve automated half the modern enterprise,

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but that reliability comes with fiscal inflammation.

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Per user fees, duplicated AI, builder credits,

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throttled API calls, and a delightful surprise

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when you realize automation costs more in licenses

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than the task you automated.

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You think you’re saving labor,

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you’re just moving the cost column

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from salaries to subscriptions.

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The revelation is that inside co-pilot studio

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lives a new kind of automation, agent flows.

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These run on message-based billing, not per user taxation.

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They include premium connectors by default

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and borrow AI builders’ intelligence

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without charging double.

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They scale like a meter, utility, not like a fixed payroll.

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Before you build another cloud flow,

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let’s dissect why the old system bleeds money

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and why the new one behaves like a responsible adult.

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What cloud flows actually cost you?

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Cloud flows operate on the power automate licensing matrix.

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A structure so intricate, it deserves a power BI dashboard

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just to survive it.

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The basic idea is simple.

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You pay per user or you pay per flow.

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Both strategies sound fair until you notice how fast

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fair metastasizes into financial absurdity.

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Under aceded license like Microsoft 365, E3 or E5,

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you get access to standard connectors.

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Outlook teams, SharePoint, Fine.

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But the moment your data wonders into premium territory,

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Dataverse, School Server, Salesforce ServiceNow,

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you trigger the premium tax.

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One premium connector doesn’t just mark your flow as special.

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It radiates expense outward.

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Everyone who runs owns or even glances at that flow

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now needs an upgraded license.

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The flow that sends meeting summaries suddenly

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requires enterprise sponsorship.

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Picture this.

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One HR assistant builds a flow that connects to Dataverse

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to compile onboarding data.

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20 managers use it.

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By the end of the fiscal quarter,

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you’ve effectively turned one workflow into 20 premium licenses.

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Each between $15 and $40 a month, multiply that by departments,

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and you’ve just automated yourself into modern debt.

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Your CFO is not impressed.

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Then there’s API call throttling,

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the invisible choke collar hiding

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in every power automate plan.

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Each license grants a defined number of daily API calls.

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Essentially, how many times your flow can talk to a service?

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Each re-user’s get a few thousand premium plans

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get more but each transaction still burns through the quota.

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Hit the ceiling and flows slow or fail.

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It’s a productivity tax disguise as a performance safeguard.

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Analogy time.

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Cloud flows are like giving every employee their own taxi

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and paying the lease whether they drive or not.

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The meter runs even when parked.

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Agent flows which will dissect shortly

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work more like a ride share.

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You pay only for trips taken.

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The difference isn’t subtle.

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It’s structural.

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And we haven’t even tallied the hidden duplication

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of AI builder credits.

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Want to extract data from an invoice?

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Recognize text in a document.

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That’s AI builder.

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And its credits are built separately,

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even if you’ve already paid for power automate premium.

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You maintain two parallel currency systems.

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One for automation, another for intelligence.

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Elegant in the same way paying rent

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and home owner’s association fees simultaneously

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is efficient.

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Operationally, Cloud flows create what

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I like to call license sprawl.

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Every new scenario threatens to spin out

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another license type, another set of API counters,

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another spreadsheet tracking compliance.

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Enterprises end up managing the license inventory

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with more rigor than the processes those flows were meant

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to automate.

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So while Cloud flows remain technically brilliant,

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financially they’re undomesticated.

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They consume per user fees, throttle API volume,

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and breed complexity with every premium connector added.

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For small teams that might be tolerable,

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for a large organization, it’s a slow hemorrhage.

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Now enter the new species, Agent flows,

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running on a completely different metabolism.

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Enter Agent flows, automation, with a co-pilot brain.

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Agent flows don’t live in power automates old neighborhood.

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They’ve moved into co-pilot studio,

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which runs on entirely different physics.

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Instead of being chained to a user license,

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they operate on the principle of message consumption.

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Every action you take, every API call your automation makes,

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consumes tiny measurable units called messages.

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And you’re not paying for who built it or who runs it,

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you’re paying for what it actually does.

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Radical, I know, charging for usage instead of possession.

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So how does this work in practice?

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Each 100 API calls cost roughly 13 cents.

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That’s it, run 1,000 actions, about $1,000,

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no hidden multipliers tied to how many people touch the flow,

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no forced upgrades just to unlock data,

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verse or SQL connectors.

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In Agent flows, premium is no longer a caste system.

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It simply included.

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The result is an automation model that scales linearly,

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predictably, and sanely.

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For once your finance department and your tech team

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speak the same language, consumption equals cost.

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And then there’s architecture.

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Cloud flows run in power automates,

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tenant-level workflow engine,

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designed for persistence, sharing, and human trigger events.

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Agent flows live inside co-pilot studios AI runtime.

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Their triggers are conversations, AI events,

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or back-end signals from services.

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Anything from user asked me to draft a contract

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to someone enter data that matches this condition.

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They are orchestrated intelligence, not mechanical automation,

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which is why they’re called Agent flows.

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Each one extends your co-pilot’s brain

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with executable memory.

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Here’s the big philosophical difference.

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Cloud flows automate labor.

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Agent flows automate decision making.

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A Cloud flow might move files from SharePoint to OneDrive.

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And Agent flow decides which files matter,

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summarizes them using AI builder,

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and posts the relevant pieces to teams,

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charging only for the execution steps it actually performs.

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The more intelligence embedded,

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the more return per message consumed.

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Access to premium and custom connectors

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comes standard here.

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Co-pilot studio doesn’t discriminate

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between standard and premium.

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Whether you tap Dataverse, a third-party API,

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or a custom connector, it still just counts as messages.

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You break free of the connector class hierarchy.

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Developers suddenly regain the freedom

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to architect efficiently instead of chasing

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the cheapest permissible connector.

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And because the entire environment sits under co-pilot studio,

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AI builder capabilities, text recognition, prediction,

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document extraction are included

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under the same consumption model.

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Those extra AI credits you were tracking in Excel,

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gone, they’re baked into the meal.

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Think of this as switching from buying every employee,

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a company car, to issuing them right credits.

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You manage by budget, not by ownership.

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If one project spikes temporarily, say a seasonal campaign,

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you scale up message usage for that window

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and stop paying when demand abs.

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You’re no longer provisioning horse power for a year

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just to cover next week’s sprint.

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By 2025, message counts themselves

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will migrate into co-pilot credits.

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Similar idea, fancier wrapper.

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You’ll buy credit packs the same way

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cloud provider sell compute units,

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measured, enforceable, transparent.

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Co-pilot studio even tracks your hourly and daily quotas,

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caps requests at configurable limits,

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and begins throttling at roughly 125% capacity

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to prevent runaway costs.

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It’s the governance cloud flows always needed

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but never delivered out of the box.

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The takeaway is simple.

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Agent flows replace licensing anxiety with arithmetic.

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You know exactly what you’re consuming,

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you know exactly how it’s built,

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and you gain access to every intelligent building block

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in co-pilot studio without additional paperwork.

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It’s speed, with accountability,

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a kind of automation that finally behaves

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like a responsible adult.

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When agent flows replace cloud flows and when they don’t.

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Think of power platform automation

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now as a society with a division of labor.

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Cloud flows are the industrial workforce.

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Efficient, standardized, designed for volume.

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Agent flows are the brains, adaptive, conversational,

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and run on caffeine in the form of co-pilot messages.

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The trick is knowing when you need muscle

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and when you need intellect.

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Agent flows dominate when automation begins in conversation.

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Anything that starts with a co-pilot prompt,

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a chat or a service event is their home turf.

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For example, suppose someone asks co-pilot

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for the five open deals from Salesforce

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where close dates slipped last week.

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That’s an agent flow trigger.

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It interprets queries, formats, and returns results

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all while charging you by the message, not by user.

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Same if co-pilot detects a pattern in data

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or needs to call a custom connector mid-diolog.

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These flows are one-to-one interactions.

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A user or an AI agent initiates and consumes them.

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That’s where message-based billing makes mathematical sense.

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Cloud flows in contrast remain the backbone for coordination,

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processes that stretch across multiple accounts,

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shared folders, or departmental approvals.

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If 10 managers need the same workflow running on files

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in SharePoint or approvals in Teams, Cloud flows still win.

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Their licensing may be expensive,

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but their architecture supports shared ownership,

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scheduled runs, and complex triggers

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that don’t depend on conversation.

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They remain essential for enterprise-scale orchestration

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where automation acts like infrastructure

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rather than assistance.

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The clean way to think about it,

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agent flows are personal assistance born inside AI.

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Cloud flows are corporate assembly lines hosted in the cloud,

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converting one to the other isn’t as mystical as it sounds.

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You start by making your cloud flow solution aware.

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That means moving it from the personal workspace

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into a managed solution in Dataverse.

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Once there, a drop-down appears for its plan.

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Power Automate or co-pilot studio.

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Flip that switch and the flow migrates

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into co-pilot studio’s environment.

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The licensing instantly changes from per user

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to consumption-based.

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From that moment forward, your build-in message

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is not monthly fees.

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00:09:27,160 –> 00:09:29,000
However, and here is the design choice

259
00:09:29,000 –> 00:09:32,080
Microsoft enforces that conversion is irreversible.

260
00:09:32,080 –> 00:09:33,800
Once it drinks the agent flow potion,

261
00:09:33,800 –> 00:09:35,280
it stays an agent flow.

262
00:09:35,280 –> 00:09:36,760
The system won’t let you switch it back

263
00:09:36,760 –> 00:09:38,640
without rebuilding it from scratch.

264
00:09:38,640 –> 00:09:41,520
This commitment exists to keep the billing model clean.

265
00:09:41,520 –> 00:09:43,920
It’s like moving into a gated AI city.

266
00:09:43,920 –> 00:09:46,280
You don’t just visit the suburbs on weekends.

267
00:09:46,280 –> 00:09:49,080
You live under new governance, new metrics, and new economics.

268
00:09:49,080 –> 00:09:51,200
This is where many admins hesitate.

269
00:09:51,200 –> 00:09:54,200
The old reflexes keep critical flows in power automate.

270
00:09:54,200 –> 00:09:55,360
They’re stable.

271
00:09:55,360 –> 00:09:58,120
Yet co-pilot studio now introduces governance features

272
00:09:58,120 –> 00:10:00,520
previously reserved for managed environments.

273
00:10:00,520 –> 00:10:02,760
Draft-saving, version history, audit logs,

274
00:10:02,760 –> 00:10:05,280
controlled publishing, suddenly the AI neighborhood

275
00:10:05,280 –> 00:10:07,600
looks more compliant than the traditional one.

276
00:10:07,600 –> 00:10:10,560
Agent flows bring enterprise hygiene, history tracking,

277
00:10:10,560 –> 00:10:13,240
role-based permissions, predictable quota enforcement,

278
00:10:13,240 –> 00:10:14,840
all in the same window where you design

279
00:10:14,840 –> 00:10:16,200
intent-based automation.

280
00:10:16,200 –> 00:10:17,840
So where’s the cut-off line?

281
00:10:17,840 –> 00:10:20,360
Use agent flows when trigger, logic, or execution

282
00:10:20,360 –> 00:10:23,840
depends on conversation, interpretation, or AI cognition.

283
00:10:23,840 –> 00:10:26,160
Use cloud flows when coordination, repetition,

284
00:10:26,160 –> 00:10:29,480
and visibility across users matter more than intelligence.

285
00:10:29,480 –> 00:10:32,760
The distinction isn’t superiority, it’s purpose.

286
00:10:32,760 –> 00:10:35,400
One automates thought, the other automates structure.

287
00:10:35,400 –> 00:10:36,440
And here’s the irony.

288
00:10:36,440 –> 00:10:39,720
Many organizations are already paying for both without realizing it.

289
00:10:39,720 –> 00:10:42,800
Co-pilot studio capacity silently includes automation

290
00:10:42,800 –> 00:10:45,120
headroom, yet teams keep buying separate power

291
00:10:45,120 –> 00:10:46,520
automate premium plans.

292
00:10:46,520 –> 00:10:48,280
Migrating lightweight or chat triggered

293
00:10:48,280 –> 00:10:51,400
processes into agent flows prevents double taxation.

294
00:10:51,400 –> 00:10:53,760
The result, same capability, cleaner budget,

295
00:10:53,760 –> 00:10:55,400
all this talk about cost and capability

296
00:10:55,400 –> 00:10:57,680
matters only when you can measure the difference.

297
00:10:57,680 –> 00:10:59,360
And spoiler, you can.

298
00:10:59,360 –> 00:11:02,400
Because the math isn’t theoretical, it’s mercilessly concrete.

299
00:11:02,400 –> 00:11:05,680
So let’s quantify what cheaper and smarter really means.

300
00:11:05,680 –> 00:11:08,040
The math of cost efficiency, numbers don’t lie,

301
00:11:08,040 –> 00:11:10,600
they just wait patiently while users misunderstand them.

302
00:11:10,600 –> 00:11:12,320
So let’s translate the economics of power

303
00:11:12,320 –> 00:11:13,960
automate into something measurable.

304
00:11:13,960 –> 00:11:15,520
Cloud flows pretend to be cheap,

305
00:11:15,520 –> 00:11:18,160
because the sticker price hides behind a monthly license.

306
00:11:18,160 –> 00:11:20,600
But when you multiply that license by real usage,

307
00:11:20,600 –> 00:11:22,760
the number of users, runs, and premium connectors

308
00:11:22,760 –> 00:11:24,440
involved the illusion collapses.

309
00:11:24,440 –> 00:11:25,840
Take a standard premium plan.

310
00:11:25,840 –> 00:11:28,000
$15 to $40 per user per month.

311
00:11:28,000 –> 00:11:29,640
Seems tolerable until you realize you’re

312
00:11:29,640 –> 00:11:31,360
paying that regardless of how many runs

313
00:11:31,360 –> 00:11:32,720
those users actually trigger.

314
00:11:32,720 –> 00:11:34,640
It’s the all-access buffet model.

315
00:11:34,640 –> 00:11:36,320
Pay once, consume infinitely.

316
00:11:36,320 –> 00:11:39,000
Or in most cases, barely touch the plate.

317
00:11:39,000 –> 00:11:41,800
You’re subsidizing the employees who automate rarely,

318
00:11:41,800 –> 00:11:44,000
while the heavy users hit throttling ceilings halfway

319
00:11:44,000 –> 00:11:46,440
through the business day, economically absurd,

320
00:11:46,440 –> 00:11:48,480
but predictable in legacy software models

321
00:11:48,480 –> 00:11:50,480
built for perpetual subscription revenue.

322
00:11:50,480 –> 00:11:52,080
Now, contrast that with agent flows.

323
00:11:52,080 –> 00:11:53,760
Every action inside an agent flow

324
00:11:53,760 –> 00:11:55,560
consumes a fraction of a message.

325
00:11:55,560 –> 00:11:57,800
Microsoft’s math roughly equates 100 actions

326
00:11:57,800 –> 00:11:59,840
or API calls to 13 cents.

327
00:11:59,840 –> 00:12:02,240
So a process that loops through 100 records

328
00:12:02,240 –> 00:12:04,320
and executes three actions per record

329
00:12:04,320 –> 00:12:06,840
performs 300 API calls.

330
00:12:06,840 –> 00:12:09,600
Multiply by that conversion rate, 300 divided

331
00:12:09,600 –> 00:12:13,200
by 100 equals three message units, which equals about 39 cents.

332
00:12:13,200 –> 00:12:14,360
That’s the entire run cost.

333
00:12:14,360 –> 00:12:16,280
Not per user, not per month, per execution.

334
00:12:16,280 –> 00:12:18,800
Run it daily for a month, and you spend around $12.

335
00:12:18,800 –> 00:12:21,320
Run it once a quarter, and it’s literally pocket change.

336
00:12:21,320 –> 00:12:22,760
The beauty is linearity.

337
00:12:22,760 –> 00:12:25,680
Message-based consumption scales directly with workload.

338
00:12:25,680 –> 00:12:27,320
Double the records, double the spend.

339
00:12:27,320 –> 00:12:29,120
No hidden tiers, no forced plan upgrades

340
00:12:29,120 –> 00:12:30,920
to unlock extra API calls.

341
00:12:30,920 –> 00:12:32,480
Cloudflows, meanwhile, punish you

342
00:12:32,480 –> 00:12:33,960
with step-function expenses.

343
00:12:33,960 –> 00:12:35,800
Hit a threshold, upgrade the license,

344
00:12:35,800 –> 00:12:37,440
and pray procurement approves it

345
00:12:37,440 –> 00:12:40,800
before end of day automation failures start pinging teams.

346
00:12:40,800 –> 00:12:43,440
The message model eliminates that cliff entirely.

347
00:12:43,440 –> 00:12:45,640
The thing of Cloudflows as the all you can eat buffet

348
00:12:45,640 –> 00:12:48,120
priced per diner, find if every seat is full,

349
00:12:48,120 –> 00:12:51,120
financially ruinous when half the chairs are empty.

350
00:12:51,120 –> 00:12:52,800
Agent flows are a la carte.

351
00:12:52,800 –> 00:12:54,680
Pay only for the bites taken.

352
00:12:54,680 –> 00:12:56,560
The outcome is proportional economics.

353
00:12:56,560 –> 00:12:58,840
Finally, suddenly architecture meetings

354
00:12:58,840 –> 00:13:01,480
sound less like text planning and more like engineering again.

355
00:13:01,480 –> 00:13:03,880
You design for efficiency, not license avoidance.

356
00:13:03,880 –> 00:13:06,400
This clarity extends beyond pure arithmetic.

357
00:13:06,400 –> 00:13:08,560
Copilot Studio locks every agent flow message

358
00:13:08,560 –> 00:13:11,240
displaying consumption by our trigger and connector type.

359
00:13:11,240 –> 00:13:13,480
You can trace costs spikes to specific automations

360
00:13:13,480 –> 00:13:15,800
instead of estimating next quarter’s bill.

361
00:13:15,800 –> 00:13:18,800
Cloudflows, you get API call bundles scattered across user

362
00:13:18,800 –> 00:13:21,640
accounts like airline miles, impossible to consolidate

363
00:13:21,640 –> 00:13:23,160
before they expire.

364
00:13:23,160 –> 00:13:25,160
One produces actionable telemetry.

365
00:13:25,160 –> 00:13:28,000
The other produces spreadsheets labeled current guess.

366
00:13:28,000 –> 00:13:30,760
Even governance adopts math as morality here.

367
00:13:30,760 –> 00:13:34,040
Copilot Studio enforces quotas, messages per hour,

368
00:13:34,040 –> 00:13:38,520
per day, per month, hit 125% of your purchase capacity,

369
00:13:38,520 –> 00:13:40,520
and it halts new executions.

370
00:13:40,520 –> 00:13:42,640
No surprise invoices, no ghost usage.

371
00:13:42,640 –> 00:13:44,720
Administrators appreciate predictable ceilings

372
00:13:44,720 –> 00:13:46,320
more than budgetary heart attacks.

373
00:13:46,320 –> 00:13:49,840
You can always buy additional copilot credits, granular,

374
00:13:49,840 –> 00:13:52,320
measurable packs that match genuine demand.

375
00:13:52,320 –> 00:13:54,840
That’s Cloud Economics behaving responsibly for once.

376
00:13:54,840 –> 00:13:56,120
Design strategy changes too.

377
00:13:56,120 –> 00:13:58,040
Developers now think like economists.

378
00:13:58,040 –> 00:14:00,720
A sloppy loop that makes five redundant API calls costs

379
00:14:00,720 –> 00:14:03,400
real money, combine actions efficiently,

380
00:14:03,400 –> 00:14:05,280
and you have the expense.

381
00:14:05,280 –> 00:14:07,120
Optimization isn’t theoretical anymore.

382
00:14:07,120 –> 00:14:08,520
It’s financial hygiene.

383
00:14:08,520 –> 00:14:11,280
Modern automation equals computational thrift, rare

384
00:14:11,280 –> 00:14:13,520
sentence but satisfying to say aloud.

385
00:14:13,520 –> 00:14:16,080
And when copilot credits fully replace raw messages

386
00:14:16,080 –> 00:14:19,560
expected soon, the system stays the same, just more unified.

387
00:14:19,560 –> 00:14:21,320
Credits become the universal currency

388
00:14:21,320 –> 00:14:23,240
across all copilot experiences.

389
00:14:23,240 –> 00:14:25,000
Your team spends from one account,

390
00:14:25,000 –> 00:14:27,280
whether you’re powering AI builders, prompts, or agent

391
00:14:27,280 –> 00:14:30,400
flows, the accountant doesn’t care which service consumed them.

392
00:14:30,400 –> 00:14:32,880
It all funnels through the same predictable consumption

393
00:14:32,880 –> 00:14:33,480
ledger.

394
00:14:33,480 –> 00:14:36,880
So after you’ve seen this math, the question shifts radically.

395
00:14:36,880 –> 00:14:39,120
It’s no longer, should I migrate to agent flows?

396
00:14:39,120 –> 00:14:40,520
It’s why haven’t we?

397
00:14:40,520 –> 00:14:42,560
Because sticking with cloud flows is like paying

398
00:14:42,560 –> 00:14:44,960
a monthly gym membership for every employee

399
00:14:44,960 –> 00:14:46,880
instead of buying a treadmill per use.

400
00:14:46,880 –> 00:14:49,960
Agent flows build a heartbeat, not the heartbeat’s owner.

401
00:14:49,960 –> 00:14:52,720
39 cents never looked so liberating.

402
00:14:52,720 –> 00:14:55,960
The strategic shift automation becomes AI native.

403
00:14:55,960 –> 00:14:57,840
For years, Microsoft Power Automate

404
00:14:57,840 –> 00:14:59,760
set at the center of enterprise workflows.

405
00:14:59,760 –> 00:15:02,040
It was the plumbing routing data from A to B

406
00:15:02,040 –> 00:15:04,920
while employees set on top improvising the logic.

407
00:15:04,920 –> 00:15:07,720
But when Microsoft introduced copilot studio and agent flows,

408
00:15:07,720 –> 00:15:08,920
the subtext was clear.

409
00:15:08,920 –> 00:15:10,880
Automation is no longer a mechanical layer.

410
00:15:10,880 –> 00:15:12,400
It’s becoming an intelligent organ.

411
00:15:12,400 –> 00:15:13,600
That’s not marketing fluff.

412
00:15:13,600 –> 00:15:16,360
It’s a tectonic redefinition of what automation even

413
00:15:16,360 –> 00:15:18,880
means inside the Microsoft ecosystem.

414
00:15:18,880 –> 00:15:20,840
Cloud flows were designed back when automation

415
00:15:20,840 –> 00:15:22,760
was a glorified macro recorder.

416
00:15:22,760 –> 00:15:25,520
Humans triggered things, systems executed, done.

417
00:15:25,520 –> 00:15:28,120
They functioned like highways, wide, predictable,

418
00:15:28,120 –> 00:15:29,240
built for volume.

419
00:15:29,240 –> 00:15:31,480
But copilot studio shifts the lane entirely.

420
00:15:31,480 –> 00:15:32,920
Agent flows are self-driving.

421
00:15:32,920 –> 00:15:36,360
They don’t need you to schedule or manually press run.

422
00:15:36,360 –> 00:15:38,360
The interpret context trigger themselves,

423
00:15:38,360 –> 00:15:40,680
evaluate data and even reformulate actions

424
00:15:40,680 –> 00:15:42,280
through natural language models.

425
00:15:42,280 –> 00:15:44,520
Their automation plus cognition and Microsoft

426
00:15:44,520 –> 00:15:45,680
has made it very clear.

427
00:15:45,680 –> 00:15:47,760
This is the new architectural North Star.

428
00:15:47,760 –> 00:15:51,080
Every major Microsoft product now has a copilot inside it.

429
00:15:51,080 –> 00:15:53,880
Word, Outlook, Dynamics, Teams, each of them

430
00:15:53,880 –> 00:15:57,800
runs intelligent agents that make small autonomous decisions.

431
00:15:57,800 –> 00:15:59,440
Agent flows are the connective tissue

432
00:15:59,440 –> 00:16:01,040
uniting those brain cells.

433
00:16:01,040 –> 00:16:03,200
Instead of dozens of cloud flows pinned

434
00:16:03,200 –> 00:16:06,480
between different apps, you now have one intelligent substrate

435
00:16:06,480 –> 00:16:09,200
running inside copilot studio, coordinating tasks

436
00:16:09,200 –> 00:16:11,320
for every copilot across your tenant.

437
00:16:11,320 –> 00:16:14,360
The automation layer migrates out of user control panels

438
00:16:14,360 –> 00:16:17,000
and into a single AI native orchestration brain.

439
00:16:17,000 –> 00:16:18,600
This isn’t just a design evolution,

440
00:16:18,600 –> 00:16:20,560
it’s license strategy in disguise.

441
00:16:20,560 –> 00:16:22,320
By segregating classic automation

442
00:16:22,320 –> 00:16:25,400
from AI native automation, Microsoft aligns billing

443
00:16:25,400 –> 00:16:26,520
with capability.

444
00:16:26,520 –> 00:16:28,400
Cloud flows stay under power automate,

445
00:16:28,400 –> 00:16:31,240
a world of per user plans and enterprise scaling fees.

446
00:16:31,240 –> 00:16:34,560
Agent flows live in copilot studio, inside copilot’s message

447
00:16:34,560 –> 00:16:35,840
or credit economy.

448
00:16:35,840 –> 00:16:37,960
The strategic message, automation that relies

449
00:16:37,960 –> 00:16:40,680
on intelligence should inherit the business model of AI,

450
00:16:40,680 –> 00:16:42,680
not the relic of legacy workflow engines

451
00:16:42,680 –> 00:16:44,240
and the governance realities.

452
00:16:44,240 –> 00:16:46,800
Once the final refuge of stick with what we know

453
00:16:46,800 –> 00:16:48,680
have also migrated, draft saves,

454
00:16:48,680 –> 00:16:50,920
versioning audit logs, controlled publishing,

455
00:16:50,920 –> 00:16:52,680
agent flows ship with them.

456
00:16:52,680 –> 00:16:55,680
Features companies use to justify power automate premium plans

457
00:16:55,680 –> 00:16:58,440
now appear by default when you build in copilot studio.

458
00:16:58,440 –> 00:17:00,520
Microsoft didn’t just replicate power automates,

459
00:17:00,520 –> 00:17:03,240
safety rails, they rebuilt them for conversational data

460
00:17:03,240 –> 00:17:04,280
aware agents.

461
00:17:04,280 –> 00:17:06,560
The result is governance that finally keeps pace

462
00:17:06,560 –> 00:17:08,360
with modern AI deployment practices

463
00:17:08,360 –> 00:17:09,760
instead of lagging behind them.

464
00:17:09,760 –> 00:17:11,520
Enterprise implications profound.

465
00:17:11,520 –> 00:17:13,560
Moving small automations, reminder bots,

466
00:17:13,560 –> 00:17:15,640
simple approvals, look up queries,

467
00:17:15,640 –> 00:17:18,560
into agent flows, unclogs power automate capacity.

468
00:17:18,560 –> 00:17:21,440
It’s like re-roating commuter traffic to autonomous lanes

469
00:17:21,440 –> 00:17:23,160
so freight trucks can move freely.

470
00:17:23,160 –> 00:17:25,560
By merging these micro flows under copilot,

471
00:17:25,560 –> 00:17:28,040
departments slash redundant per user licenses

472
00:17:28,040 –> 00:17:30,920
and free power automate for the heavy industrial workflows

473
00:17:30,920 –> 00:17:32,560
it was born to handle.

474
00:17:32,560 –> 00:17:35,560
The result is both financial and infrastructural efficiency.

475
00:17:35,560 –> 00:17:37,080
We can see where this road ends.

476
00:17:37,080 –> 00:17:38,760
Agent flows will continue absorbing

477
00:17:38,760 –> 00:17:40,760
cloud flow functionality, schedule triggers,

478
00:17:40,760 –> 00:17:42,960
batch processing, multi-user visibility

479
00:17:42,960 –> 00:17:44,920
until the distinction becomes semantic.

480
00:17:44,920 –> 00:17:46,760
But the direction of travel is irreversible

481
00:17:46,760 –> 00:17:50,200
because AI-driven orchestration already fits user behavior better.

482
00:17:50,200 –> 00:17:53,160
People talk to copilot, they don’t navigate flow galleries.

483
00:17:53,160 –> 00:17:55,200
And as copilot orchestrates across teams,

484
00:17:55,200 –> 00:17:57,920
chats, outlook messages and dynamics transactions,

485
00:17:57,920 –> 00:18:00,600
it’s only natural that automation exists there too.

486
00:18:00,600 –> 00:18:02,720
Cloud flows will survive, but as back in infrastructure,

487
00:18:02,720 –> 00:18:04,600
not the face of enterprise automation.

488
00:18:04,600 –> 00:18:06,160
The analogy writes itself,

489
00:18:06,160 –> 00:18:08,680
cloud flows build the highways, agent flows,

490
00:18:08,680 –> 00:18:10,040
drive themselves along them.

491
00:18:10,040 –> 00:18:13,200
And every iteration gets cheaper, safer and more autonomous.

492
00:18:13,200 –> 00:18:16,080
The strategic shift is complete the moment you stop thinking

493
00:18:16,080 –> 00:18:18,720
when should I use copilot and start assuming

494
00:18:18,720 –> 00:18:20,920
every process will start with it.

495
00:18:20,920 –> 00:18:24,480
One last warning for the accountants, duplication kill savings.

496
00:18:24,480 –> 00:18:26,360
Many enterprises now pay twice,

497
00:18:26,360 –> 00:18:29,240
once for power automate premium to run cloud flows

498
00:18:29,240 –> 00:18:31,120
and again for copilot studio capacity

499
00:18:31,120 –> 00:18:33,920
that could have run the same automations message-based.

500
00:18:33,920 –> 00:18:36,280
It’s licensing Deja Vu with a hidden search charge,

501
00:18:36,280 –> 00:18:38,320
clean architecture means clean billing,

502
00:18:38,320 –> 00:18:40,800
consolidate your automations where the intelligence lives,

503
00:18:40,800 –> 00:18:42,120
not where history did.

504
00:18:42,120 –> 00:18:44,040
So the next time someone in a meeting says,

505
00:18:44,040 –> 00:18:47,400
just make a flow, correct them, ask calmly which kind,

506
00:18:47,400 –> 00:18:48,560
cloud or agent.

507
00:18:48,560 –> 00:18:51,280
One costs by existence, the other costs by performance.

508
00:18:51,280 –> 00:18:54,000
The difference is not academic, it’s fiscal Darwinism.

509
00:18:54,000 –> 00:18:55,840
The future is message-based.

510
00:18:55,840 –> 00:18:59,920
Cloud flows automate work, agent flows automate intelligence.

511
00:18:59,920 –> 00:19:02,640
That’s the evolutionary jump, Microsoft just formalized.

512
00:19:02,640 –> 00:19:05,680
The future of automation isn’t armies of user license processes

513
00:19:05,680 –> 00:19:07,240
running on monthly retainers.

514
00:19:07,240 –> 00:19:10,080
It’s adaptive agents build exactly for what they do.

515
00:19:10,080 –> 00:19:12,600
Every message consumed is a measurable unit of thought,

516
00:19:12,600 –> 00:19:14,080
not a lump sum guessing game.

517
00:19:14,080 –> 00:19:16,800
The simplicity is sublime, no connector cast system,

518
00:19:16,800 –> 00:19:18,400
no separate AI builder credits,

519
00:19:18,400 –> 00:19:21,640
no throttling panic at 1159 pm when a license quota resets.

520
00:19:21,640 –> 00:19:23,520
Just clear consumption-based economics

521
00:19:23,520 –> 00:19:25,160
that let you scale automation,

522
00:19:25,160 –> 00:19:28,080
the same way you scale compute or storage on demand,

523
00:19:28,080 –> 00:19:30,480
auditable and undercentralized governance.

524
00:19:30,480 –> 00:19:32,160
The stubborn will cling to cloud flows,

525
00:19:32,160 –> 00:19:35,680
convinced predictability lies in per user licensing.

526
00:19:35,680 –> 00:19:38,400
They’ll keep paying fixed rent for square footage they don’t use.

527
00:19:38,400 –> 00:19:38,880
Fine.

528
00:19:38,880 –> 00:19:40,320
Some people still buy DVDs,

529
00:19:40,320 –> 00:19:42,200
but the professionals chasing efficiency

530
00:19:42,200 –> 00:19:44,240
will migrate to where intelligence lives.

531
00:19:44,240 –> 00:19:45,760
Inside co-pilot studio,

532
00:19:45,760 –> 00:19:48,400
because that’s where automation stops being a cost center

533
00:19:48,400 –> 00:19:49,760
and becomes a multiplier.

534
00:19:49,760 –> 00:19:52,320
Agent flows don’t ask you to abandon power automate.

535
00:19:52,320 –> 00:19:53,800
They ask you to evolve it.

536
00:19:53,800 –> 00:19:56,600
Build the infrastructure where AI already resides.

537
00:19:56,600 –> 00:19:59,280
Treat every automation as a service within a thinking platform,

538
00:19:59,280 –> 00:20:00,840
not a tool hanging off the side,

539
00:20:00,840 –> 00:20:03,600
that’s how enterprises scale cognition, not just activity.

540
00:20:03,600 –> 00:20:06,840
Keep paying per user if inefficiency brings you comfort.

541
00:20:06,840 –> 00:20:10,680
Otherwise move to message-based automation and pay for value, not vanity.

542
00:20:10,680 –> 00:20:13,800
If this explanation saved your budget or your sanity,

543
00:20:13,800 –> 00:20:15,920
repay the favor efficiently.

544
00:20:15,920 –> 00:20:18,640
Subscribe, turn on notifications.

545
00:20:18,640 –> 00:20:21,640
Let the next update arrive like a scheduled task.

546
00:20:21,640 –> 00:20:24,320
On time, clean and effortless.

547
00:20:24,320 –> 00:20:26,280
Knowledge delivered conversation over.