

To use Power Automate there is no requirements that users have or use an Office 365 account. The crucial detail is explained in a Microsoft blog post saying: “Power Automate is a fully public cloud service, and everyone in the world can sign up and use it to automate their day-to-day tasks. The license will simply become active again when the user next logs in because the relationship is between the individual and Microsoft – not Microsoft and the organisation.

IT teams can disable the license, but according to Microsoft this will have “no effect on a user’s ability to create flows”. Significantly, IT admins have no way of blocking its use. Around the blockįrom 2 March Power Automate became free for anyone to use, irrespective of whether an organisation chooses to use it.

But beyond the buzzwords, some experts fear Microsoft’s quest to empower users could cause headaches for already-stretched IT teams. Microsoft has previously called Power Automate Desktop a solution that makes “automation more accessible by empowering everyone to optimise how they work”.
