How I Automated My Boring Daily Tasks Using Claude and Power Automate

Combining AI and low-code to build automation workflows that actually work in production.

Let’s be honest — most of our daily work isn’t exciting.

It’s repetitive. It’s manual. It’s the same thing over and over again.

• Sending emails
• Copying data
• Following up
• Logging information
• Handling simple workflows

These are the perfect candidates for automation.

In this article, I’ll show you how I started automating these “boring tasks” using:

• ⚡ Power Automate
• 🧩 Power Automate Chrome Extension
• 🤖 Claude AI

And how combining these three tools creates a workflow that goes far beyond traditional low-code.

The Problem with Traditional Automation

Power Automate is great. You can build workflows quickly using drag-and-drop. But when flows get more complex, you start hitting real challenges:

• 🤯 Hard to structure properly
• 🧱 No clear error handling (like Try/Catch)
• 📝 Writing good email templates takes time
• 🔍 Debugging becomes painful
• 🧩 Hard to maintain large flows

This is what most flows actually ship looking like:

"emailMessage/To": "hardcoded@email.com",
"emailMessage/Subject": "test subject",
"emailMessage/Body": "<p>test body</p>"No error handling. No naming convention. Hardcoded everything.

The original flow — flat, two actions, no structure or error handling

This is where AI changes everything.

🧠The New Approach: AI + Low-Code

Instead of building everything manually, you can:

1. Build a basic flow in Power Automate
2. Extract the flow JSON
3. Let Claude improve it

Think of it like this:

👉 Power Automate = Builder 👉 Claude = Architect

Power Automate gives you the skeleton. Claude gives it structure, intelligence, and production-grade quality — in a single conversation.

🧩 Step 1 — Install the Power Automate Tools Extension

Power Automate Tools is a free Chrome extension that exposes your flow’s raw JSON directly in the browser, with Save and Validate buttons. No exporting. No re-importing packages. You edit the JSON and it saves straight back to your flow.

Power Automate Tools — free on the Chrome Web Store

This extension is the bridge between Power Automate and Claude. Without it, the loop doesn’t close.

🤖 Step 2 — Describe What You Want to Claude

Open Claude, paste your flow JSON, and describe — in plain English — what you need improved. Here is the exact prompt I used:

The prompt I sent to Claude — plain English, specific requirements, no technical jargon needed

No JSON knowledge required to write the prompt. Just describe the outcome you want.

⚙️ Step 3 — Paste the Result Back and Save

Claude returns fully updated JSON. Copy it, paste it into the Power Automate Tools editor, and hit Save.

The Power Automate Tools JSON editor — updated flow ready to save

The full cycle takes under ten minutes.

✅ What Claude Actually Improved

From a single prompt, here is what changed:

Proper Try/Catch/Finally scopes — the most common thing developers skip because it takes too long to configure manually. Claude structures it correctly, including the runAfter conditions that are easiest to get wrong.

A professional HTML email — branded header, inline styles, submission timestamp, and a clean footer. Output that previously required a separate design effort.

Descriptive action naming so your run history is readable at a glance:

Iterative error fixing — when the first save returned a connector schema error, I pasted it back into the same conversation. Claude identified the invalid parameter, removed it, and explained why. One follow-up message. Fixed.

The improved flow — Try/Catch/Finally scopes, consistent naming, production-ready email

📈 The Real Impact

The value is not just the time saved on a single flow. It is what becomes practical to do at all.

Previously, proper error handling and professional email templates were things I intended to add but rarely did under deadline pressure. Now they are the default — because asking for them costs nothing extra.

The standard of what is reasonable to produce has risen, without a corresponding increase in the time required.

⚠️ One Important Note

Claude generates output based on the JSON and instructions you provide. It does not have visibility into your specific form field names, connection IDs, or organization schema. Before deploying, always verify dynamic expressions, replace placeholder values, and test against a real submission.

Treat the output the way you would a pull request from a skilled external developer: well-structured, worth reviewing, and ready for your final sign-off.

🚀 Getting Started

You do not need to build a new flow from scratch. Start with one you already have:

1. Install Power Automate Tools from the Chrome Web Store (free)
2. Open any existing flow and copy the JSON from the extension
3. Paste it into Claude with a description of what needs improving
4. Copy the result back, save, and test

That is the entire setup. The first time you run this loop, you will wonder why you were writing this by hand.

The gap between what Power Automate is capable of and what most teams actually ship is not a knowledge problem — it is a time problem. This workflow changes that.