Once you've connected your data with connectors, you are ready to leverage operations known as triggers and actions. Actions are tasks directed by a user which can be used in both Power Apps and Power Automate. They're tasks like retrieving data from a specific source, updating data in a database, or sending an email. Actions are prompted by other user interaction or a trigger, which is exactly what it sounds like. It triggers a flow within Power Automate to begin.

Triggers are specific to Power Automate and are events like receiving an email or a form being filled out and submitted. An easy way to think about triggers and actions are like cause and effect or the if-then scenario. If I receive an email, then save it to my OneDrive. In that example, the trigger is receiving an email and the action is saving it to your OneDrive. This also utilizes two different connectors in the same flow being Outlook and OneDrive, both of which require you to connect to those services for this flow to properly function. The if-then example can also be expanded upon to use multiple connectors and engage multiple actions after the trigger.

Using the same example, what if after saving the file to OneDrive, you wanted to upload it to a Teams channel? You could then utilize the Teams connector, and once that trigger activates, the email is saved to your OneDrive and then uploads to the Teams channel you designate. This would be an example of a single trigger engaging two actions, utilizing three different connectors. Flows can go even further than this connecting to multiple different outlets and engaging multiple actions. However, triggers are always required to start a flow. Next, we're going to look at the AI Builder and how you can use it alongside connectors to help streamline business processes.