What Adaptive Cards add to a standard Approvals flow
The standard Power Automate Approvals connector sends a notification — email or basic Teams message — with an Approve/Reject link that opens a web page. An Adaptive Card replaces that with a rich card rendered directly inside Teams. The card can show any fields from the request: for a purchase order, that means supplier name, PO value, line items, budget code, delivery date, and the requestor's name — all visible in the card without clicking through to another system. The approver reads the context in Teams, makes the decision, and clicks the button. The card updates to show the outcome; the flow continues. No browser, no login, no context switch.
Adaptive Cards are JSON templates rendered by Teams. Power Automate provides an Adaptive Card designer that lets you build the card layout visually, bind dynamic content from flow variables (the PO value, supplier name, requestor name), and add action buttons (Approve, Reject, Request more information). The card template is saved to the flow; each approval request generates a card populated with the specific request's data. Multiple approvers can receive the same card simultaneously, with the first response triggering the next step — or sequential approvals where the next approver is only notified after the previous one has responded.
Building an in-Teams approval flow in 3 days
Day 1: Define the approval trigger (new SharePoint list item, form submission, or HTTP request from a business system) and the data that needs to be visible in the approval card. Design the Adaptive Card template in the Adaptive Cards designer or the Power Automate card editor — place the key fields, write the action button labels, test the rendering in Teams. Day 2: Build the flow — trigger, data retrieval, Post Adaptive Card action to the approver(s) in Teams, wait for response, condition: if approved update the source system; if rejected notify requestor with reason. Add automatic reminder at 4 hours if no response; escalation to the approver's manager at 8 hours. Day 3: End-to-end testing with real requests, verify the card renders correctly in Teams desktop and mobile, verify the source system updates on approval, and hand over.
The practical timeline for a purchase order approval flow of this complexity — trigger, card, approver, reminder, escalation, outcome, notification — is 2–3 days for an experienced Power Automate developer. The approval context the card needs to display is the main variable: a simple yes/no approval with requestor name and description takes less time than a card showing line items from a database query.
What in-Teams approvals change about the process
Email-based approvals fail for two reasons: approvers miss the email in a busy inbox, and the approval email provides insufficient context so the approver has to open another system before they can make a decision. Adaptive Cards solve both. Teams notifications are harder to miss than email — the unread badge appears on the app icon, the notification appears in the activity feed, and the card is visible in the chat with the approval bot. The card itself contains all the context the approver needs — no system login required to make the decision. The result: approval cycle time falls because the friction that caused delay (missed emails, insufficient context, system navigation) is removed.
Automatic reminders and escalations handle the remaining delay. If the approver does not respond within 4 hours, a reminder card is posted in Teams. If there is still no response at 8 hours, the flow routes to the approver's manager — with a note that the primary approver has not responded. Tail risk disappears: the requests that used to sit for days because the approver was at a conference or out sick are now handled within the escalation window rather than waiting for the approver to return and find a full inbox.