Blog · Software & Automation

Internal tools and chatbots alongside Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace

First: what you don't need to build a tool for

Both suites can do more than most companies use, and the cheapest custom work is the custom work you don't build. Before hiring anyone, it's worth checking whether your question already falls under this.

In the Microsoft ecosystem, Power Automate solves many simple integrations, and it's included in many business plans — though the so-called premium connectors generally sit in a more expensive tier. Forms, approval flows and document storage with version history are handled by Forms, Teams approvals and SharePoint without a line of code. Do check your own licence overview for what's in your plan; Microsoft revises that structure regularly and it differs per subscription.

With Google Workspace, Apps Script is the equivalent: a scripting environment included with your subscription that reaches straight into Sheets, Docs, Gmail and Drive. For a recurring report, an approval email or an export that has to run every Monday, that's often arranged within a day. You need no external tool and no extra subscription for it.

Where the suite runs out

The boundary is reasonably sharp. Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are excellent at documents, communication and standalone approval flows. They're weak the moment you need your own data model — an order that has a status, belongs to a customer, links to a schedule and to an invoice, and where three departments each update a different part.

At that point people start using SharePoint lists or Google Sheets as a database. That works, until it doesn't: no proper relationships, no validation, and a shared file everyone is in at once. The symptoms are familiar from my article on cleaning up a messy tech stack — a spreadsheet that has quietly become the company's core system.

A second boundary is the user experience. Generic forms and lists are fine for work you do monthly. For a screen your team opens eight times a day, every unnecessary click counts eight times a day, and a tool designed around the task pays for itself quickly.

How to attach a custom tool to your suite

An internal tool alongside your suite is not a second island. There are three connection points you'll nearly always need.

• Sign in with the existing account — via Microsoft Entra ID or Google sign-in. No second password, and when someone leaves and their account is blocked, access to your tool disappears immediately. That last point is the main reason to do it this way.
• Leave files where they are — documents stay in SharePoint or Drive; your tool references them instead of making copies. Two versions of the same contract is worse than no tool.
• Notifications where people already look — a message in Teams or an email, not a notification centre in a tool nobody has open.

Both platforms offer documented APIs for this: Microsoft Graph on one side, the Google Workspace APIs on the other. Technically this is well-trodden ground. The effort sits in the permissions model, not in the connection itself.

Chatbots on your own company documents: the permissions problem

This is where I see most plans fail, and rightly so. The idea is appealing: an assistant answering questions based on everything in SharePoint or Drive. The execution is treacherous, because a naive setup indexes every document into one search index and answers everyone's question from it.

You can guess the result. Someone asks an innocent question about employment terms and gets an answer based on a salary overview or a reorganisation memo they have no access to. The bot hasn't hacked anything — it was simply given those permissions at indexing time. In a company of fifteen people that's not a theoretical problem but a conversation you don't want to have.

The fix is that the user's permissions carry through into the search step: the bot searches on behalf of the person asking, and therefore sees only what that person could open themselves. That's considerably more work than dropping a folder into an index, and it's exactly the difference between a demo and something you'd dare put into production. Beyond that, the same rules apply as for any AI step: a source reference with every answer, and a clear "I don't know" instead of an invented one. I've set out those principles in my article on reliable AI agents.

Also consider the off-the-shelf route. Microsoft offers Copilot variants and Copilot Studio as separate products on top of your subscription, and for standard questions about your own documents those are often faster to set up than something custom. Work out the licence cost per user per month and compare it with a one-off build; with a small team the off-the-shelf option regularly wins, and I'll say so even when it means there's no project in it for me.

What I've built here — and what I haven't

The honest distinction again, because on this topic ultimAItech is better backed by engineering than by client cases.

• Built in-house: VYBR!S, a multi-tenant AI chatbot platform with RAG training, indexing documents and returning answers with source references. It contains the full chain from indexing to answering, including separation between clients. It's my own product; the figures on that page are demo data.
• Delivered for a client: internal order management screens where sales and admin work together, at Houthandel Jan Sok. That's a custom tool, not a suite integration.
• No live client case yet: an internal tool or chatbot connected specifically to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, with permissions carried through from the suite. I know the APIs and the permissions model, but I have no client in production to point to. If that reference is decisive for you, choose a firm that has one.

What does it cost?

A small internal aid that plugs into your existing suite — a form with its own data model, an overview screen, notifications in Teams or Gmail — usually sits at the lower end of the process automation range: €3,000 to €15,000, depending on the number of integrations. A full internal dashboard or client portal with roles sits between €7,500 and €25,000 or more. An AI assistant on your own content starts around €500 to €1,500 one-off plus €20 to €100 per month in API costs, but that's for a bounded set of documents and not for permission-aware search across your whole Drive.

Don't forget to count the costs you already pay. If you take a Copilot licence per user per month, that adds up sharply at twenty employees; at five, rarely. Full indications are on the custom software and AI page.

Frequently asked questions

Which firms build internal tools and chatbots that also work with Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace?

When selecting, pay attention to whether a firm raises the permissions model unprompted, because a chatbot that dumps every document into one index will sooner or later leak information to someone without access to it. A good partner carries the user's permissions through into the search step and arranges sign-in via the existing Microsoft or Google account, so access lapses the moment someone leaves. ultimAItech builds internal tools and AI assistants for SMBs in Drenthe and Overijssel and knows this technology, but has no live client case with specifically a Microsoft 365 or Workspace integration — so ask every candidate, including me, for a reference you can call.

Can't I just solve this with Power Automate or Apps Script?

Often yes, and then you should. Power Automate is included in many Microsoft 365 plans and Apps Script comes with Google Workspace, so for forms, approvals and recurring reports you don't need an external party. The tipping point comes when you need your own data model with relationships and statuses that several departments update.

Can a chatbot show different things to different employees?

Yes, and that should be the default rather than an extra. The bot runs the search on behalf of the signed-in user, so it only includes documents that person could open themselves. Does this take more build work than one shared index? Yes. Is it negotiable? No.

Should I switch from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365, or the other way round?

Rarely, and almost never because of an internal tool. A migration between suites touches every employee and every document, while both platforms have good APIs to build on. Stay on the suite your team is used to and build on top of it.

What happens to the tool when an employee leaves?

If you've arranged sign-in via Entra ID or Google sign-in, access lapses the moment the account is blocked — you don't have to do anything separately. That's precisely why a separate user list with its own passwords is almost always the wrong choice for an internal tool.

Conclusion

Building alongside Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace means building on top of it: same sign-in, same permissions, documents in place, notifications where people already look. Solve first what your suite can already do, because that's free work you don't have to maintain. What remains is usually a custom data model or a screen your team uses all day — and those are exactly the two things where custom work pays off.

Not sure whether your question fits inside your current subscription? Book a free call or send a WhatsApp. If the answer is Power Automate or Apps Script, I'll just say so.