Auto-Replies to Emails with matching emails address in attachments

[Erthling]

Hi,

As i'm new to using power automate, I need guidance in creating a flow for the HR department that can send an auto reply Only to emails that:

A) Have an attachment (most likely a CV)

B) Mentions the words CV or attached in the email body

C) Has the same matching email address in the attachment as the sender himself (to most likely verify that it is a CV)

D) the Auto replies should not go to someone within the company or partnering recruitment firm (example: a head of department or agent who is forwarding a CV to the HR dept.).

Is this possible or too complex?

As I tried to do it using the Outlook Rules, but the IT department has blocked the reading of attachments option as it is a security issue if the server will scan every document and might have a potential virus, also it will slow down the Exchange Server.

Any other solutions to help the HR team?

Much appreciate any input!

[AndreasN]

Hello,

I have some ideas to get you started.

For condition A) The trigger "When a new email arrives", has a filter option to only trigger when e-mails with attachments arrive. 

For condition B) The trigger also has a subject filter, where you can enter a string to look for in the subject line, here it would probably make sense to look for CV or perhaps application and resume?

Here's the documentation for the trigger, so you can read more about those two filter options:

Trigger a cloud flow based on email properties in Power Automate - Power Automate | Microsoft Learn

Condition C) This one is complex, I assume that attachments are sent as PDFs, there's several options here. If you ask applicants to follow a specific template for their CV, you can train an AI in the AI builder to look for the position where the e-mail will be (Using a template it will always have the same position).

You can also train an AI, where the layout is different, luckily for most CVs the e-mail will usually in the top quarter of the document, which reduces the training complexity. It will make sense in the training of the AI, to look for the "@" in the PDF, to hopefully find the applicants e-mail. 

I would generate a ton of randomized CVs (You can ask chatGPT to create a bunch for you), and then train the AI myself. 

If you're succesfull in training a precise AI, then create a string variable and store the e-mail in the string variable, create a condition that checks the variable with the sender e-mail to ensure there's a match.

You might also be able to use the "extract text from a PDF", this assumes that all CVs are sent as PDFs. This will simply extract all pieces of text within the CV. I believe the extract text from a PDF, creates an "Apply to each" for every string of text in the document. Given it creates an "Apply to each", for each string of text you can create a condition that checks each string for a "@" symbol. Once the string contains a "@" symbol, have that condition place the string inside a variable. You can then compare that variable, to the sender e-mail. 

For condition D). I don't know how your organization is setup with e-mails, but I assume that your e-mails include your company name at the end of the e-mail. Create a condition, that checks if the sender e-mail is from within your organization, by checking if the e-mail contains your organization name.

I hope this makes sense, and gives you some ideas of how you can achieve some of the conditions.

[AlexEncodian]

@Erthling 

For condition C, AI builder will do what you need to do. If you need an alternative due to licensing or technical implementation considerations, there are some simple alternatives.

You Get PDF Text Layer or Extract Text from Regions and then use Utility - Extract Email Addresses from Text. (Note the Utility-prefixed actions consume only 0.05 actions...e.g. a 500 action plan gives you 10,000 Utility action runs).