A typical example
Imagine: A customer sends you a message. You want to:
First let your AI agent respond and resolve the issue on its own
If needed (e.g., customer asks for a human) hand over the conversation to your team
Once resolved, automatically mark the conversation as done for a tidy inbox
With automations you set up this workflow once – and it runs automatically with every new message.
Create automation
New to automations? Start with our template gallery. We've prepared the most proven automations for you – just select and get started.
Already advanced? Create your own automation from scratch and customize it completely to your needs.
The building blocks of an automation
Every automation consists of different nodes (building blocks) that you connect like a flowchart.
1. Trigger – The starting point
What is a trigger? The trigger is the event that starts your automation. For example:
A new message comes in
A conversation is marked as done by a user
A specific date from a contact attribute is reached
The trigger is always the first building block of your automation.
2. Logic Nodes – The conditions
What are logic nodes? Logic nodes help you decide if and when something should happen. For example:
Filter/Conditions: "Only if the contact is in a specific contact list" or "Only if the customer writes outside of business hours"
Wait/Pause: "Wait 2 hours before continuing"
Randomizer: Distribute contacts randomly across different paths (e.g., for A/B tests)
3. Action Nodes – The actions
What are action nodes? Action nodes do the actual work. For example:
Send a message
Add a label
Assign a conversation to a team
Update contact data
Mark a conversation as done
Understanding automation runs & tasks
What is an automation run?
A run is a single execution of your automation for a specific contact or conversation.
Example: Your automation "AI Agent → Team" is triggered by a new message. If 5 customers write today, there are 5 runs of this automation – one for each customer.
What is a task?
A task is a single step within a run.
Example: Your automation has 3 action nodes (Add label → Send message → Assign conversation). → One run of this automation has 3 tasks.
Seeing automations in your inbox
Yellow banner in chat
When an automation is currently active on a conversation, you'll see it directly in the chat timeline above the chat controller as a yellow banner.
Contact sidebar
In the contact sidebar (both in Contact Hub and in your inbox) you'll see more details under Automations:
Which automation is currently active
Which node the automation is currently at
All past automation runs for this contact / conversation
From there you can also easily cancel a single automation run if needed. Want to pause automation runs for all contacts? Go to Automations, select the relevant automation, and pause the entire automation – not just individual runs.
