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Show HN: Workflow86 - An AI business analyst and automation engineer
Hey HN,
We built Workflow86 to help teams build and automate their internal business processes and workflows using drag and drop components like forms, tasks, tables and nodes for business logic, API requests, running custom code etc. It works as a standalone process/workflow automation tool, or as a workflow customization layer on top of existing apps and systems like HRIS, CRM and ERP.
One common problem we hear from users is that no-code still has a significant learning curve, and it can take some time to understand how to properly build something. Users also needed help with knowing what to build in the first place, or what a process might or should look like.
To solve this, we've integrated an AI that acts as a business analyst/consultant and workflow automation engineer. This AI is powered by a combination of Large Language Models and lots of prompt engineering, RAG and prompt chaining techniques we developed along the way.
See a demo of it in action here: https://www.loom.com/share/fdbd5ad64c8f4071a062ecaa6a6d01f1?sid=a84ac71b-4639-4e2c-ae9e-33a3c30006d4 https://www.loom.com/share/fdbd5ad64c8f4071a062ecaa6a6d01f1?...
In business analyst/consultant mode, the AI helps users brainstorm ideas, identify and discover processes and draft what a process should look like. Like a business analyst/consultant, the AI works to pull and extract information and details from the user by asking the right questions rather than rely on the user's instructions alone.
Once the required information has been gathered, the AI goes into engineer mode: it will plan and then build the entire workflow by selecting the right nodes, connecting them together and then fully configuring every single node individually as well. This includes writing custom code and API requests using stored credentials when required.
Once a workflow is built, edits can be done manually or by asking the AI to adjust the workflow at any time (e.g., “Add a compensation band check before final approval”). The AI has full context of the current state of the workflow, so it can “patch” in any changes like adding new nodes, rewriting existing nodes and so on.
Some use cases we’ve seen from customers include building:
- automated compliance checks for new CRM leads
- custom international contractor onboarding workflows on top of a HRIS
- automated vendor risk assessment before ERP updates
Try it out and let us know how the AI performs and any other feedback you have!
Full docs can be found at https://docs.workflow86.com https://docs.workflow86.com
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- bananamansion 2y agoare you using n8n for the workflow builder?
- taaron 2y agoNope, we built the workflow builder entirely ourselves, but I guess most workflow builders do end up looking very similar!
- causal 2y agoThat strikes me as a surprising choice given the amount of prebuilt integrations with n8n
- taaron 2y agoOne factor in hindsight for doing this in-house was we did find out that AI can struggle with understanding and navigating existing workflow builders that were built and optimized for human usage and comprehension e.g. what nodes are available, the options that can set inside of those nodes and even how they are named had quite an impact on whether the AI could reliably form valid workflows on its own.
- bushido 2y agoNot that surprising if you take n8n license into account. Its very prohibitive.
- causal 2y agoSlick UI, curious how practical the workflows actually are. My suspicion is that this is automating the part humans would want to do (designing the workflow), whereas most of the hours put into workflow automation is integration (90% of which is not going to be a clean REST API). That said, maybe this would be really valuable to someone doing a greenfield project without needing to back into existing workflows. Either way, cool project.