Tasks

Tasks are automation tools that let your AI agents perform specific actions on a schedule or on-demand. Think of them as scheduled reminders or automated follow-ups that your agents can execute without manual intervention every time.

What Are Tasks?

A task is a specific instruction or action that an AI agent performs. Unlike conversations that happen in real-time, tasks can be scheduled to run automatically at specific times or intervals. For example, you might create a task to:

• Send a weekly check-in message to a customer
• Follow up on an open support ticket every 3 days
• Run a monthly satisfaction survey for active users
• Send appointment reminders 24 hours in advance
• Execute custom workflows based on contact preferences

Key Benefits

Flexible Automation: Tasks can be scoped to a specific contact for personalized outreach, or run without a contact for general agent workflows. Your agent uses the task description to determine what to do and can tailor interactions based on any associated contact history.

Flexible Scheduling: You control when and how often tasks run. Set them to execute once, daily, weekly, monthly, or create custom schedules that match your business needs. You can also trigger tasks manually whenever you need immediate action.

Hands-Free Operation: Once you create a task, your AI agent handles everything automatically. The agent will execute the task according to the schedule, maintaining consistent engagement without requiring your constant attention.

Workflow Integration: Tasks work seamlessly with your bots and contacts. The agent uses the bot's configuration and knowledge to perform the task, ensuring consistent responses that align with your brand and processes.

How Tasks Work

When you create a task, you specify:

• The Instructions: What the agent should do (specified in the task name and description)
• The Schedule: When and how often it should run
• The Bot (optional): Which AI agent will perform the task
• The Contact (optional): Who this task is for

Your agent then executes the task automatically according to the schedule, creating conversations and taking actions as needed. You can monitor all task activity, see when tasks last ran, and view their outcomes in your dashboard.

Getting Started

Creating your first task is simple:

1. Click "Create Task" from your Tasks dashboard
2. Give your task a descriptive name (e.g., "Weekly Customer Check-in")
3. Add a description explaining what the agent should do
4. Optionally select a contact this task is for
5. Optionally choose which bot should execute the task
6. Set your preferred schedule
7. Click "Create" and your agent will take it from there

You can view all your tasks in one place, see each task's status and last outcome, and track when they'll run next. Filter tasks by bot to focus on specific workflows.

Practical Examples

Customer Success: Create tasks for your AI agent to check in with customers 7 days after they make a purchase, asking about their experience and offering assistance.

Support Follow-ups: Set up tasks to automatically follow up on open support tickets every 2-3 days until they're resolved.

Appointment Management: Schedule tasks to send reminders to contacts before their scheduled appointments, reducing no-shows.

Engagement Campaigns: Create recurring tasks that share relevant content or updates with specific customer segments on a regular basis.

Tasks give you the power to automate interactions at scale, ensuring consistent agent engagement while maintaining the personal touch your contacts expect.

Configuring Task Details

When you create or edit a task, you have several options to control exactly how your AI agent executes the work. Understanding these settings helps you create effective automated workflows that serve your contacts perfectly.

Basic Configuration

Name and Description: Give your task a clear, descriptive name that explains its purpose at a glance. The description is crucial - this is where you tell your AI agent exactly what to do when the task runs. Be specific about the action you want taken, what the agent should say, or what outcome you're looking for. For example: "Send a friendly check-in message asking how they're enjoying the product and if they need any help."

Contact (optional): Associate this task with a specific contact. When set, the agent can personalize task execution based on that contact's history and context. Tasks without a contact are useful for general agent workflows that are not tied to a specific individual.

Bot (optional): Choose which AI agent will execute this task. The bot you select will use its configured knowledge, personality, and capabilities when performing the task. This means you can have different bots handling different types of tasks (e.g., a support bot for technical follow-ups, a sales bot for outreach).

Scheduling Options

The schedule determines when your task runs:

• One-time: The task runs once at the next scheduled time, then stops
• Hourly: Perfect for urgent monitoring or time-sensitive follow-ups
• Daily: Good for regular check-ins or daily updates
• Weekly: Ideal for recurring meetings reminders or weekly reports
• Monthly: Great for monthly reviews, billing reminders, or periodic surveys
• Custom: Create your own cron schedule for precise timing control

Timezone: Choose the timezone used for cron and local-time schedules. This ensures your task runs at the correct local time for your audience, regardless of where the servers are located.

Once you set a schedule, your dashboard shows you when the task last ran and when it will run next, so you always know the status of your automations.

Advanced Options

Session Duration: This controls how long the bot can continue a conversation started by the task. If your task initiates a conversation and the contact responds, the bot will stay active in that conversation for the specified duration. For example, if you set this to 1 hour and the task starts a conversation at 2 PM, the bot can continue responding to that contact until 3 PM.

Max Iterations: This limits how many agent iterations are allowed during a single task execution. Use this to keep open-ended tasks from running indefinitely. The configurable range is 10 to 100,000 iterations. If you leave this empty, the task uses the default of 1,000 iterations.

Max Time: This limits how long a single task execution is allowed to run. Use this for long-running workflows where time is a better safety boundary than iteration count. The configurable range is 15 minutes to 24 hours. If you leave this empty, the task uses the default of 15 minutes.

Meta Fields: Add custom metadata to your tasks for advanced tracking and organization. This is useful for integrating with other systems, categorizing tasks, or storing additional context that your workflows might need.

Task Actions

Trigger Now: Don't want to wait for the next scheduled run? Click "Trigger Now" to execute the task immediately. This is perfect for testing your task or handling urgent situations where you need the agent to act right away.

Cancel Task: If a task is currently running, click "Cancel Task" to stop the active execution and return the task to an idle state. The task is not deleted; it remains configured and can run again on its schedule or be triggered manually later.

Executions: Each run appears in the executions list. Use this list to review individual task runs and cancel a specific execution when you need more precise control than canceling the task as a whole.

Monitoring: After your task runs, you can see the conversations it created and review what actions your agent took. This helps you verify that tasks are working as expected and provides transparency into your automated workflows.

Best Practices

• Start Simple: Create a basic task first, test it with "Trigger Now", and refine the description based on how your agent performs
• Be Specific: The more detailed your task description, the better your agent can execute it
• Monitor Results: Check the conversations and events created by your tasks to ensure they're achieving your goals
• Adjust Schedules: Start with longer intervals and increase frequency once you're confident the task is working well
• Use Meaningful Names: When you have many tasks, clear names help you quickly understand what each one does

Tasks give you incredible flexibility to automate personalized interactions at scale. With the right configuration, your AI agents can maintain consistent, helpful engagement with every contact on your behalf.