AI in automations
An automation can use AI in three ways:
| Way | Page |
|---|---|
| A one-shot text step: sort, pull out details, summarise, write | AI text steps |
| An agent that takes actions towards a goal | AI agent |
| A decision inside If / else or Switch | AI decisions |
You can also have the AI assistant build an automation for you: see Build with AI. This page covers what is common to every AI step: what the AI knows, which model it uses, what it costs and the limits that keep it safe.
What every AI step knows
Each AI step is given:
- The text you wrote in the step, with values from the trigger and earlier steps filled in.
- Your business details: name, industry, description, address, phone, email and currency.
- Your notes for AI steps, from Settings → Configurations → Automations → About your business, for AI steps (up to 2,000 characters). Put here what a new team member would need before replying to a customer: what you sell, your tone, opening hours, delivery and returns policy.
The AI is told to state only facts that appear in these details or in the data it is given. When something is not stated, such as a price, a policy or a delivery area, it says your team will confirm. It does not guess.
An AI step does not see your other records unless you give them to it: insert the values into the step's text, or use an AI agent with a look-up action.
Choose the model
Every AI step has a Model setting:
| Choice | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Fast | Sorting, pulling out details, short summaries. Cheaper and quicker. |
| Smart | Writing to customers, judgement calls, the AI agent. The default. |
Cost and daily limit
- Each AI step uses AI credits every time it runs. A picture or PDF page attached to a step costs more than text alone.
- When the business has no AI credits left, the step fails with "this business has no AI credits left, so the AI step did not run". Top up under Settings → AI credits.
- A business can run 500 AI steps a day from automations. After that, AI steps fail until the next day with "daily limit of 500 AI steps from automations reached".
- A step that is retried after a temporary failure is charged once.