What are automations?

This article gives an overview of automations and how they help our customers define both simple and complex business rules. An automation consist of flows that define a set of conditions and actions. Both are explained in more detail below.

The power of automation in business communication

Automation in business communication helps streamline tasks and workflows, allowing teams to focus on complex, high-value interactions rather than repetitive administrative tasks. In Tekst, “automation” refers to a system that automatically manages and routes communication flows - such as emails and tickets - based on rules that you define, ensuring timely responses, organized inboxes, and faster resolutions.

What is an automation?

An Automation is a set of predefined actions that run without manual intervention. At its core, an automation operates based on triggers (events that activate the automation), conditions (rules that define what the automation should do) and actions (actions that define what actually needs to happen based on the condition). When triggers and conditions are met, Tekst will automatically carry out actions that you set up to manage and organize incoming messages.

For example, an automation could be set to sort and tag incoming customer support emails based on predictions and/or keywords. If the prediction “Billing” is made by the model, the automation could tag the email as “Billing” and assign it to the appropriate team.

Components of automations in Tekst

1. Triggers

A trigger is an event that starts an automation.
Triggers currently only include receiving a new email. In the future Tekst might add new triggers to start an automation. 

2. Conditions

Conditions specify the rules for the automation to work. They define the criteria that must be met for the automation to proceed. Common conditions might include predictions made by the model or include specific keywords in an email or subject or domain. An overview of all the possible conditions and their explanation can be found in the article on conditions.

3. Actions

Actions are the tasks the automation will complete when the conditions are met.
For example, an action might be to forward an email to a certain team, assign a priority level, or send an automatic reply. 

The actions that are presented to the person configuring the flow depend on the integration type that is used. Actions in a flow related to an outlook integration, will be different from Salesforce integrations, because the use cases are completely different.
We discuss the different type of actions in more detail in the designated article.

4. Apps

Apps are blocks that allow customers to define custom actions designed using TypeScript.
They enable customers to extend and personalize the automation capabilities within their workflows, giving them flexibility to tailor specific actions to fit unique business needs. By creating Apps, customers can go beyond the standard automation options, developing bespoke actions that handle more complex tasks, integrate with third-party systems or apply custom logic directly within the Tekst environment.