Initiative
An initiative starts on its own, on a schedule, and sends an assignment to an AI agent. It doesn't need an event in the system: the agent goes out to search, check, and add on its own, and the next steps of the chain process what it brings back.
- Kind: select Initiative.
- Scenario: the section and a ready-made agent work scenario. Below the selection you can see what it will do. If there are no ready-made scenarios for the section yet, the wizard will tell you so.
- Parameters: the values that will be inserted into the agent's assignment: region, industry, quantity, and others. Each scenario has its own.
- Schedule: Every day, On days of the week, or Once a month, and the start time. Below you can see the summary, for example "Every day at 17:45", and the time zone.
- Assignment: the scenario name and the ready-made text of the assignment for the agent with the parameters already inserted: this is exactly what the agent receives at launch.
On the left of the initiative canvas is the Initiative block with the Started by the system label, the section, and the name of the agent scenario. The Will execute connector leads to the next step: what to do with each record the agent added. Until an action is selected, the block shows a hint: "The agent will add records with the selected type and status. Choose what to do with each of them."
The Details button on the block opens the same wizard: you can change the initiative's scenario, parameters, and schedule.
Several initiatives and copying
In one run, the agent adds no more than five companies. To get more, set up several initiatives, at different times or for different regions. For this, an initiative has a copy button in the All actions list: the copy gets the same assignment and parameters, but is created turned off and without a schedule. Open it, change the start time or the region, and turn it on.
The Active toggle of an initiative stops the assignments from being sent to the agent, not just the actions in the chain.
Insider agent work scenario
The ready-made Find and add potential clients scenario for the Clients section is run by the AI agent Insider: it searches the internet for real potential clients that match the specified criteria and adds them to the CRM with no duplicates and no made-up data.
Scenario parameters
| Parameter | What it sets |
|---|---|
| How many clients to find | How many companies the agent looks for in one run (no more than five) |
| Search region | For example, Chicago |
| Industry and Industry (alternative) | What the company should do; either of the two fits |
| New company type | The client type the agent assigns to the company, for example Potential client |
| New company status | The status it assigns, for example Gathering information |
| Status for a company without email (phone only) | A separate status for companies for which only a phone number was found, so the manager sees them as a separate list |
| Responsible | Who becomes the responsible person for the added companies |
How the agent works on each run. The assignment consists of two stages, and the agent carries it out autonomously, without questions or confirmations.
- Search. The agent searches the internet for operating companies with a working website in the region and industry. The main goal is an email: the next step of the funnel is an email to the client, so the address is looked for on the "Contacts" page, in the website footer, in the "About us" and "Company details" sections, in contracts and price lists, and in online map listings. The second priority is a contact person, first of all the company head. A company without an email but with a phone number still makes the list; one with neither email nor phone does not.
- Adding to the CRM. For each candidate found, the agent:
- reads the rest of the company website if the email or Tax ID wasn't found at the first stage;
- checks the company against official records: it discards companies that are no longer operating, and for operating ones it takes the official name, legal address, company details, and head;
- checks for duplicates by Tax ID and name, and doesn't add a company that is already in the database;
- creates the client with all contacts, company details, and the data source, with the type, status, and responsible person from the parameters.
The agent doesn't make up data: it doesn't build emails from a pattern like info@domain, doesn't guess a Tax ID, and doesn't invent employees. If there are fewer matching companies than specified, it adds as many as it found.
At the end, the agent writes a short report: how many companies were added and which ones, how many have an email, a contact person, and a Tax ID, how many were skipped as duplicates, without contacts, or no longer operating, and whether there were any problems. The result of the work is shown in the log.
How a Reaction continues the work of an Initiative
An initiative and a reaction work as a pair: the initiative brings in records, and the reaction processes each of them.
- The initiative starts on a schedule and sends the agent an assignment.
- The agent adds companies to the Clients section, with the type and status from the initiative's parameters, for example Potential client and Gathering information. For companies without an email, it sets a separate status from the Status for a company without email parameter.
- Each addition is an event in the database. For automation, a company from the agent is no different from a company a manager entered: the Add (or Any) trigger in the Clients section fires.
- Reactions with the same type and status fire. Each such reaction runs its own chain for each added company separately: an email, a task, a deal, a status change.
That is why the link is set by type and status: they must match in the initiative's parameters and in the reaction's trigger.
| Initiative (parameters) | Reaction (trigger) | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Type Potential client, status Gathering information | Clients, Add, type Potential client, status Gathering information | Each company found with an email gets the first email based on the outreach template |
| Status for a company without email, for example No email | Clients, Add, status No email | The manager gets a task to call, since the company only has a phone number |
The actions of reactions with the same type and status are also shown on the initiative canvas, after the Will execute connector. While there are none, the block shows a hint: "The agent will add records with the selected type and status. Choose what to do with each of them." The Select action button on this block creates such an action right away. It is not the initiative itself that starts it, though, but the event of the company being added, on its own trigger, as with any reaction.
Warning
Don't use the type and status for companies from the agent in other scenarios or for manual entry: reactions will fire for any company with this combination, and outreach emails will go to your existing clients.
If there is no reaction with the right type and status, the agent still adds the companies, but nothing more happens to them until a manager takes them on manually. A ready-made pair of scenarios for outreach is described in Working together with the Insider agent.
A comparison of the two kinds is on the Automation page, and reactions are covered on the Reaction page.