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Posted by u/taaron a year ago
Show HN: Workflow86 - An AI business analyst and automation engineerworkflow86.com/...
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?...

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

antidnan · a year ago
Random but I love the name. I feel like we've entered into a new fun era of startup names. No more ___ly or ___ist etc. This era is generic word/noun + arbitrary numbers or letters after it.

I think ChatGPT really kicked that off, but maybe it was something else that inspired it?

Less normie/friendly and more technical sounding. So far, I'm a fan!

taaron · a year ago
Partially inspired by WD-40 but more so the exorbitant price for anything workflow.com. The number did have some logic behind it: 8 letters in automate and 6 in no-code.
fragmede · a year ago
I thought it had to do with the 8086 dynasty of of Intel processors and the relation to tech and automation that computers have.
todsacerdoti · a year ago
You should add 2500 app integrations to Workflow86 via Pipedream Connect -- https://pipedream.com/connect
no_wizard · a year ago
I find humor that a product like this exists.

Not because it isn’t useful (to be honest it looks decidedly useful as an API aggregator service) but the fact that one of its main selling points is for “AI”.

Yet, if we had AI, it would be able to build these integrations itself

taaron · a year ago
AI building the integrations is the approach we are taking at the moment, to the extent that you can store credentials like API keys and Oauth and then make the AI aware of these via a variable like ${googleAPI.SECRET}.

These credentials can then be use in the API node (where the AI can write a custom curl) or the run code component (where the AI can write custom python or js code to make an HTTP request).

todsacerdoti · a year ago
I encourage anyone who is curious to try to build an AI to get an approved client ID / secret from Google to access end user's gmail accounts. Most tier-one apps, such as Google, Zoom, Shopify, etc require a formal application process, third-party security reviews, and much more.
taaron · a year ago
Very interesting will definitely check it out!
csomar · a year ago
Honestly I thought it was a joke or /s website at first. I looked at the site/docs and still don’t understand what your service is exactly selling/doing?
brainless · a year ago
Really lovely homepage and I can personally relate to this. I signed up to check the onboard process.

I am in a similar space and our product creates workflows from prompts. Internally it is a JSON schema generator and response parser (from AI). We focus on creating assistants (personal or team) that reside on local computers, can crawl, read from any data source and build a knowledge graph for search, daily tasks, etc.

In our UI efforts (we are really behind in this) the graph editor is starting to look like how I see in your product.

ishtanbul · a year ago
What’s the path to MS365 integration? Thats where all my work is
taaron · a year ago
Working on it at the moment, would be interested in learning more about the actions/events you would need to make it useful.
bongodongobob · a year ago
To even consider for enterprise M365 use, it needs to be 1:1 with Power automate/Flows/Apps, Entra, Intune, Graph API, PowerShell, AAD/Azure, etc. If I need to create a new user, it's going to involve every corner of M365/Azure. Maybe getting full functionality with Flows and PowerApps would be a starting point.
albert_e · a year ago
Impressive and full of great potential!

Congrats on shipping this.

Off topic question out of curiosity:

If we are builde a simpler visual "workflow" tool that allows users to drag and drop components on to a canvas, connect them, create brancing logic etc and configure properties of each components in a properties panel .... is there a good open source library/framework that we can add to say a React front end that has a lot of this UI already available? Thanks

taaron · a year ago
We use react-flow which seems to be the go-to for any sort of node/canvas based UI at this point.
causal · a year ago
Slick 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.

taaron · a year ago
Integrations are definitely the toughest part of the implementation. That being said, I'm pretty optimistic on (1) AI getting better at writing the code/REST API calls or making it a lot easier or (2) the sort of browser agents we've seen with Open AI Operator, Claude Computer Use etc get good enough to integrate via the UI layer vs the API level.
taaron · a year ago
Some new users are encountering issues with the AI during onboarding - if you do encounter an error, you can always try out the AI again by just click the glowing purple button on the right of any workflow canvas! This seems to be due to some rate limit issues from the uptick in self-serve sign-ups and hopefully should be resolved soon.
replwoacause · a year ago
Looks nice but is priced for teams. Does anyone know of something like this with plans priced for individuals? I’m looking to automate some browser stuff, testing, etc.
taaron · a year ago
We might be able to sort out a discount for individuals in exchange for some product feedback - send us an email at hello@workflow86.com