Introduction to automating with agents

Automating with agents means setting up AI workflows that run automatically in response to events or schedules, without requiring manual interaction. Instead of manually asking an agent a question in Chat, you configure an agent to execute tasks automatically—triggered by an email, webhook, schedule, or external event.

Automation transforms agents from interactive tools into background workers that handle recurring tasks, process incoming data, and execute complex workflows on your behalf. This frees your team to focus on higher-value work while repetitive, predictable tasks run 24/7.

Overview

When you use an agent manually, you open Chat, select an agent, type a question, and wait for a response. This works well for one-off tasks and exploration.

Automation extends agents beyond Chat. You configure an agent to trigger automatically when something happens—a customer sends an email, a webhook fires, a schedule is reached, or an external system sends data. The agent then executes its configured workflow, uses its skills to take action, and completes the task without human intervention.

The key difference:

• Manual agent use: User initiates → Agent responds → User decides what to do next

• Automated agent use: Event occurs → Agent executes automatically → Agent takes action (send email, export file, update system, route to another agent)

Think of manual agents as consultants you call for advice. Think of automated agents as employees working in the background, handling routine tasks according to predefined rules.

Why automate agents?

Speed and efficiency

Automations eliminate wait time. Instead of a team member manually triggering an agent for each customer inquiry, the agent processes inquiries instantly as they arrive. A task that takes 5 minutes to do manually happens in seconds, automatically.

24/7 availability

Agents don't sleep. An automated agent can process emails, generate reports, or respond to webhooks at 3 AM when your team is offline. Your business continues operating without human oversight.

Consistency

Humans make mistakes or skip steps. Automated agents follow the exact same process every time, producing consistent results. If your agent is configured to analyze support tickets and assign them to the right team, it does this identically for the first ticket and the thousandth.

Scale without adding headcount

Manual processes don't scale. If you receive 10 customer emails per day, one person can handle it. If you receive 1,000 per day, you need 100 people. Automated agents handle 1,000 just as easily as 10—at no additional cost.

Focus on strategy, not routine

Your team spends less time on repetitive tasks and more time on work that requires human judgment, creativity, or strategy.

How agents and automations connect

An agent is the "what"—the AI assistant configured to do a specific job. An automation is the "when"—the trigger that tells the agent to execute.

Together, they form a complete workflow:

Trigger → Agent executes → Agent takes action

Here's how each piece works:

1. Trigger (the "when")

A trigger is an event that starts the automation. Common triggers include:

• Webhook: An external system sends data to Swiftask (e.g., a new customer support ticket arrives in your ticketing system)

• Email: An email arrives in a monitored inbox (e.g., customer support requests sent directly to an email address)

• Schedule: A specific time or interval occurs (e.g., "Every Monday at 9 AM" or "Every hour")

• External integration: An event from a connected service (e.g., "New row added to spreadsheet" or "Form submitted on website")

2. Agent executes (the "what")

When a trigger fires, the agent wakes up and does its job. The agent:

• Reads the incoming data (the customer email, the webhook payload, the form response)

• Uses its knowledge base to reference relevant information (company policies, product specs, FAQs)

• Applies its instructions to decide what to do (analyze the request, categorize it, draft a response)

• Uses its skills to take action (send an email, export a PDF, update a database, route to another agent)

3. Agent takes action (the "then")

Because the agent has configured skills, it doesn't just think—it acts. The agent can:

• Send emails – Respond to customers, notify team members, escalate issues

• Export documents – Generate PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets with analysis or reports

• Query databases – Retrieve real-time data, update records, log activities

• Route to other agents – Hand off to a specialist agent for complex tasks

• Call APIs – Integrate with external systems, trigger other workflows

Concrete example: Customer support automation

Let's walk through a real-world scenario to see how this all works together.

The situation

Your company receives customer support emails to support@yourcompany.com. Currently, a team member manually reads each email, categorizes it, and either responds with a standard answer or escalates it to the right department. This takes 5–10 minutes per email.

You receive 50 emails per day. That's 250–500 minutes (4–8 hours) of manual work daily.

The manual approach

1. Support team member opens email inbox

2. Reads customer question

3. Checks knowledge base (product docs, FAQs)

4. Types response

5. Sends response

6. Marks as resolved or forwards to specialist

7. Repeats 49 more times

Time required: 4–8 hours/day Cost: One full-time employee Availability: Only during business hours Consistency: Varies by person, mood, and workload

The automated approach

You create a support agent configured with:

Objectives & instructions:

• "You are a customer support specialist. Your job is to read customer emails, understand their problem, and respond helpfully."

• "If the question is about billing, respond and note it for the accounting team."

• "If the question is about technical issues, provide troubleshooting steps. If the customer can't resolve it, route to the technical team."

• "Always be friendly and professional."

Knowledge base:

• Product documentation

• FAQ document

• Common troubleshooting guide

• Billing policy document

Skills:

• Send email (to respond to customers)

• Route to agent (to escalate to technical support agent)

• Log activity (to record interactions in CRM)

Automation trigger:

• Email trigger: "When a new email arrives in support@yourcompany.com"

What happens when a customer emails

1. Trigger fires: Customer sends email to support@yourcompany.com

2. Agent wakes up: The automation detects the new email and activates the support agent

3. Agent reads: The agent reads the customer's question and email context

4. Agent thinks: Using its knowledge base and instructions, the agent understands the problem

5. Agent acts:

   • If it's a simple question, the agent uses its "send email" skill to respond directly

   • If it's complex, the agent uses its "route to agent" skill to hand off to a technical support agent

   • The agent uses its "log activity" skill to record the interaction in your CRM

Result: The customer gets a response within seconds. No human intervention needed. Your team is notified of escalations.

The comparison

When to use automation vs. manual agents

Use manual agents (Chat) when:

• You need exploration or judgment calls. "What should our marketing strategy be?" requires human thought. Chat is ideal.

• The task is one-off or rare. If you ask an agent something once per month, setting up automation isn't worth it.

• You need interactive back-and-forth. Chat allows you to ask follow-up questions and refine requests in real-time.

• The task requires human approval. You want to review before the agent acts.

• You're testing or learning. Use Chat to experiment with agent instructions before automating.

Use automated agents when:

• The task is recurring. Email arrives daily, reports generate weekly, webhooks fire constantly.

• The workflow is predictable. "When X happens, do Y" is clear and consistent.

• The agent can act independently. The agent has all the information and skills it needs to complete the task without asking humans.

• Speed matters. Instant processing is more valuable than human review.

• Volume is high. Automation shines when you have dozens, hundreds, or thousands of similar tasks.

• You want to free your team. Automation removes routine work so humans can focus on exceptions and strategy.

Common automation patterns

Here are typical ways teams use agent automations:

Pattern 1: Inbound processing

Trigger: Email or webhook arrives Agent: Analyzes incoming data Action: Categorizes, responds, routes, or logs

Examples:

• Customer support emails → Respond or escalate

• Job applications → Review and rank candidates

• Bug reports → Categorize and assign to developer

• Survey responses → Analyze and summarize

Pattern 2: Scheduled reporting

Trigger: Time-based schedule (daily, weekly, monthly) Agent: Compiles data and generates report Action: Exports document and sends email

Examples:

• Daily sales summary → Agent pulls data → Exports PDF → Sends to leadership

• Weekly team status → Agent gathers updates → Generates report → Posts to Slack

• Monthly compliance audit → Agent checks records → Exports audit trail → Sends to compliance team

Pattern 3: Data enrichment

Trigger: New data arrives (form submission, database record, webhook) Agent: Analyzes and enhances the data Action: Updates system or creates new record

Examples:

• New lead arrives → Agent researches company → Enriches lead profile → Updates CRM

• Customer updates address → Agent validates address → Updates shipping system

• Form submission → Agent categorizes → Creates ticket in project management tool

Pattern 4: Multi-step workflows

Trigger: Initial event occurs Agent: Executes first task, routes to second agent if needed Action: Completes workflow across multiple steps

Examples:

• Customer complaint arrives → Support agent responds → Routes to quality agent → Quality agent investigates → Routes to management agent → Management agent sends follow-up

• Expense report submitted → Finance agent reviews → Routes to approval agent → Approval agent approves → Routes to accounting agent → Accounting agent processes payment

What you need for successful automation

For an automation to work smoothly, your agent must have:

Clear objectives and instructions

The agent needs to understand exactly what to do. Vague instructions lead to unpredictable results. "Handle customer emails" is too vague. "Read customer emails, answer questions about billing using the billing FAQ, and route technical issues to the tech-support agent" is clear.

Relevant knowledge base

The agent can only reference information in its knowledge base. If your agent needs to answer questions about your product, your knowledge base must contain product documentation. If it needs to check policies, your knowledge base must have policies.

Necessary skills

The agent can only take actions it has skills for. If you want the agent to send emails, it needs the "send email" skill. If you want it to update a database, it needs database query skills. If you want it to route to another agent, it needs multi-agent routing skills.

Appropriate triggers

The trigger must be reliable and specific. "Send me an email when something important happens" is too vague. "When a new support email arrives in support@company.com" is specific.

Key benefits of agent automation

Reduced manual work

Routine tasks that consumed hours of staff time now run automatically. Your team shifts from execution to oversight.

Faster response times

Customers and internal teams get instant responses instead of waiting for someone to manually process their request.

Better consistency

Automated agents apply the same logic, rules, and standards every time. No variation based on who's working that day.

Improved scalability

Your business can handle 10x more volume without hiring 10x more staff. Agents scale with your business.

Lower costs

Automation typically costs less than hiring additional staff. You pay per automation execution rather than per salary.

Availability

Automations work 24/7, weekends, holidays. Your business never stops.

Audit trail

Every automation execution is logged and traceable. You know exactly what happened and when.

What's next

Now that you understand how agent automation works conceptually, you're ready to explore:

• Creating an automation – Build your first automated workflow

• Triggers from webhook – Set up webhook-based triggers for external integrations

• Triggers from email – Configure email-based automation

• Triggers from external integrations – Connect to external services like forms, spreadsheets, and APIs

• Monitoring & execution history – Track automation runs and debug issues

• Best practices – Security, cost management, and error handling for automations

Ready to automate? Start by identifying one recurring task your team does manually. That's your first automation candidate. Once you see it work, you'll find dozens more.