What is a Workflow?

Introduction

A workflow is an automated AI process that triggers when a specific event happens—like a meeting ending—and executes actions based on what's said or changed. Instead of manually summarizing calls, updating your CRM, or creating follow-up tasks, workflows handle these automatically so your team can focus on selling and relationships while automations drive consistency and speed.

Key Terms

• Workflow: An automated sequence that performs specific actions based on triggers and conditions you define

• Trigger: The event that starts a workflow

• Sequence: The series of steps a workflow follows once triggered

• Active: A workflow that's currently turned on and running; it will respond to triggers whenever they occur

• Inactive: A workflow that's currently turned off; it won't respond to triggers until you turn it back on

• Node: An individual step that makes up the workflow; each node takes an input and produces an output

Why Workflows Matter

Workflows solve a real problem: repetitive work slows teams down.

Without Workflows

• Manual work takes significant time

• Summaries and CRM updates are inconsistent from person to person

• Important details get missed

With Workflows

• The same process runs the same way every time

• Your team stays on higher-value work like building relationships and solving problems

• Outputs land in the systems your team already uses—Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce, email

Example

Instead of manually summarizing every customer call, a workflow automatically captures key points, action items, and next steps. Your team gets consistent summaries instantly and everyone stays aligned.

Where to Find Workflows

• Log into AskElephant and click Automations in the top navigation bar

• Open the Workflows tab to see all workflows in your workspace alongside tools for creating new ones

Understanding Workflow Status

Every workflow is either Active or Inactive:

• Active workflows are running right now and watching for triggers

• Inactive workflows are paused; they won't respond to triggers until you turn them back on

Check the status of critical workflows regularly. A workflow that should be active but isn't can mean missed automations.

Structure of a Workflow

Workflows are built from nodes—the individual steps that make up your automation. There are two types:

Trigger Nodes

The starting point that kicks off your workflow. A trigger appears only once per workflow (for example, a new meeting recorded).

Action Nodes

The steps that follow the trigger. Action nodes process information, filter data, run prompts, and generate outputs like summaries, CRM updates, emails, or Slack notifications. Each action node has its own configuration settings and either synthesizes output or performs a specific action.

AskElephant includes native action nodes (conversation creation, filtering, prompts, etc.) plus integration-specific nodes for HubSpot, Salesforce, Notion, Slack, and other tools.

Workflow Use Cases

• Meeting summaries: Automatically summarize meetings and send them to your team

• CRM updates: Capture key information from conversations and automatically update deals in HubSpot or Salesforce

• Customer health monitoring: Analyze multiple meetings to assess customer health and flag at-risk accounts

• Lead routing: Automatically qualify and route leads to the right team members

• Meeting context: Search past meetings, add external research, and create comprehensive summaries with one workflow

When Workflows Don't Run

If a workflow shows NA for Last Run, it usually means one of three things:

• The trigger hasn't occurred yet—the event the workflow is watching for hasn't happened

• Conditions haven't been met—the rules you set haven't been satisfied

• There's a configuration issue—the trigger may not be set up correctly

Review workflows showing NA if you expected them to run. Check trigger settings and conditions.

Next Steps

Now that you understand what workflows are and why they matter, the next step is Recipes—pre-built workflow templates that let you activate common automations in seconds. See the Recipes article for how to activate and customize a template instead of building from scratch.

Need Additional Help?

If you have questions or need further assistance, the AskElephant support team is here to help!

You can reach our support team in several ways:

• click the chat button in the bottom right corner of your screen,

• email us at [email protected],

• or use @askelephant support in your dedicated Slack channel.

We're committed to getting you the answers you need as quickly as possible.