Estimated read time: 6 minutes

Overview

Workflows are the automation engine of AskElephant. They allow you to set up intelligent processes that run on their own, turning raw conversation data into actionable insights without manual effort. Whether you're summarizing meetings, updating your CRM, or preparing handoff documentation, workflows transform how your team operates.

Think of a workflow as a series of connected steps that take information from one place, analyze it intelligently, and deliver results exactly where you need them—all automatically.

Key Terms

Trigger: The event that starts a workflow. This could be a new meeting, a deal update in your CRM, or a specific keyword mentioned in a conversation.

Node: A building block within a workflow. Each node performs one specific task, like running an AI analysis, searching for information, or sending an email.

Action Node: A node that processes information or performs an action (as opposed to trigger nodes, which simply start the workflow).

Prompt: Instructions you write in natural language that tell AI how to analyze information and what output you want.

Output: The final result your workflow produces—whether that's an email summary, a CRM update, or an alert to your team.

Start With Your Outcome

Before building anything, get crystal clear on what you want your workflow to accomplish. This isn't about general ideas—it's about specifics.

Instead of "I want meeting summaries," think: "I want a summary of sales calls sent to my manager every Friday that highlights three things: customer pain points, competitor mentions, and next steps agreed upon."

Define:

• What information do you need?
• Where should it go? (Email, Slack, your CRM, AskElephant itself)
• Who needs it?
• How often? (After every meeting, weekly, on-demand)

This clarity becomes your North Star for every decision that follows.

Choose Your Trigger

Your trigger is where your workflow gets its raw material. It's the starting point that determines what information flows into your entire process.

Common triggers include:

• New Meeting: Activates whenever a meeting ends. You can filter by group, attendees, meeting type, or tags.
• Signal Match: Triggers when a meeting contains specific keywords (like "budget," "competitor," or "churn risk").
• CRM Update: Starts when something changes in HubSpot, Salesforce, or another integration.
• Calendar Event: Begins before or after a scheduled meeting.
• Manual Trigger: You start it whenever you need.

Tip: Choose the trigger that aligns with when you need the workflow to run. If you want real-time summaries, use "New Meeting." If you're preparing for a quarterly business review, you might use a manual trigger so you control exactly when it runs.

Gather Additional Context

Your trigger gives you a starting point, but it's rarely enough on its own. Decide what other information strengthens your analysis.

Ask yourself:

• Do I need past meetings with this customer or contact?
• Should I pull current deal information from my CRM?
• Would LinkedIn or company information be helpful?
• Are there Slack conversations or documents I should include?

Each piece of additional context becomes its own node in your workflow. These nodes might search your meeting history, pull data from HubSpot, or even perform web searches. The key is that they all feed into your final analysis.

Example: If your trigger is a new customer meeting, you might add nodes to search for all previous meetings with that contact and pull their current opportunity details from your CRM. Now your workflow has the full picture.

Evaluate and Analyze the Information

Once you've gathered your information, you need to tell AI how to process it. This is where prompt nodes come in.

Common prompt/analysis nodes include:

Run Prompt: A straightforward analysis node. You write instructions in plain language, and AI analyzes the information according to your specifications.

Loop Prompt: Useful when you're working with multiple items (like 10 past meetings). This node runs your prompt against each item and collects the results.

Send Message to Conversation: Sends your prompt to a dedicated conversation where all your gathered information lives. This keeps everything organized and makes the AI's job easier.

Writing Prompts for Workflows

Your prompt is the instruction manual for AI. For the best results, keep three principles in mind:

Be Clear: Don't assume AI knows what you mean. If you want "revenue impact," specify whether that means deal size, contract length, or customer lifetime value.

Be Concise: Include only information relevant to your specific goal. Extra details create noise and dilute results.

Be Consistent: If you mention "customer objections" once and "buyer hesitations" later, you've confused the instruction. Use the same terminology throughout.

Structure your prompt with headers:

• Role: "You are a seasoned sales coach with 20+ years of experience..."
• Task: "Identify the three biggest coaching opportunities from this call..."
• Context: Explain what information you're providing and why.
• Output Format: Show exactly how you want results presented (bullet points, table, summary, etc.). Include an example if possible.

The clearer your prompt, the better your results.

Choosing the Right AI Model

Different AI models have different strengths. For most workflow tasks, Claude 4.5 Haiku is your best bet—it's reliable across writing, analysis, and creative thinking.

However:

• Gemini 2.5 Flash works well if you need quick, lightweight insights (great for looping through many items).
• O4 Mini excels at analytical tasks and detailed number crunching.
• Grok 4 Fast handles enormous amounts of information if you're analyzing dozens of meetings or pulling extensive data.

When in doubt, stick with Claude 4.5 Haiku.

Choose Your Output Destination

Your workflow has done all the hard work. Now decide where the results land.

Common output options:

• Email: Send summaries, alerts, or action items to team members.
• AskElephant Conversation: Keep insights visible within AskElephant itself.
• CRM: Push summaries, next steps, or insights directly into HubSpot, Salesforce, or another platform.
• Slack: Notify your team in real-time.
• Project Management Tools: Send action items to Notion, Asana, Monday, or Linear.
• Meeting Page: Surface insights on the meeting details page in AskElephant.

Your choice here should connect back to your original outcome. If you defined "send to my manager via email," then that's your output node. If you said "update the opportunity in our CRM," that's your destination.

A Workflow Example: Sales Handoff to Customer Success

Here's what this might look like in practice:

1. Trigger: A meeting tagged with "Sales to CS Handoff" occurs.
2. Action Nodes: Search for all past meetings with this customer and pull their opportunity details from HubSpot.
3. Create Conversation: Bundle the new meeting, past meetings, and CRM data into one organized space.
4. Run Prompt: Analyze and identify customer pain points, feature excitement levels, and recommended onboarding focus areas.
5. Output: Email the summary to the CS team lead with the recommendation.

One event triggers a complete information synthesis that would otherwise take hours of manual work.

Build With Confidence

Workflows can feel intimidating at first, but they follow a logical pattern every single time:

1. Define what you want to achieve
2. Decide where to pull information from (trigger + context)
3. Write clear instructions for analysis (prompts)
4. Choose where results go (output)

Start simple. Build your first workflow to solve one clear problem. Once you see it working, you'll understand how to expand and layer in complexity.

Have questions or want to troubleshoot your workflow? Reach out to the Herd in our community forum—they're building workflows every day and love sharing what works.

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

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