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June 3, 2024

HR Automation with AI: Introist’s approach

Klaus Julin

CTO

Introist goes AI

Generative AI has made remarkable progress in recent years, and at Introist, we've closely tracked its development. Considering that effective communication, such as crafting compelling emails and instant messages (on platforms like Slack and Teams), is a big part of HR automation, shouldn't this be the prime area for leveraging generative AI's capabilities?


Furthermore, as Introist is an automation platform, we believe there's immense potential in integrating automation with AI. Automation will take care of the precise and reliable execution of actions at the right time while AI can assume a more creative role of suggesting actions that could be great. Certainly, human oversight is essential for evaluating these suggestions and overseeing the system.


With this vision in mind, we made the strategic decision to integrate AI capabilities into Introist.  Now, users can write content and draft automation actions using AI. While these features may not be revolutionary, numerous apps employ AI in similar ways, thanks to robust APIs provided by leading AI companies. However, since this marks just the initial phase, we recognized the importance of establishing a strong foundation before fully unleashing the potential of AI features. Here, I outline some key decisions we've made to shape all future AI usage within Introist.

Have control of your AI (and data)

There is still a lot of work around the topics of data ownership, privacy, and acceptable use when it comes to AI. When a non-technical user considers using an AI, especially if it is a completely black box, these risks can start to look daunting.


To ease the barrier of getting started, we’ve made some conscious decisions to give as much control to the users as possible, meaning:

  •  You have the option to use Introist's OpenAI account without any setup required on your part, or you can configure the AI to utilize your own account, thereby retaining control over all your data within an account managed by you.

  • In case you would like to use your own account but don’t quite know how, we have provided detailed instructions on setting up an OpenAI account. These instructions will guide you through the process, allowing you to conveniently control and monitor how Introist utilizes your OpenAI account.

  • You can choose which model Introist uses. Comparing gpt-3.5 turbo and gpt-4o, there is ten-fold difference in the costs. So we let you choose if you want to use the latest and greatest model with a bit higher costs, or if the not-actually-that-old model will be all that you need

  • You actively choose to share any private data with OpenAI, rather than being automatically enrolled. Opting out ensures complete data privacy, apart from the information you provide in your instructions to the AI. Although the quality of results may suffer without specific data, we believe this option remains viable for starting out and experimenting with AI, and justifying future commitments.

  • Certainly, you can revoke Introist's access to OpenAI at any time


We aim to make users feel confident and informed about using AI with Introist.

Instruct, preview, execute

The fundamental contrast between automation and AI lies in AI's capacity to perform tasks beyond explicit instructions. While this capability is AI's greatest strength, it can also be intimidating. For instance, you probably wouldn't want AI to craft and send an email to all your employees based solely on a brief instruction.

That’s why on all AI features in Introist, we follow the pattern instruct, preview, execute:

  • First, the user specifies their goal for the AI. For example, if you want to draft the content for an email, you provide the necessary instructions on what the message should convey, similar to how you would use ChatGPT.

  • However, we found the next step crucial: rather than immediately executing the task, the AI generates a suggested action. This suggestion is then presented to the user as a preview, allowing them to review, iterate, and revise the result as needed.

  • Finally, once the user is satisfied with the preview, they can approve the action for execution. For example, when writing a message, this means the new content will seamlessly replace the old content.


This approach allows you to freely experiment with the AI, exploring how it can improve your outcomes without any risks. Once you're satisfied with the results, you can implement them effortlessly with the press of a button—no need for any copying and pasting.

You don’t need to know about AI prompting

The quality of results generated by AI depends heavily on the quality of instructions it receives. Typically, this involves providing prompts, which can be found in various guides online. However, in the context of using Introist, we believe there are simpler ways to achieve excellent outcomes without having to focus too much on crafting instructions.

Firstly, once you've created some automations, Introist can easily incorporate relevant examples from your existing data, such as messages, whenever you ask the AI for more assistance. This helps the AI to generate results that align with your preferred style.

Secondly, Introist can analyze your writing style based on your current content and generate specific style instructions automatically for the AI to follow each time.

Finally, Introist can even incorporate all the key information about your setup, such as what employee information you have available, which will enable the AI to even incorporate correct personalisations!


All of these tasks can be handled by using ChatGPT with effective prompting. However, with Introist’s built-in AI, you don't need to be an expert in crafting prompts to achieve excellent results.

With the first AI driven features available at Introist and these principles baked into the foundation, we look forward to following up with the development of the AI possibilities. Our goal is to uncover numerous features that will streamline and simplify the experience for Introist users, eliminating the necessity for them to become AI experts. Stay tuned for more!


Want to give Introist a try? Feel free to book a demo.

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