Automations Overview
Give your agent the ability to take action — book appointments, take orders, collect payments, create tickets, and run multi-step business workflows.
Automations Overview#
Sources teach your agent what to say. Automations give it the ability to do — book an appointment, take an order, send a payment link, collect a form, hand off to a teammate, or run a full multi-step workflow. You manage all of this from the Automations section in your agent's sidebar.
The Three Building Blocks#
AlonChat separates automations into three layers so you can mix and match without rebuilding things from scratch.
| Building block | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Action | A single concrete capability your agent can perform | "Create a calendar event", "Create a payment link" |
| Capability | The provider-neutral job an action fulfills | Booking, payment, courier delivery, table lookup |
| Business Process | A reusable, multi-step workflow built from capabilities | "Book a service with a deposit", "Take an order and arrange delivery" |
You don't have to think about these labels day to day — but it helps to know that a Business Process is where you describe a complete customer journey, and it leans on the individual Actions underneath to get each step done.
Tools vs. Processes#
The Automations hub has two surfaces:
- Tools — the catalog of individual actions your agent can use (both built-in and custom). Browse them, see what each one needs (for example, a connected Google Calendar), and turn them on or off.
- Processes — reusable workflows you author in plain language. A process defines when it should start, the steps to follow, what details to collect, and when to hand off to a human.
Tip: Start with Processes. Describe the outcome you want ("when a customer wants to book, check availability, collect their details, take a deposit, then confirm") and AlonChat wires the underlying actions for you.
What's Available#
| Automation | What it does |
|---|---|
| Business Processes | Author multi-step workflows for any customer goal |
| Booking & Appointments | Check availability, create events, manage waitlists |
| Sales & Orders | Take multi-item orders, confirm carts, collect deposits |
| Delivery & Couriers | Get live courier quotes, book deliveries, share tracking |
| GrabFood / GrabMart | Check live menu items, prices, and availability |
| Payment Verification | Collect payment instructions and verify proof of payment |
| Follow-up | Automatically re-engage customers who went quiet |
| Human Review | Catch risky messages and route them to your team |
| Custom Chat Flows | Build guided button and form journeys |
| Custom Forms | Collect structured requests with reusable intake forms |
| Custom API Actions | Let your agent call your own API during a conversation |
Built-in Actions at a Glance#
Beyond the workflows above, your agent ships with connection-backed actions it can call mid-conversation:
| Action group | What the agent can do | Needs |
|---|---|---|
| Calendar | List services, check availability, create/reschedule/cancel events, manage waitlists | Calendar connection |
| Google Sheets | Log a row (inquiries, bookings) and look up records (prices, order status) | Sheets connection |
| Google Drive | Search files and folders, share a view link | Drive connection |
| Payments | Create a checkout link, check payment status, show instructions, verify proof | A connected payment provider |
| Orders | Confirm a cart or quote, lock in totals, route to scheduling or fulfillment | — |
| Lead Collection | Capture name, email, phone, and custom fields | — |
| Web Search | Look up real-time information beyond the knowledge base | — |
Read-only actions (check availability, look up data) run on their own; actions that create, update, or delete are confirmed with the customer first, and every execution is logged.
Enabling an Automation#
- Open your agent and go to Automations.
- Browse the Tools tab or search for what you need.
- Click an automation to open its settings.
- Complete any requirements it lists (for example, connect an account or fill in business details).
- Toggle it on.
Once enabled, the agent decides when to use each automation based on the conversation and your business processes — you don't have to script every turn.
Related Pages#
- Business Processes — design end-to-end workflows
- Connections — connect the accounts actions depend on
- AI Assistant — your co-pilot can set many of these up for you