Anatomy of an AI Workflow

Every AI-powered automation follows the same fundamental pattern. Understanding this pattern will help you design any workflow, regardless of complexity.

The Core Pattern: Trigger → AI → Action

┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐
│   TRIGGER   │───▶│   AI STEP   │───▶│   ACTION    │
│  Something  │    │  Understand │    │   Do       │
│  happens    │    │  + Create   │    │  something  │
└─────────────┘    └─────────────┘    └─────────────┘

This is the simplest AI workflow. Let's see how it works with real examples:

Trigger	AI Step	Action
New email arrives	Summarize the email	Send summary to Slack
Form submitted	Extract key information	Create CRM record
Meeting ends	Generate action items	Create task list

Expanding the Pattern

Real workflows often need more steps. Here's the expanded pattern:

┌─────────┐   ┌─────────┐   ┌─────────┐   ┌─────────┐   ┌─────────┐
│ TRIGGER │──▶│ FILTER  │──▶│   AI    │──▶│  PATH   │──▶│ ACTIONS │
│         │   │(optional)│   │  STEP   │   │(optional)│   │         │
└─────────┘   └─────────┘   └─────────┘   └─────────┘   └─────────┘

Blueprint Example: Email Prioritizer

WORKFLOW: Smart Email Prioritizer
═════════════════════════════════

TRIGGER: New email received
    │
    ▼
FILTER: Exclude newsletters & automated emails
    │ Passes
    ▼
AI STEP: Analyze email
    Prompt: "Analyze this email and determine:
    1. Priority: high/medium/low
    2. Category: inquiry/complaint/info/action-required
    3. Brief summary (1 sentence)"
    │
    ▼
PATH: Based on priority
    │
    ├─→ [high]
    │      └── Send Slack notification immediately
    │
    ├─→ [medium]
    │      └── Add to daily digest
    │
    └─→ [low]
           └── Archive, no notification

Designing Your AI Prompts

The AI step is only as good as your prompt. Here's how to write effective prompts for automation:

The OUTPUT-FIRST Rule

Always specify the exact output format you need. The automation platform needs structured data to use in later steps.

Bad Prompt	Good Prompt
"Analyze this email"	"Analyze this email. Return JSON: {priority: high/medium/low, category: string, summary: string}"
"Is this urgent?"	"Determine if urgent. Reply ONLY with: YES or NO"
"Summarize"	"Summarize in exactly 2 sentences"

Template: The Perfect AI Step Prompt

Role: You are an [assistant type] for [company/context].

Task: [What you want the AI to do]

Input: {{email_body}} or {{form_data}} or {{document_text}}

Output Format:
- [field 1]: [expected format]
- [field 2]: [expected format]
- [field 3]: [expected format]

Rules:
- [Any constraints]
- [Edge case handling]

Example: Lead Qualification Prompt

Role: You are a sales assistant for a B2B software company.

Task: Analyze this incoming inquiry and qualify the lead.

Input: {{email_body}}

Output Format (JSON):
{
  "company_name": "extracted company or 'Unknown'",
  "lead_score": "hot/warm/cold",
  "budget_mentioned": true/false,
  "timeline": "immediate/this_quarter/exploring/unknown",
  "suggested_response": "2-3 sentence personalized reply"
}

Rules:
- If budget > $10,000 mentioned, always mark as "hot"
- If timeline is "immediate" or "this_quarter", add 1 level to score
- If no company name found, mark as "cold"

Data Flow: How Information Moves

Understanding data flow is crucial. Each step can use data from previous steps:

TRIGGER: New form submission
    Output: {{form.name}}, {{form.email}}, {{form.message}}
         │
         ▼
AI STEP: Analyze message
    Input: {{form.message}}
    Output: {{ai.category}}, {{ai.urgency}}, {{ai.summary}}
         │
         ▼
ACTION: Create CRM contact
    Input:
    - Name: {{form.name}}
    - Email: {{form.email}}
    - Category: {{ai.category}}
    - Priority: {{ai.urgency}}
    - Notes: {{ai.summary}}

Key insight: Each step produces output that becomes available to all following steps.

Common Workflow Patterns

Pattern 1: Enrich and Route

TRIGGER → AI (enrich data) → PATH (route based on enrichment) → ACTIONS

Use case: Incoming support tickets—classify, prioritize, route to correct team.

Pattern 2: Transform and Distribute

TRIGGER → AI (transform content) → MULTIPLE ACTIONS (distribute)

Use case: New blog post—generate social posts for Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook.

Pattern 3: Aggregate and Summarize

SCHEDULED TRIGGER → SEARCH (gather data) → AI (summarize) → ACTION (report)

Use case: Daily digest—collect yesterday's activities, summarize, send morning report.

Checklist: Before You Build

Before creating any workflow, answer these questions:

Question	Why It Matters
What event starts this?	Defines your trigger
What do I need AI to understand?	Defines your AI step input
What output format do I need?	Defines your AI step prompt
What should happen with different results?	Defines your paths
Where does the result need to go?	Defines your actions

Next: Let's set up the connections between AI and your business tools. :::