From Concept to Concrete; OpenFn’s AI makes automation real

At OpenFn, we believe that the key to making automation successful is involving key decision-makers (even for those without a technical background) every step of the way. To this end, we’ve revolutionized the setup flow on our platform and we’re incredibly excited to show you what’s possible on OpenFn today.

When you click ‘Create new workflow’ on OpenFn, you can now choose to start from a template, a blank workflow (event-based or timer-based), or use the AI Assistant to generate a custom draft in plain English.

Templates: Real-World Examples, Ready to Go

We’ve launched a library of workflow templates for common use cases across platforms like KoboToolbox, FHIR, DHIS2, CommCare, and Google Sheets.

Templates are ready-to-use drafts that give users a concrete starting point. They’re based on real-world scenarios from our experienced implementation team and provide a helpful reference for building your own workflows. You can customize them, test them out, or share them with your team to get feedback or sign off before involving developers.

One thing to keep in mind: any integration is possible in OpenFn. The sky is the limit! However, our developers and community have pre-built some adaptors to save time and money. You can view the full list of adaptors here.

Meet the new OpenFn AI Assistant (v1)

The newest version of our AI Assistant guides users through a basic workflow design process, sketching out integration workflows on the fly as users describe business logic in plain English. For example:

“When a new KoboToolbox form is submitted, send the data to Salesforce.”

The assistant generates a template workflow based on your request and gives you an explanation of what they’re doing. You’ll get a working structure, and suggested job code to start from.

Watch it in action!

Right now, the AI Assistant can sketch out a workflow based on your input and suggest job code down at the level of the individual step to help you get started. Our team is working on bringing these two features together in a single, holistic, plain-English UI for designing, building, and debugging fully automated workflows on OpenFn.

While we know that the sophisticated payments, health systems, and supply chain workflows our users build on the platform won’t be created in just a few clicks by AI—there’s still a large component to OpenFn that relies on human experts—we’re confident that these advances in build-time AI will drastically reduce setup costs and help more organizations envision & scope the automations that will take their impact to the next level, before engaging with subject matter experts to get them to production-ready.

Why This Matters

Let’s step back. For years, OpenFn has helped organizations automate their data flows but getting started has still required technical expertise. Before even engaging with an engineer, there’s a lot of “process mapping” and “requirements gathering” that must be done.

With the AI Agent and templates, we’re starting to change that. These features give non-technical users a way to explore integrations, test ideas, and get excited about what’s possible, without writing code or speaking to a consultant. When they are ready to engage, they’ll be that much more prepared and know exactly whether or not automation is a worthwhile investment for their organization. Think about it:

• A project lead can quickly sketch out a workflow and see how it would benefit their programme.
• A manager or stakeholder can explore options before investing time or technical resources.
• A developer can take a generated template and build the final workflow in 1/10th of the time.

Ultimately, these tools make collaboration smoother, decision-making faster, and onboarding simpler.

Who This Is For

These new features are especially useful for:

• Programme and operations staff looking to explore integrations or scope requirements.
• Decision-makers and funders who want to understand OpenFn’s value before committing to a build.
• Developers who need a head start or want to share editable examples with colleagues.
• New users who learn best by doing.

We’re excited about what’s already possible, and even more excited about what’s coming next.

Log in to OpenFn to explore the new Templates and AI Agent. And stay tuned for more updates as we continue building toward a smoother, smarter automation experience.