Monday’s agent builder promises to automate work management tasks

Monday is set to launch an AI agent builder tool that can automate a range of work management tasks, the company announced at its Elevate conference on Wednesday.

The agents don’t just answer questions, they “execute tasks, connect systems, and learn from context,” said Daniel Lereya, chief product and technology officer at Monday, in an email conversation with Computerworld. “This frees teams and individuals from repetitive execution, allowing them to focus on creativity, strategy, and human judgment.”

Monday’s agents can take action across different teams and app integrations he said, as well as interact via multiple communication channels, including email, SMS and phone calls,

One example is an AI phone agent that can be set up to autonomously make calls when triggered. This could be used in event planning projects, for instance. Here, said Lereya, a Monday agent can be directed to call prospective meeting attendees on their phones to confirm attendance. The results — including how many people an attendee plans to bring with them — are then uploaded to a Monday board, potentially saving significant time compared with manual calls and data entry.

Natural language agent creation

Custom agents are created via natural language prompts in Monday’s agent builder tool. A breakdown of the agent’s logic is then presented. In the case of the RSVP phone agent, this would include its purpose, capabilities (for example, to engage attendees in a friendly and professional manner, confirm attendance, record and summarize response, and deal with objections with patience), and the conversational style of the AI voice bot. It’s then possible to tweak settings, including the ability to edit the text script, or speech speed, for instance.

Another example is a service agent that answers customer inquiries, tapping into a company’s knowledge base.  

Customers can build their own agents using a natural language interface or select from prebuilt agents created by Monday. One agent that’s ready out of the box is a digital sales development agent, with the ability to qualify leads, schedule meetings, and ensure CRM data is accurate. “It extends the reach of a sales team without requiring additional headcount,” Lereya said. More prebuilt agents will follow in future, he added.

Pay as you go pricing

Monday expects to make its agent builder tools generally available to customers in October, it said. To access the agents, customers will pay a monthly fee that includes a pool of credits. These credits are consumed based on agent activity. It’s unclear is how much the agents will cost however: Monday didn’t respond to Computerworld’s request for full pricing details.

Monday agents rely on multiple AI models, including speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and text-generation models from vendors including OpenAI and Anthropic.

Given the propensity for generative AI models to hallucinate and produce inaccurate outputs, autonomous agents could be a concern for those using Monday’s application for important tasks. Lereya said that Monday applies “multiple prompt- and context-engineering techniques, as well as grounding strategies,” to minimize the occurrence of hallucinations. “We also invest heavily in internal evaluations to continuously optimize quality,” he said.

But you still need a human to take the blame

Monday’s agents are “designed to execute within guardrails” with humans retaining control, and the ability to “review, monitor, or intervene before critical actions are taken,” he said.

The launch of Monday’s agents is the latest stage in the company’s plans to embed artificial intelligence across its work management software products. As well as the Monday Sidekick chatbot assistant – which is generally available from today –the company also launched AI Blocks earlier this year, automating individual tasks such as transcribing a call.

Monday Agents are similar in some respects to the AI Blocks but serve different purposes. “Think of it this way: AI Blocks are the building blocks of intelligence; Agents assemble and coordinate them into autonomous teammates,” said Lereya.

At its Elevate user conference, Monday also announced that its Marketplace for third-party app integrations will include agents and skills that users can browse and access. Monday also introduced a new Campaigns, an email marketing feature within its CRM product, which automates functions such as copy generation and audience segment recommendation. Both features are now generally available.