Asana launches a no-code tool for designing AI agents - aka your new 'teammates'

Agentic artificial intelligence (AI) is on the rise across workplaces and industries. From performing admin tasks in meetings to helping with sales calls, AI agents are steadily being introduced across many tasks, including absorbing busywork, automating processes, and functioning as accessible software-building tools. Now, the workflow platform Asana has released its offering.

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On Tuesday at the company's Work Innovation Summit in New York, Asana unveiled its new AI Studio, "a no-code builder that lets any team design any workflow, embed AI agents without code, and deploy the workflow directly where teams are already working in Asana," according to the release. 

An extension of the platform's existing rules engine, AI Studio lets teams customize their AI agents to perform certain jobs and complete actions at every stage of project development. AI Studio can be used by every kind of team, from marketing and operations to IT and HR. It is designed to approach varied tasks in the same four stages -- intake, planning, execution, and reporting -- regardless of the nature of the project. 

In a series of demos at the Summit, Asana showed how AI Studio helps teams draft campaign materials and communications, identify missing project information that can delay next steps, triage requests, and track efficiency over time. Users upload contextualizing information, like company style guides or policies, to give Asana's AI the parameters it needs to accurately generate material and update a task's status. 

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"Unlike other AI tools that simply synthesize information and generate content, Asana's AI agents work directly with the team, like a teammate," the company stated in the release. Recent product launches from companies like Salesforce make similar claims, and Microsoft released 10 AI agents just this week, which the company says can equate to adding "187 full-time employees." 

Asana co-founder and CEO Dustin Moskovitz explained in the release that AI Studio "lets customers design workflows by simply giving AI instructions in plain language." That's an approach many players in the space are taking with conversational, chatbot style AI. The company also unveiled a Collaborative Work Management Certification program geared towards helping its customers develop their AI strategy.

According to Asana's 2024 State of Work Innovation report, "low-value busywork" takes up 53% of employees' time. Several companies have conducted research that yielded similar findings, primarily that AI tools boost productivity and open up time for higher-level strategic and creative work. 

"The sophistication of these AI-powered workflows, or Smart workflows, rely on Asana's Work Graph®, which captures the critical context and historical relationships between all work inside an organization -- who is doing what work, by when, how, and why," the release explains. 

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During the keynote address, Asana CPO Alex Hood emphasized that the company's embedded AI is secure and HIPAA-compliant. 

For now, Asana is positioning AI Studio as a solution for busy work, not a replacement for human employees. When asked about whether he anticipates AI Studio making certain roles obsolete, Hood noted that using the tool internally for creative content helped boost productivity, but hasn't impacted the makeup of Asana's marketing team. "That team is intact -- they're just more efficient," he explained. 

Early access to Asana AI Studio begins today, October 22, for Enterprise and Enterprise+ customers. Asana notes that Advanced annual tiers will be available soon. For more information, visit asana.com/product/ai.