Supported on: Desktop app only
Tasks is your personal workspace, where AI finds the work you need to handle right now, suggests it, and helps you carry it out. In the Tasks menu you can organize what needs doing across different work contexts and get it done together with AI.
What is the Tasks menu?
It lets you work through what needs doing with AI, drawing on several sources of work context. A typical flow looks like this.
Review what needs doing, based on your schedule and work context.
Turn a suggestion into a task.
Work through it with AI.
Create your own task for work you want to run yourself.
Getting task suggestions from AI
Reviewing suggestions
In the desktop app sidebar, select the [Tasks] menu.
Look through the list of suggested tasks and select the one you want.
On the suggestion detail screen, review why it was suggested and the context behind it.
Follow the task guide to choose how you want to handle it.
Suggestions are sorted by urgency.
Urgency | What it means |
Urgent | Work that could have consequences if it isn't handled today |
High | Worth handling soon, though the deadline may not be today |
Medium | Important, but you can adjust where it sits in your priorities |
Low | Not urgent, but something you'll need to do later |
Choosing how to handle a suggestion
For each suggestion, pick one of the following.
Start task: turn it into a task and start working on it with AI.
Mark complete: if you've already handled it, record it as done without working through it with AI.
Not a task: choose this when the work isn't yours to do.
Choosing "Not a task" feeds into how similar items are filtered later, and if you keep excluding the same type, AI creates an exclusion rule for it automatically.
Creating your own task
You don't have to wait for an AI suggestion. You can start any task you want.
Starting from chat
Type the work you want to handle in the task input box.
For example
Summarize my schedule for today
Pull together where things stand this week
List the follow-up actions from this meeting
Starting from an event
If you create a task from an upcoming calendar event, the task starts with the context of that event already in hand.
Running a task and reviewing the results
Attach reference material to a task and AI pulls it in automatically when it's needed. You can add local files, bring in connector data, and have dictation records linked automatically. (Connector data has to be connected first under Settings › Connectors.)
Running a task
When you start a task, AI first looks at the relevant context and proposes an approach.
AI proposes an approach first.
Review it and work through the steps.
You can see which tools are being used and how far along things are within the conversation.
When output is produced, review it and ask AI for changes in the conversation if you need them.
* When something would change the state of an external system (approving a document, for example), you're asked to confirm before it runs.
Reviewing task results
Task results come in three forms.
Resolved in conversation: things like answering a question or analyzing data, which can be finished within the conversation.
External action: changes the state of an external system, such as approving a request in flex (with confirmation before it runs).
Generated output: the result of the task, saved as a file.
Supported formats: MD, XLSX, DOCX, PPTX, and more
⚠️ Write actions for external services (Slack, Gmail, Google Calendar, and so on) such as sending a message, sending mail, or creating an event aren't available yet. Only reading and looking things up are supported for now, and write actions will be added over time.
Completing a task
On the task detail screen, select [Complete task].
Completed tasks move to the completed view, and you can reopen one to set it back to in progress.
⚠️ Deleting a task permanently deletes its conversation history and its output along with it. Move anything you need somewhere else before deleting.
In task conversations, AI may remember things like your title, what you're responsible for, and how you prefer to work, and apply them in later task conversations.
Scheduling recurring tasks
You can schedule a recurring workflow so it runs automatically.
Creating a schedule yourself
Describe the task you want in the chat box.
For example
"Summarize my schedule for the day every morning at 9"
AI proposes the trigger conditions and the steps
Review them and register the schedule
You can also ask "turn this into a scheduled task" from a task that's already in progress.
⚠️ Scheduled tasks only run while the app is running. For any schedule that came due while the app was closed, you can choose whether to run it after you open the app again.
Good to know
The Tasks menu is available in the desktop app only.
External services are currently focused on reading and looking things up.
Write actions such as sending messages and creating events will be added over time.
Changes to external systems always run only after you confirm them.
FAQ
My scheduled task isn't running.
My scheduled task isn't running.
Scheduled tasks in the desktop app only run while the app is running. For any trigger that fired while the app was closed, you'll see a notice when you reopen the app, and you can choose 'Run all', 'Run the most recent one', or 'Ignore'.
I don't see the Tasks menu.
I don't see the Tasks menu.
Agents and Tasks are only available to members an admin has designated as AI users. Ask your company admin to grant you access. (Admins can set this under Studio > AI users.)