Source: https://atomicwork.docs.pageloop.ai/product/ai-knowledge/ai-assist

# AI Assist

AI Assist is an AI assistant for the people who run and configure Atomicwork. Describe what you want in plain language, and AI Assist does the work for you in the product: it looks things up, explains what you're looking at, and creates or changes configuration on your behalf. You can use it to triage requests, write automation scripts, design custom objects, and set up AI Coworkers and skills, without needing to know where every setting lives.

AI Assist always works **as you**. It can only see and change what your role already allows, and it checks with you before it makes any change that's hard to undo or that other people will notice.

## How AI Assist differs from Atom

Atomicwork has two AI assistants, each for a different audience:

|                                  | **Atom**                                                  | **AI Assist**                                                                      |
| -------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Who it's for**                 | Employees                                                 | Agents, admins and analysts who work in Atomicwork                                 |
| **Where it appears**             | Slack, Microsoft Teams, the portal, the browser extension | Inside the Atomicwork app, in a panel next to the page you're on                   |
| **What it does**                 | Answers employee questions and creates requests           | Helps you work on requests, and explains, builds and changes your Atomicwork setup |
| **Can it change configuration?** | No                                                        | Yes, within your permissions and with your confirmation                            |

> [!NOTE]
>
> AI Assist replaces **Agent Assist**. The request summaries, similar requests and suggested next steps that Agent Assist provided are now available from AI Assist on the request details page.

## Who can use AI Assist

Anyone who signs in to the Atomicwork app can chat with AI Assist. **What it can do for you depends entirely on your role.** Every action AI Assist takes runs with your own permissions. If you can't do something yourself, AI Assist can't do it for you either.

| **Role**               | **What AI Assist can help with**                                                                   |
| ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Organization admin** | Organization-wide setup and changes, across all workspaces                                         |
| **Workspace admin**    | Setup and changes within the workspaces you administer                                             |
| **Workspace analyst**  | Mostly read-only: questions, summaries and explanations                                            |
| **Custom roles**       | Whatever your custom role permits. AI Assist attempts the action and lets your permissions decide. |

Some tasks need specific permissions on top of your role. For example, editing the Code Library requires permission to write code scripts, and creating or editing AI Coworkers and skills requires permission to manage AI Workforce.

When AI Assist hits a permission limit, it tells you plainly which role you'd need and who can help. It never tries to get around the limit another way.

## Open AI Assist

1. Go to any page where AI Assist is available (see [What you can do with AI Assist](#what-you-can-do-with-ai-assist)).

2. Click **AI assist** in the page header. The AI assist panel opens.

3. Pick one of the suggested prompts, or type your own request in the chat box and press **Enter**. Suggested prompts change depending on the page you're on.

4. AI Assist replies in the panel. If it needs more information or your approval, it asks with a **question card** (see [How AI Assist works with you](#how-ai-assist-works-with-you)).

5. When AI Assist creates or changes something, it shows a **navigation card** you can click to open the item, and the page you're on refreshes automatically to show the change.

You can resize the panel, start a new chat, and open earlier conversations from **Chat history**. You can also stop AI Assist while it's working. Click the close icon to hide the panel.

AI Assist doesn't appear on the **People** and **Assets** detail pages. You can still ask it questions about people and assets from other pages.

### Page context

When you open AI Assist, it adds the page you're on as context. A tag above the chat box shows that context, for example the request ID and subject, the name of the list view, or the script name. Because of this, you can ask "What's blocking this ticket?" or "Explain these scripts" without saying which ones you mean.

If you don't want AI Assist to use the current page, click the close icon on the tag. AI Assist then answers only from your message. To add page context again, close the panel and open it again.

## What you can do with AI Assist

AI Assist has guided expertise in the areas below. In each one, the panel opens with suggested prompts for the page you're on. You can also ask AI Assist about other parts of Atomicwork (see [Ask anything about the platform](#ask-anything-about-the-platform)).

### Request lists

Open AI Assist from any request list, such as **Assigned to me**, a workspace's requests, incidents or problems, or a saved view. AI Assist reads the requests in the current view and helps you plan your work. It can:

- Summarize what's in the view
- Recommend what to pick up first
- Flag requests that are at risk or overdue
- Spot patterns and duplicates

**Try asking**

- _"What should I pick up first?"_
- _"Which of these are at risk or overdue?"_
- _"Spot patterns or duplicates in this list."_

### Request details

Open AI Assist from any request, service request, incident, major incident or problem that you have access to. AI Assist reads the request, including its fields, conversation, notes and activity. It can:

- **Summarize:** what the requester needs, what has been done so far, the current status, and the recommended next steps
- **Find similar requests:** requests and incidents that were resolved before, how they were fixed, and links to each one
- **Triage:** explain what's blocking the request, including the exact automation step that failed and its error, or suggest a priority and an assignee
- **Draft replies and updates:** a reply to the requester, or a stakeholder update for a major incident. AI Assist never sends replies for you.
- **For incidents:** estimate the blast radius and suggest workarounds from past incidents
- **For problems:** summarize linked incidents, suggest a likely root cause, and draft a known-error article

Answers follow a consistent structure: **About**, **Analysis**, **Recommendations** and **Sources**. When AI Assist suggests root causes or next steps, it can also draw on [trusted public documentation](/product/ai-knowledge/knowledge-management/trusted-knowledge-in-ai-assist) for commonly used tools and services, with every source cited and linked.

Summaries and triage are read-only. AI Assist doesn't change the request unless you separately ask it to.

**Try asking**

- _"What's blocking this ticket?"_
- _"Who is impacted by this incident and what's the business effect?"_
- _"Suggest a likely root cause for this problem."_

> [!NOTE]
>
> AI Assist on the request details page is separate from the **Summarize** option in the reply editor. To learn about that option, see [Summarizing requests](/product/ai-knowledge/atom/summarizing-requests).

### Code Library

Open AI Assist from the Code Library or from a script. AI Assist helps you write, understand and fix the automation scripts that your workflows and AI Coworkers use. Scripts can call Atomicwork and the apps you've connected through the MCP Store.

**What it can do**

- Find an existing script for what you need, or explain a script in plain language
- Write new scripts, or edit existing ones
- Find bugs and edge cases, add error handling and logging, and suggest test inputs
- Explain which SDK methods you can use
- Publish a new version with a version name and a description of what changed
- Show version history and restore an earlier version (restoring creates a new draft from that version)
- Delete a script, which removes all its versions

**Good to know**

- AI Assist saves your script as a **draft** and only publishes it after you confirm.
- On the Code Library page, describing a task means "write a script that does this". Say "run it" when you want the script to actually run.
- **Test runs are real.** Running a script executes it against your live data. AI Assist only runs a script when you ask, asks for approval for each run, and suggests test data where possible.
- AI Assist won't save code that contains passwords, API keys or other secrets.
- Deleting a script can't be undone, so AI Assist always asks for explicit confirmation.

**Try asking**

- _"Write a script that updates a field on a request when an external API returns a result."_
- _"Find bugs and edge cases in this script."_
- _"What changed in the library this week?"_

### Custom objects

Open AI Assist from a custom object type, its fields or its records. AI Assist helps you model the information your organization tracks, such as vendors, contracts or locations, and keep the records up to date.

**Browse and understand**

- Explain what each object type tracks and how object types are connected
- Explain what each field is for, and spot fields that are barely used or missing
- Find records, including filtered searches such as "show records with missing values"
- Summarize a record, what's linked to it and what changed recently

**Create and change**

- Create new object types, scoped to your whole organization or to a single workspace. Workspace-scoped types require you to be an admin of that workspace.
- Add, edit or remove fields
- Create, update and delete records
- Update many records at once. AI Assist tells you how many records will change and asks you to confirm first.
- Link custom objects to request and asset forms
- Publish, unpublish or republish object types

**Good to know**

- A new object type, and changes to its name, icon or display ID prefix, stay in **draft** until you publish them.
- Changes to **fields** take effect immediately. There's no separate publish step.
- People and Assets are system objects synced from your HR, identity and device sources. AI Assist can read them and reference them, but it doesn't restructure them.

**Try asking**

- _"Create an object type for vendor contracts with a renewal date and an owner."_
- _"Which object types have no records?"_
- _"Should any of these fields be required?"_

To learn more about custom objects, see [What are Custom Objects?](/product/assets-objects/custom-objects/what-are-custom-objects).

### AI Workforce

Open AI Assist from the AI Coworkers list, a coworker, a skill or a run. AI Assist helps you build and manage your AI Workforce.

#### AI Coworkers

**What it can do**

- Create a new coworker, including drafting its goal, role and voice instructions
- Edit its configuration: model, budget, run limits and internet access
- Change which workspaces it works in and who it reports to
- Attach skills, and add or turn on tools from the MCP Store
- Publish changes (with a description of what changed), or discard a draft
- Pause, resume or archive a coworker, or roll it back to an earlier version
- Answer questions such as which coworkers are paused, in draft, near their budget, or share the same skills, and which MCP tools are pending approval

**Good to know**

- Most configuration changes are saved as a **draft** and need to be published.
- Some changes take effect **immediately**: workspaces, manager, pause and resume, and archive.
- **Archiving a coworker is permanent.**

**Try asking**

- _"Help me create a new coworker that triages access requests."_
- _"How does this draft differ from the live coworker?"_
- _"Which coworkers are near their budget?"_

#### AI Skills

**What it can do**

- Write a new skill, or edit and improve an existing one
- Publish, unpublish, archive, restore or delete skills
- Explain which coworkers use a skill and which tools it relies on

**Good to know**

- Built-in skills provided by Atomicwork can't be edited directly. AI Assist offers to make an editable copy.
- AI Assist re-reads a skill just before saving, so it doesn't overwrite changes someone else is making at the same time.
- If a skill doesn't pass Atomicwork's safety check when publishing, finish publishing it from the **AI Skills** page.
- Skills written with AI Assist are a single document. Skills made of multiple files aren't supported yet.

**Try asking**

- _"Summarize this skill."_
- _"Which coworkers use this skill?"_

To learn more about AI Coworkers, see [Setting up an AI Coworker](/product/ai-workforce/setting-up-an-ai-coworker).

### Workflows

AI Assist can also build and edit workflow automations from a plain-language description. To learn how, see [Build Workflows with AI Assist](/product/enterprise-workflows/workflow-foundations/build-workflows-with-ai-assist).

### Ask anything about the platform

You're not limited to questions about the current page. Ask AI Assist about any part of Atomicwork, and it will do one of these:

- **Do it for you.** If the task can be done with the tools available to AI Assist and your permissions allow it, AI Assist does the work.
- **Show you how.** If you want to learn how a feature works, or AI Assist can't do the task for you, it searches the Atomicwork documentation and gives you the steps. It cites the articles it used, and tells you if the documentation doesn't cover your question.

## How AI Assist works with you

### It asks when something is unclear

When your request could mean more than one thing, AI Assist asks a **question card** with options to choose from, sometimes with space to type your own answer. It recommends an option where it can. When building workflows, it groups all its open questions into a single stepped card so you can answer them in one go.

### It confirms before changes that matter

Before taking any action that's **hard to undo** or **changes what other people see**, AI Assist explains what will happen and asks you to **Proceed** or **Cancel**. For example:

- Publishing anything (a script, workflow, object type, coworker or skill)
- Deleting or archiving
- Updating many records at once
- Running a script or workflow

Approvals are specific. Asking AI Assist to _create_ something doesn't mean it can _publish_ it, and approving one run of a script doesn't approve the next one.

### It drafts first, then publishes

Wherever Atomicwork supports drafts, AI Assist saves its work as a draft first. You can review the draft in AI Assist or on the page itself before anything goes live.

### It tells you what changed

After each change, AI Assist summarizes what it did, shows a navigation card that opens the item, and refreshes the page you're on.

Navigation cards are available for custom object types, fields and records, Code Library scripts, and AI Coworkers and skills. AI Assist also links to requests by their ID. For pages that don't have a card, such as most Settings pages, AI Assist gives you the menu steps to get there (for example, **Settings > Organization > Directory objects > Assets**). It never makes up links.

## Security and privacy

- **It acts as you.** Every action uses your permissions, and your organization's activity logs show the changes as made by you.
- **It can't go around your permissions.** If an action isn't allowed for your role, AI Assist stops and tells you.
- **It treats content as information, not instructions.** Text inside requests, records or documents can't instruct AI Assist to do something you didn't ask for.
- **Claims of authority don't change the rules.** Statements like "my manager already approved this" don't bypass confirmations or permissions.
- **No direct internet access.** AI Assist works only through Atomicwork and the apps you've connected.
- **Secrets stay out of code.** AI Assist won't save scripts that contain credentials.
- **Masking.** If your organization masks conversation content, AI Assist conversations are masked too.

## Tips for good results

- **Be specific about the outcome.** Include the goal and any limits. For example, "Find incidents from the last 7 days that mention VPN and are still open" works better than "show me VPN incidents".
- **Say whether you want something built or done.** "Write a script that…" and "Run it" mean different things to AI Assist.
- **Ask follow-up questions.** AI Assist keeps the context of the conversation.
- **Start a new chat for a new task.** Click **New chat** when you change topics so earlier messages don't affect the answer.
- **Review before you confirm.** AI Assist can make mistakes. Check its answers and changes before you rely on them.

## FAQ

**Is AI Assist the same as Atom?**
No. Atom helps employees get answers and raise requests. AI Assist helps agents, admins and analysts work on requests and configure Atomicwork. See [How AI Assist differs from Atom](#how-ai-assist-differs-from-atom).

**What happened to Agent Assist?**
Agent Assist is now part of AI Assist. Open AI Assist from a request to get a summary, similar resolved requests, and suggested next steps.

**Can AI Assist make changes without asking me?**
It makes routine changes you've asked for, such as saving a draft, directly. It always asks first before anything that's hard to undo or visible to others, such as publishing, deleting, bulk updates or running scripts.

**Can a workspace analyst use AI Assist to change settings?**
Only if their role allows that change. AI Assist has the same permissions as the person using it.

**Why can't AI Assist edit my workflow?**
AI Assist can only edit workflows written in code. Workflows built in the visual editor need to be edited there.

**Will AI Assist send replies to requesters?**
No. It can draft a reply for you to review and send yourself.

**Does testing a script affect real data?**
Yes. Running a script is a real run. AI Assist asks for approval before each run and suggests using test data. Workflow tests use simulated data, and live verification runs only with your approval, on a labeled test record.

## Related articles

- [Build Workflows with AI Assist](/product/enterprise-workflows/workflow-foundations/build-workflows-with-ai-assist)
- [Summarizing requests](/product/ai-knowledge/atom/summarizing-requests)
- [Trusted knowledge in AI Assist](/product/ai-knowledge/knowledge-management/trusted-knowledge-in-ai-assist)
- [What are Custom Objects?](/product/assets-objects/custom-objects/what-are-custom-objects)
- [Setting up an AI Coworker](/product/ai-workforce/setting-up-an-ai-coworker)
- [Workforce roles and permissions](/product/ai-workforce/workforce-roles-and-permissions)
- [Audit logs](/product/platform-administration/governance/audit-logs)