> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.kowalah.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Using the agent
> How to get the most out of the Kowalah Agent — bringing AI into your real work, in the thread, at the moment of need.
Once installed, the Kowalah Agent is available in Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Chat. This guide covers how to interact with it and how to get the most out of it.
The Agent is at its best when you bring it real work you're doing right now. *"Could AI help with this?"* — asked while you're actually in the middle of the task — is the question it's built to answer.
## Two ways to use the Agent
### @mention in a conversation
Mention `@Kowalah` in any channel, thread, or group chat followed by your request:
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah We're scoping the new customer onboarding process —
how could we use AI in this?
```
The Agent responds in the same thread. You can send follow-up messages without mentioning `@Kowalah` again — it stays active in the thread. This is great for bringing AI into a conversation your team is already having: a planning meeting, a working session, a problem someone just raised.
### Direct message
You can also have a private 1:1 conversation with Kowalah. Find the Kowalah app in your platform's app directory and open a direct message — no `@mention` needed.
Direct messages are useful when you want to:
* Work through an AI idea before sharing with the team
* Have a longer, multi-step conversation about a workflow design
* Explore a use case quietly first
## Ask "could AI help with this?"
This is the headline use case. You're doing some work — month-end close, a board pack, a hiring round, a customer review — and the thought lands: *"could AI help us with this?"* Take it to the thread.
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah We do month-end variance analysis every month. How
could AI help us write the commentary faster?
```
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah I'm prepping for board reporting tomorrow. How would
you use AI to draft the narrative around the financials?
```
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah We've got 30 customer interview transcripts to
synthesise into themes. What's a good AI approach?
```
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah We get 400 support tickets a day. How would you
use AI to triage and route them?
```
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah Help me think about how to use AI to evaluate
RFP responses faster.
```
The Agent draws on patterns from across Kowalah's customer base — what's worked elsewhere on the same problem, where the friction usually is, which approaches generally fail — and gives you a concrete answer. Then it checks the accelerator library, and if needed scopes the work as an Opportunity.
Be specific about your work. "How could AI help with month-end?" is fine, but "how could AI help us speed up our month-end variance commentary across 12 entities?" gets you a sharper answer because the Agent can pattern-match to the real shape of the problem.
## Design an AI workflow
When you've got a recurring task — or a one-off process you wish someone could just *do* — ask the Agent to design an AI workflow for it. It maps your steps, decides what can run in-thread vs. what needs proper build, and either does the work live or scopes it for Kowalah.
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah Help me design an AI workflow for our weekly KPI
report. It takes me three hours every Friday.
```
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah Before each customer QBR I summarise the last 90
days of activity across emails, support tickets, and product
usage. Can we automate this with AI?
```
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah I write 15 job descriptions a quarter for new sales
roles. Help me build an AI workflow that drafts them properly.
```
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah We need to draft weekly competitive intel for the
sales team. Help me design the AI workflow.
```
For analysis, synthesis, drafting, and pulling things together from your workspace, the Agent often does the work right there in the thread. For workflows that need ongoing tracking or specialist build, it scopes the work and raises it as an Opportunity for the Kowalah team.
## Find where AI fits in your role
When you don't know where AI fits in your role, the Agent walks you through what's on your plate and surfaces 2-3 high-value AI use cases. Every recommendation ties back to your own work.
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah Where could AI make the biggest difference for me?
I run finance at a 1,500-person professional services firm.
```
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah I'm a regional sales director. What AI use cases
should I try first?
```
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah I'm Head of People at a manufacturer. Help me figure
out which AI workflows would be worth building first.
```
Expect 3-4 exchanges before the Agent gets to recommendations — that's how it makes the suggestions specific to your role and work rather than a generic feature dump.
## Find an accelerator
Before raising new work, check whether there's an off-the-shelf accelerator (a prompt, GPT, training, or workflow template) that already solves the problem. The Agent searches Kowalah's global library plus your organization's private library.
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah Is there an accelerator for writing job descriptions?
```
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah Find me a prompt for quarterly board reporting
```
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah Show me HR accelerators tagged for onboarding
```
Results often include a try-it-now prompt the Agent can run with you in the same chat.
## Raise an Opportunity with the Kowalah team
Opportunities are the single inbound channel for anything you want Kowalah to take forward — an AI workflow to build, a question to scope, a piece of work that needs specialist hands. You don't need to decide whether it should become an [Expert Request](/platform/expert-requests), a [Deliverable](/platform/projects/deliverables), or a new [Project](/platform/projects/overview) — Kowalah's team triages from there.
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah Capture an opportunity for automating our weekly
KPI report with AI — we just designed the workflow together
```
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah I'd like Kowalah's help building a Claude skill that
summarises customer interviews — please raise it as an opportunity
```
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah Help me scope an AI workflow for invoice processing,
then submit it as an opportunity
```
Before submitting, the Agent will typically:
1. Check the accelerator library in case something already solves the problem
2. Make sure your description has enough context — goal, what good looks like, anything Kowalah should know
3. Ask which organization the opportunity is for (if you belong to more than one)
4. Ask which discovery it relates to, if you have any pending invites
The Agent always asks before raising anything, and describes exactly what it will write.
## Look up status across your portfolio
The Agent can also read what's going on in your Kowalah workspace when you want a quick status check:
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah List all our active projects and their health status
```
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah Show me the deliverables in our Finance Automation project
```
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah What expert requests are currently in progress?
```
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah Do I have any pending discoveries to respond to?
```
```text theme={null}
@Kowalah What's waiting on me right now?
```
## What your role changes
Your [organization role](/platform/organization/roles-and-permissions) affects what the Agent shows you, not what you can do.
| Role | Workspace view | Opportunities visible | Projects, deliverables, ERs visible | Can capture opportunities |
| ------------- | --------------- | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------- |
| **Admin** | Full org rollup | Every opportunity in the org | All | Yes |
| **Core team** | Full org rollup | Every opportunity in the org | All | Yes |
| **Member** | Personal rollup | Only the ones you raised | Only the ones you're a stakeholder on | Yes |
Tasks, risks, and decisions are filtered to client-visible items. Internal Kowalah fields (team assignments, contract values, payment details) are never exposed.
Pending discoveries are personal — you always see your own invites, regardless of role.
If the Agent says it can't find something you know exists (a specific Expert Request number, for example), it usually means you're not on its stakeholder list — not that it's been deleted. Ask an admin or core team member, or get added as a stakeholder in the platform.
## Tips for better results
### Bring real work
The Agent is at its best when the question is grounded in something you're actually doing — *"we do X, could AI help?"* — not abstract questions about AI in general.
### Be specific about the task
"How could AI help with month-end?" is fine. "How could AI help us speed up our month-end variance commentary across 12 entities, where the constraint is that we need an auditable trail?" gets a sharper answer.
### Use threads
Start a thread when you have a multi-step conversation. The Agent remembers thread context, so you can iterate on a workflow design across several messages without repeating yourself.
### Let it explore
For complex questions, the Agent may take multiple steps to gather information before responding. Give it a moment — it's reading through your projects, deliverables, and accelerators to give you an accurate answer.
### Ask it to design, not just describe
Don't stop at *"could AI help with this?"* — once you've got a direction, ask the Agent to design the workflow. That's where the real value compounds.
## Response times
| Scenario | Typical time |
| ---------------------------------------- | ------------- |
| First message in a new thread | \~20 seconds |
| Follow-up in the same thread | 3-5 seconds |
| Simple lookups (list projects) | 5-10 seconds |
| Complex analysis (cross-project summary) | 15-30 seconds |
The Agent shows a typing indicator while it works on your request.
## Troubleshooting
### "Please link your account"
The Agent can't find a Kowalah account associated with your chat identity. Follow the link it provides to connect your accounts.
### Agent doesn't respond
Make sure you're using `@Kowalah` (with the @ mention, not just the text). The Agent only activates when properly mentioned.
### "I can't find that"
The item may exist but be outside your visibility. Members only see opportunities they raised and entities they're a stakeholder on. Ask an admin or core team member to confirm, or get added as a stakeholder in the platform.
See what each role can do
Back to Agent overview