Asana Unveils AI Studio: Revolutionizing Workflow Management with Customizable AI Agents

Asana's AI Studio promises to transform work management with smart workflows and task automation - SiliconANGLE

Asana's AI Studio promises to transform work management with smart workflows and task automation Asana Inc., creator of a popular work management and collaboration software platform, is accelerating its artificial intelligence initiatives with the launch of Asana AI Studio. It's a no-code tool companies can use to create AI agents that can be embedded into workflows they design and deploy anywhere in the Asana platform. The publicly traded company's work management platform is used by thousands of enterprises to organize work-related tasks within a centralized dashboard. The main benefit is that it improves coordination among teams, so users can collaborate more easily and prioritize their most important tasks. The software, which integrates with Zoom and other platforms, is free for its most basic features. It also provides advanced capabilities for those who shell out for a subscription to the platform. The Asana AI Studio is one of those advanced features. Available in early access from today, it is quite unlike traditional AI tools that simply synthesize information to generate content, according to the company. Instead, it works more like a colleague or a teammate, assisting workers by taking on some of their simpler but mundane tasks. Users can create "smart workflows" for coordinating projects and orchestrating work, with AI Studio leveraging Asana's Work Graph capabilities to capture critical context and relationships inside their organizations. In this way, it can understand who is doing what work and where, when, how and why they're doing it. The launch of Asana AI Studio builds on Asana's original "AI teammates," which debuted in July and act as "advisers" to workers, prioritizing the tasks they need to do, creating workflows to complete those tasks and even helping to automate some of them. Asana co-founder and Chief Executive Dustin Moskovitz said the main advantage of AI Studio is that users can create customized workflows simply by providing instructions in their natural language. "This level of ease and accessibility to building agents is a big step forward for any company that wants to improve the quality of their work while empowering teams to move faster," he said. Asana believes there's a need for this kind of automation. It points to its recent State of Work Innovation report, which found that employees still spend 53% of their time on low-value tasks. Moreover, just 20% of employees believe their teams collaborate effectively using their existing platforms. The company says the Asana AI Studio can be used to enhance workflows across marketing, operations, information technology, human resources and research and development teams. For instance, marketing teams can use smart workflows to accelerate tasks such as editorial production, campaign planning, product launches and more, using AI agents to advise and take action through each of the steps necessary to fulfill each campaign. It will begin by prioritizing project requests, rewriting and restructuring these so that the information is relevant to each team's area of expertise. Then it will proceed to planning, conducting research to inform the marketing campaign, drafting briefs so that teams are aligned on deliverables and timelines. During the execution stage, it will assist by drafting content like emails and blog posts, facilitating reviews and approvals, translating that content and ensuring everything meets the brand's guidelines. Finally, it will aid in the reporting process by categorizing and tagging work so that everything is up to date with consistent and accurate information to aid decision making. For operations and information technology teams, the Asana AI Studio can improve how they prepare and coordinate strategic planning and resource management, the company said. The AI will help by advising teams and taking action at each stage of their work. For instance, it will start by reviewing and gathering information about the scope of work required for each project, before triaging this against IT requirements. It will then estimate the time and resources needed to complete each project based on the plan and historical projects, before suggesting the sequence in which tasks are performed to ensure that everything is done by the deadlines given. Each task within the project will be assigned to the most suitable employee. Finally, it will summarize the key learnings from that project and suggest areas for reflection, the company said. Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. said Asana's AI Studio is a great example of how AI is transforming the way enterprise software is used on the user experience side. "Asana is using AI's voice and text understanding capabilities to help companies set up and launch entire projects," he said. "It's a radical simplification and acceleration of that process that will contribute towards enterprises becoming faster and more agile." The financial services and investment organization Morningstar Inc. has been using Asana AI Studio to handle project management and work intake to good effect, Asana said, benefiting from improved operational efficiencies and reduced planning risks. With AI Studio's smart workflows, Morningstar's IT teams can automatically evaluate new project requests, assess them against predefined criteria, generate discovery questions and then make recommendations, based on the resources required and the project's urgency. Belinda Hardman, Morningstar's director of program management, said AI Studio has delivered significant efficiency gains while enabling better decision making throughout project planning and execution. "Previously it took us two weeks to review a request and gather the information needed to proceed," she said. "Now we can eliminate the time spent on manual back and forth, because Asana AI identifies and captures all of the information we need right off the bat."

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

Another AI agent builder joins the workforce. Here's how Asana's AI Studio works. 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. On Tuesday, the company 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. Also: Gartner's 2025 tech trends show how your business needs to adapt - and fast AI Studio lets teams customize their AI agents to perform certain jobs and complete actions at every stage of project development. "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. Also: Today's AI ecosystem is unsustainable for most everyone but Nvidia, warns top scholar 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. AI Studio is designed for teams in the marketing field and for operations in IT and HR. Asana's AI is designed to approach varied tasks in the same four stages -- intake, planning, execution, and reporting -- regardless of the nature of the project. 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. Today, Asana is also launching a comprehensive Collaborative Work Management Certification program encompassing an 'AI for Work' skill badge to help customers build AI strategies that transform their business. Customers can access experts and cutting-edge knowledge via Asana's global partner network and professional services.

Asana Announces AI Studio: No-Code Builder for Designing and Deploying AI Agents in Critical Workflows By Investing.com

Now, teams can create workflows where customizable AI agents perform specific jobs and take action on tasks across every stage of work " from intake and planning to execution and reporting SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Asana, Inc. (NYSE: ASAN) (LTSE: ASAN), a leading enterprise work management platform, today unveiled Asana 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. Unlike other AI tools that simply synthesize information and generate content, Asana's AI agents work directly with the team, like a teammate. They take on the busywork, handle project coordination, and orchestrate work across critical workflows " from intake to planning, execution, and reporting. 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. Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder and CEO of Asana, elaborates on the news: We're excited to roll out a no-code builder that lets customers design workflows by simply giving AI instructions in plain language. This level of ease and accessibility to building agents is a big step forward for any company wanting to improve the quality of their work while empowering teams to move faster. Despite an abundance of technology, companies continue to struggle with effective project management and cross-functional collaboration. Asana's 2024 State of Work Innovation report shows employees currently spend 53% of their time on low-value busywork, and only 21% of people believe teams across their organization collaborate effectively. Moskovitz continues: Organizations are drowning in tools and crave clarity around how work connects to business goals. They want to free up employee time to focus on the most important work " this is where Asana comes in. We coordinate work across teams, streamline processes, and create transparency at scale. And now, with AI Studio, we're taking this to a new level by seamlessly blending human creativity and AI efficiency. Customers can deploy workflows where AI doesn't just assist, but actively works as a teammate, enabling organizations to focus on what truly matters " driving innovation and achieving their most ambitious goals." In Asana's Beta program, teams across Marketing, Operations, IT, HR, and R&D use AI Studio to build Smart workflows that span many use cases. For example: Early access begins October 22nd for Enterprise and Enterprise+ tiers, with Advanced annual tiers coming soon. For more information, visit asana.com/product/ai. Morningstar Accelerates Work Intake and Project Planning with AI Studio Morningstar is a global financial organization with over $2 Billion in revenue and 11,000 employees in 29 countries. This year, the company standardized its project management and work intake processes in Asana to improve operational efficiency and reduce planning risks across the business. Now, to drive even greater productivity, the company is using AI Studio to build Smart workflows. Specifically, the IT team built a Smart workflow to automatically evaluate new project requests. Each time a new request comes in, AI assesses it against predefined criteria, generates discovery questions, and makes a recommendation on project priority level and required resources. This has resulted in significant time savings for the team and better decision-making during the project planning process. Belinda Hardman, Director of Program Management, explains, "Previously, it took two weeks to review a request and gather the information we needed to proceed. Now we can eliminate time spent on manual back-and-forth because Asana AI identifies and captures the information we need right off the bat. More information about Morningstar's partnership with Asana can be found here: https://asana.com/case-study/morningstar Supporting Customers in their AI Journey: Certifications, Professional Services, and Global Partner Network (LON:NETW) Today, Asana is also launching a comprehensive Collaborative Work Management Certification program encompassing an ~AI for Work' skill badge to help customers build AI strategies that transform their business. Customers can also access experts and cutting-edge knowledge via Asana's global partner network and professional services. Discover more about Asana's AI Studio and Smart workflows at the Work Innovation Summit: New York or visit asana.com/ai About Asana Asana, a leading enterprise work management platform, is where work connects to goals. Over 150,000 customers like Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Accenture (NYSE:ACN), and Suzuki rely on Asana to manage and automate everything from goal setting and tracking to capacity planning to product launches. To learn more, visit asana.com.

Asana AI Studio now offers AI agent creation for workflow management

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More The number of platforms being released to help enterprises integrate AI agents into their technology stack is not slowing down as the year winds down. Work management platform Asana already has an AI agent service, but with its new AI Studio feature, the company wants its customers to think about AI agents as part of their larger workflow. AI Studio lets users build workflows on Asana and then deploy multiple custom AI agents directly on the workflow. Customers can create the agents without code and allow them to "take on the busywor," including handling project coordination. "The difference here is that we've opened up the toolkit to create agents to the folks who build workflows at companies, the folks that orchestrate a large body of work," said Alex Hood, Asana's chief product officer, in an interview with VentureBeat. "We can now bring agents to all the places where teams show up to hand off work, inserting an AI agent to take work off people's plates." Hood cited a recent Asana 2024 State of Work Innovation Report that showed 53% of an employee's time is spent on "busy work," with unproductive meetings doubling since 2019. By bringing in agents, Hood said, teams are freed from doing tasks crucial to a workflow, such as intake for some marketing teams, to focus on other important work. AI Studio, which will be a tool integrated into Asana but with an additional fee for access, is built on Asana's Work Graph data mode, which tracks cross-functional work in an organization. "There are other platforms who are building AI agents and are doing it on top of places where they have specialties," Hood said. "For us, our specialty is the Work Graph, the place where work happens and the workflows powering that work leverages the right data." Customers saw an improvement One of Asana's first customers to use AI Studio is the financial data company Morningstar. Hood said Morningstar used AI Studio to centralize IT project requests to streamline the workflow to evaluate new projects. Belinda Hardman, director of Program Management at Morningstar, said in a press release that the new workflow helped the company "eliminate time spent on manual back-and-forth because Asana AI identifies and captures the information we need right off the bat." "The things we might have dreamed of and were talking about a couple of years ago are playing out now because the models are getting that much better," Hood said. "But the models can't create great agents on their own. They need to be hooked into software and we, as builders, have gotten good at figuring out how to best integrate deeply AI capabilities." However, many of these agents -- even those embedded in third-party applications like Slack -- still function as individual islands of agents talking to other agents built on the same platform. The next frontier for agents coming from workflow systems or other enterprise-focused software will be the ability to communicate with other agents elsewhere. We're not there yet, but as more enterprises become comfortable with AI agents and begin deploying these into their organizations, that future may come soon enough.