Building an Agent with AI Copied!
Purpose: Building agents with the assistance of AI is a function within Transform. Transform builds the agent for you from files you already have: your input files and a finished output. This article covers how it works, what to prepare, and each stage from upload to a finished agent.
How It Works Copied!
Building an agent from scratch means describing your process step by step. Building with AI flips that around: instead of describing the process, you show Transform the result, and it works out the steps for you.
It works in three stages:
- Playbook: Transform analyzes the provided data and creates a written procedure document. It asks you questions where it’s unsure and also tests its own work by recreating your output.
- Workflow: Once a valid Playbook has been approved by you, Transform turns it into a runnable workflow. It breaks the process into Steps, writes the logic behind each one, and tests its work again.
- Agent: When you click Finish Setup, the build is finished and you now have a real draft Agent inside of Transform.
Before You Start Copied!
Gather these before you start:
- Input files: this is the raw data your process starts from. Common examples include a payroll export, an aging report, or a GL detail.
- Output file: this is the finished result of your process. This can be a journal entry, a reconciliation, or any manual report that you are creating by hand.
- Written procedure (optional): any existing written instructions can be helpful context to make Transform faster. However, this is optional and Transform can work without written instructions.
Best practice: Ensure your input and output files match. They should be from the same period and also have any human notes or additions removed. Ultimately, the goal is to reverse engineer an Agent from your data. If parts of your output are unrelated to the input or have no clear source, Transform may struggle to create an accurate result. Additionally, if you have multiple periods of data, additional examples can help Transform find more edge cases during testing.
Create Your Playbook Copied!
Start building with AI
From the Transform landing page, click Create Agent, then Create with AI. This opens the chat where you’ll build your agent.
Upload your files
Attach your files to the chat, then tell Transform what you’d like, for example “Create a playbook using these input and output files.” If you start without files, Transform will ask for them. It’ll also ask whether you have a second period of data and whether you have any process context to share.
Answer Transform’s questions
Once Transform has your data, it will begin analyzing the files. When it is not sure how part of your output is created, it’ll stop and ask you for clarification. Additionally, it may ask for optional additional example data and any written instructions you may already have. While these are helpful for Transform to validate its own work and find edge cases, they are not required steps.
When answering questions, try to be as specific as possible. While you may be familiar with your process already, Transform is seeing it for the first time. Specificity with mappings, data locations, and rules help Transform create as accurate of a result as possible.
Review the Playbook
When the first draft is ready, the Playbook will appear directly on your screen in a right-hand panel. Read through the Playbook and check key details.
- Summary: Did the Playbook capture your process and goal?
- Inputs: Did the Playbook successfully recognize your data and any additional inputs it needs to collect each run?
- Process: Do these generated steps roughly match with your expectations? Are any key rules defined inaccurately?
If the Playbook needs changes, this is your chance to talk directly to Transform about what needs to be modified and why. Transform will incorporate your feedback and rewrite a new version of the Playbook.
Once you approve of the Playbook version, you can move on to the verification stage by letting Transform test its own work.
Verification
After you approve, Transform tests the Playbook by running it against your example input data and evaluating the output. If something doesn’t match, Transform may try to fix it on its own or it may come to you for additional clarification.
If differences remain, Transform shows them to you for review. If something is immaterial or doesn’t matter for your process, you can approve it and continue on with the process. If it does matter, give Transform more context and it will try again.
When verification is done, you’ll see the results and get a final chance to approve or make additional changes.
Save the Playbook
After your final approval, Transform saves the Playbook and asks whether you’d like to build a workflow from it and what to name it. Say yes to continue in the same chat.
Build Your Workflow Copied!
If you continue straight from your Playbook, Transform picks it up automatically. You can also start a new session later and ask Transform to build a workflow from one of your previously created Playbooks.
Choose an entity
Transform asks which entity the workflow belongs to. Once you confirm, it plans the steps, writes the logic for each one, and runs the workflow against your files to evaluate.
Review your workflow
When it’s done, the right panel shows your workflow in the Visual Agent Builder, along with the validation results. Before you finish, check that:
- Every part of the Playbook is covered by a Step.
- The Steps are in the right order.
- Each Step uses the output of the right earlier Step.
- Dates, period names, and other values that change each run are set up as inputs rather than built into a Step. This is what lets you reuse the agent next period without editing it.
- The final output matches what you’re expecting, in both content and format.
If something’s off, describe the change in the chat. Transform updates the workflow, checks it again, and shows you the new version.
Finish setup
When everything looks right, click Finish Setup in the top-right corner. The button becomes available once the workflow has passed its checks. Transform saves the workflow as Version 1 of your new agent and takes you to it.
Note: Finish Setup ends the chat, so make any changes you want in the chat before you click it.
From there, do a Test Run with a new period’s files to confirm everything works end to end before you move the agent from Pending to Live.
Note: Once setup is finished, you can also edit your agent like any agent built by hand in Transform.
Return to a Conversation Copied!
Transform keeps your conversations while you’re still building. If you leave the page or switch to another chat before you finish setup, go to the Transform landing page and open the Conversations tab, which lists your conversations. Click View next to a conversation to pick it back up and keep working. Once you click Finish Setup, the conversation ends.
Troubleshooting Copied!
The chat seems to have stopped
Longer builds are normal, and the chat doesn’t always show progress while Transform is working, so it can look idle even when it isn’t. You don’t need to keep the page open while you wait. Transform keeps working if you step away, and you can come back to the conversation from the Conversations tab.
If it still seems stuck after a while:
- Refresh the page to see if the chat catches up.
- Send a short message, like “Please continue.” If Transform paused partway through, this picks it back up.
- Start a new conversation. If your Playbook was already saved, ask Transform to build a workflow from that saved Playbook so you don’t have to start over.
If none of that works, reach out to your Forward Deployed Accountant and include the link to the conversation.