What are Fin Tasks?
Fin Tasks allow you to automate more complex processes with Fin. Often times, these processes may involve actions in your external systems that need to reliably follow your specific business rules (e.g. cancel an order, refund a subscription). Fin will trigger the task and be actively involved each step to resolve customer queries.
Here's what a Fin task might look like:
And the customer experience:
Note: Fin Tasks is currently in a closed beta. If you're interested in getting access, please speak to your Intercom Relationship or Customer Success Manager.
Check out Fin Tasks in action:
Demo: Fin handles refund requests (1.45min, 2x)
Demo: Fin handles a change of personal details (1.46min, 2x)
Demo: Fin handles technical troubleshooting (2.37min, 2x)
Why are Fin Tasks smarter and more powerful than traditional workflows?
Easier setup with natural language
Rather than using conventional workflows built by adding multiple steps—messages, branches, actions—you can set up Fin Tasks using natural language.
You also no longer have to build complex decision trees to guide the user down the correct path based on their query; all of this can be handled by a simple description of a single Fin Task.
Automate more processes with AI that typically required a human
Using Fin Tasks, Fin can handle interactions that would otherwise require human action. For example, Fin can take a customer through extensive troubleshooting steps or analyze images of damaged orders from customers. These AI-driven enhancements reduce manual workload while ensuring customers receive fast, accurate, and intelligent responses—without needing human intervention
Create a more conversational customer experience
Fin Tasks eliminate the need for customers to click through multiple buttons to reach the right solution. The entire experience feels much more natural and conversational, making it easier and more intuitive for customers to get the help they need.
For instance, you can instruct Fin to collect data as part of a task and instead of providing an input box for the user to type into, Fin will conversationally say something like “Can you please specify the subscription you are referring to?”
What's the difference between Fin Tasks and Fin Actions?
You may have heard about our Fin Actions feature. Both Actions and Tasks can be triggered by Fin, and they share a key similarity: You define a natural language description of when they should trigger, and Fin automatically activates them when a customer’s question matches. So, what sets them apart?
Fin Actions: Simple, Single-Step API Calls
A Fin Action is a single API call, best suited for straightforward, single-turn customer questions.
For example:
"What’s the status of my order?"
This requires a simple response—either the order is fulfilled or it isn’t. Fin can handle this by making a single API request to retrieve the order status.
Fin Tasks: Multi-Step, Logic-Driven Flows
A Fin Task (the focus of this article) is more powerful. It combines multiple actions (API calls) with your business logic, making it ideal for multi-turn customer questions.
For example:
"I’d like a refund for my order."
This is more complex:
Fin may need to first check if the customer is eligible for a refund.
It might also verify if they’ve previously requested one.
The process could involve multiple API calls—one to fetch order details and another to issue the refund if eligibility criteria are met.
We recommend to use Fin Actions for the simple use cases and Fin Tasks for the more complex ones.
Get started with Fin Tasks
Consider use cases
1. Discover and prioritize use cases
Ask yourself: Which processes would you like to automate with Fin? Are there any existing complex workflows that could be streamlined using Fin Tasks?
Focus on processes that will have the biggest impact on reducing support volume. A good approach is to identify 1 or 2 key processes to start with. A good place to start is your Intercom Overview report to see trends in conversations being routed to human support.
2. Start with existing workflows
If you already have existing workflows that handle some of your support processes, you don’t need to create brand-new workflows to test this. Simply add the Fin Task block to your existing workflows to enhance their efficiency. As an example, your current troubleshooting workflow might look something like this:
While a Fin Task would simplify this and improve your customer experience dramatically:
3. Identify opportunities for improving the customer experience
Look for existing workflows where customers currently have a poor experience—especially those requiring multiple button clicks before getting an answer. These are ideal candidates for Fin Tasks, making the experience more seamless and conversational.
Create a Fin task
Visit AI & Automation > Tasks and click on "New Task"
Give your task a title and trigger description
Every Fin task should be given a title telling Fin when to trigger the task. This is very important, so that Fin triggers it at the right time.
Similarly to the title, the description also tells Fin when it should trigger the task, in greater detail. This describes the situation Fin should use the task, provide example customer queries, and could also call out situations where Fin should not use this task.
Best practice for Fin Tasks
Make sure the title is descriptive and not just internal.
Good practice example: Cancelling an order
Bad practice example: Test123
You should write 3-5 sentences to describe when Fin AI Agent should trigger this task. Be as specific as possible and make sure to include one or more of the following:
Examples of the types of customer queries that would be answered by this task.
Key phrases customers might use.
Common scenarios in which triggering this task would be appropriate.
Good practice example:
Use this task if a customer asks to cancel an order or asks for a refund on an order. This task will check if the customer is eligible for a cancellation and will proceed with that cancellation, if applicable.
Bad practice example:
Use this task to cancel.
Utilize Fin Task blocks
Use this block to give Fin custom instructions for a task to perform. You can template the instructions with data, instruct Fin to run actions, store action response data and reply to users.
Best practice for task blocks
Provide as much information as possible in the instructions, any information not provided may be incorrectly inferred by Fin. Here is a suggested structure to follow:
Goal of the task
Information required
Steps to follow
Completion definition
When writing the instructions start sentences with a verb. Be clear, concise, and as complete as possible. Long instructions are less reliable so use multiple Fin Task blocks if needed.
Add actions (if needed)
Actions can be configured to retrieve or update data in an external system. For more details, tips and best practices on creating actions themselves, go to this article. For more info on how to design and use your APIs with Actions, go to this article.
The response data from the action will become available as temporary attributes within the Fin Task (see next section).
Use temporary attributes
Temporary attributes are useful when you need data only for the current task and don't want to save it permanently in Intercom for reporting or other purposes. You can create these attributes to hold information that's relevant to the specific task being executed.
For example you can create a temporary attribute to:
Capture a customer's selected booking ID
Customer’s preferred delivery date
Askin Fin to classify user query or collect some data - more on this later.
Use "Wait for Webhook" (if needed)
This new block pauses the task until it receives a webhook request, making it ideal for processes that require external input before moving forward.
Imagine your task needs to integrate with an external system—such as a third-party application for identity verification. With "Wait for Webhook," the task stops at this step until the external system sends a webhook response. Once received, the task resumes and takes action based on the provided data.
Examples
Identity Verification: Pause the task until a third-party service confirms a user's identity.
Payment Confirmation: Wait for a webhook from your payment provider to confirm a transaction before proceeding.
Order Fulfillment: Pause until your inventory system sends an update about stock availability.
Approval Processes: Hold the task until a third-party tool sends an approval or rejection status.
This feature ensures your tasks are seamless and synchronized with external systems, reducing manual intervention and keeping things efficient! To add a “Wait for Webhook” to your task, simply click “Add Step” and search for “Wait for Webhook”.
Wait for Webhook best practices
Add a clear name to the step to make it easy to identify temporary variables created for the step
Configure the example request properly by including all the fields you expect to receive in the webhook callback within the data object.
Ensure the webhook returns a JSON body that matches the structure in the step. If the JSON structure is updated, no data will be received. Missing fields in the configuration will also make those fields inaccessible in the task.
Click the "Copy" button to copy the webhook URL to your clipboard. On the third-party site where the webhook is triggered, ensure the conversationId is passed as expected.
Note: The webhook endpoint supports idempotency to safely retry requests and prevent the same operation from being performed more than once. When sending a request, include an 'Idempotency-Key' header with a unique value. We recommend using UUIDs. Idempotency keys expire after 24 hours.
Test and preview Fin Tasks
Open the Fin Task, click on Preview and ask a question. Use the “customer view” to test the interactions with Fin:
Use the “event log” view to see what Fin is doing in the background:
Report on Fin Task resolutions
You can use the Fin AI Agent: Fin workflow used
attribute to create an inbox view and monitor conversations where a task was used:
You can also use this attribute in Reports and combine it with the Fin AI Agent resolution rate
attribute.
Examples of processes Fin Tasks can handle
Industry | Use case | Description (example) |
Fintech | Transaction disputes | Handle suspicious or unexpected transactions by automating the process from collecting transaction details and reasons for disputes to issuing refunds or resolutions. If the case requires further review, it escalates to the appropriate team. |
Fintech | Changes to personal details | Facilitate user updates to personal details, such as name changes, by verifying identity, collecting required documents, and updating records. Escalates automatically if verification fails at any step. |
Fintech | Failed transactions | Resolve issues with failed transactions by collecting details, verifying status, identifying failure causes, and initiating reversals or chargebacks as needed. Ensures complex cases are escalated for further investigation. |
Fintech | Bank transfer not received | Investigate missing bank transfers by collecting transaction details, checking the transfer status, identifying issues, and providing updates or resolutions. Escalates unresolved cases to ensure timely support. |
eCommerce | Order cancellations & refunds | Canceling orders by verifying details, processing partial or full cancellations, and issuing refunds. Any issues, such as invalid order IDs, are escalated to ensure resolution. |
eCommerce | Delivery address updates | Enable delivery address updates by verifying customer information, checking order status, and processing changes when possible. For orders in transit or needing special attention, the process escalates appropriately. |
Traveltech | Booking cancellations | Handle booking cancellations by collecting booking details, verifying provider policies, and processing eligible refunds. Escalates cases that cannot be completed automatically to ensure accurate resolution. |
Healthtech | Rescheduling appointments | Reschedule appointments by identifying current details, offering alternate time slots, confirming changes, and updating the schedule. Escalates unresolved requests to ensure timely assistance. |
Insurtech | Insurance policy updates | Update insurance policies, such as vehicle details, by gathering necessary data, verifying eligibility, generating quotes, and implementing changes. Escalates any errors to ensure seamless processing. |
SaaS | Login issues | Assist customers with login issues by verifying identity, sending login links, or guiding password resets. Escalates unresolved problems to a team for alternative support solutions. |
SaaS | Technical troubleshooting | Support technical troubleshooting by gathering critical data such as session IDs and error codes, creating or updating tickets, and escalating persistent issues to a technical team for investigation. |
SaaS | Subscription refund | Manage subscription refund requests by detecting customer intent, checking refund eligibility, and processing partial or full refunds. Non-eligible cases are escalated for further review. |
SaaS | Checking charges after trials | Provide billing clarity by retrieving account details, checking trial expiration dates, and confirming the scheduled charge date. Escalates complex inquiries to ensure accurate information. |
On-demand economy | Payment status | Address missing payment concerns by capturing user details, retrieving recent records, and confirming payment status. Escalates unresolved issues to ensure customer satisfaction. |
On-demand economy | Package delivery issues | Resolve package delivery problems by verifying courier details, confirming delivery status, and processing cancellations if eligible. Complex scenarios are escalated for manual handling. |
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