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:

Check out Fin Tasks in action:

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.

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

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?”

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.

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.

This is more complex:

We recommend to use Fin Actions for the simple use cases and Fin Tasks for the more complex ones.

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.

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.

Visit Fin AI Agent > Train > Tasks and click on New task.

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.

The task trigger is also where you define the channels and audience rules which need to match before Fin performs the task.

Use the instructions block to give Fin custom instructions to perform the task. You can template the instructions with data, get Fin to run actions, store action response data and reply to users.

Provide as much information as possible in the instructions, any information not provided may be incorrectly inferred by Fin.

Start each instruction with a verb. Be clear, concise, and as complete as possible. Long instructions are less reliable so use multiple steps for each instruction if needed.

Actions can be used in the instruction block to retrieve or update data in an external system. Add an action by typing "@" in line with your text instructions and click Use an action, then select one of your pre-configured actions.

The response data from the action will become available as "temporary attributes" within the instructions block (see below).

Add attributes to the instructions block by typing "@" in line with your text instructions. This allows Fin to read and update attributes based on your specific business rules, at clear moments, with precise values. You can use any people/company/conversation/temporary attribute.

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:

In the "End this task when" section, specify the conditions that indicate the task is complete. This helps Fin avoid ending the task too early, repeating steps, or getting stuck. Define clear criteria for completion, regardless of whether it's a positive or negative outcome for the customer.

Guide how Fin interacts, responds, and behaves during a task by providing clear guidance. Simply describe any specific behaviors you’d like Fin to follow while performing the steps.

Use Wait for webhook to pause the task until it receives a webhook request. This is 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

This feature ensures your tasks are seamless and synchronized with external systems, reducing manual intervention and keeping things efficient! To add Wait for webhook to your task, simply click Add step and search for “Wait for webhook”.

Open the Fin Task, click on Preview and ask a question. Use the Customer view tab to test the interactions with Fin.

Use the Event log tab to see what Fin is doing in the background.

Once you're happy with how Fin performs the task, go ahead and select Set live to let Fin get to work! 💪

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.