Use cases for Workplace Assistant

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This topic is shared by BAW, CP4BA. Last updated on 2025-03-13 12:15

The following use cases illustrate how the assistant's capabilities work in concrete scenarios, from workflow management to performance and team management support to querying documents.

Before you begin
Configure Workplace Assistant in your Business Automation Workflow environment. See Configuring Workplace Assistant.

To access the assistant, click the blue pop-up icon Click this pop-up icon to start the assistant..

The start page of Workplace Assistant shows a list of clickable suggestions and a query text box for the web chat.
In the chat interface, you can click any of the suggested prompts or type your own prompt in the query box to interact with the assistant. For the LLM model to generate responses that are relevant to your query, your prompts must be:
  • Clear: Provide enough information for the model to understand the context.
  • Written in natural language: You do not need to use special syntax or keywords. Ask questions in natural, everyday language, as you would ask a colleague.
  • Specific: State exactly what you want the model to do. The more specific your question, the more accurate the answer.
  • Contextual: Include context, relevant data, and details to elicit relevant responses from the model.
  • Interactive: You can ask clarifying questions or request more details based on the initial response.
  • Verifiable: Review the source excerpts provided with answers, especially for critical decisions or compliance matters.

The use cases assume that you have already logged in to Workplace and clicked the pop-up icon to open the virtual assistant. To interact with the assistant, you can either click a suggestion that is offered in the conversational UI or type your prompt in the web chat and click Start.

As a business user new to Workplace, I want to know more about Workplace

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Procedure

Question: What actions are available in IBM® Workplace?
Answer: The assistant provides an overview of IBM Workplace and lists possible actions for you to choose from.
In the web chat, the assistant provides a short description of Workplace, a link to documentation, and several common actions to choose from.

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As a business user working in Workplace, I want to use the web chat to start a new workflow

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Procedure

Prompt: Start a new workflow
Answer: Select an option to start a workflow.
The assistant starts a new instance of the selected workflow. The first task in the workflow opens in Workplace.
In the web chat, the assistant confirms that the selected workflow started successfully.

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As a business user working in Workplace, I want to use the web chat to summarize a workflow

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I want to use web chat to obtain the summary of a workflow. This action requires a federated Business Automation Workflow environment or configured Federated Data Repository indexing. For more information, see Enabling the Federated Data Repository process indexing.

Procedure

  1. In the list of workflows, select the workflow that you want to summarize. The assistant confirms your selection and offers a list of options for selection.
  2. From the list of options, select Get workflow summary. Alternatively, you can type your request in the web chat, for example, Show the workflow summary.
  3. Answer: The assistant displays the summary of the selected workflow.
    The web chat displays the summary of the selected workflow.

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As a business user working in Workplace, I want to summarize a case

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I want to use web chat to obtain the summary of a case. This action requires a federated Business Automation Workflow environment or configured Federated Data Repository indexing. For more information, see Enabling the Federated Data Repository process indexing.

Procedure

  1. In the list of cases, select the case that you want to summarize. The assistant offers a list of available actions to select from for the selected case.
    Prompt: Select the Get case summary option. Alternatively, you can type Show the case summary in the web chat.
    For the selected case instance, the web chat displays a list of options to choose from. Type Show the case summary in the web chat.
  2. Answer: The assistant displays the summary of the selected case.
    The web chat displays the summary of the selected case.

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As a business user working in Workplace, I want to use the web chat to find and filter my workflows

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I want to use web chat to find and filter workflows by various criteria. This action requires a federated Business Automation Workflow environment or configured Federated Data Repository indexing. For more information, see Enabling the Federated Data Repository process indexing.

Procedure

  1. Prompt: What workflows are completed?
    Answer: The assistant filters the workflow list, showing only the completed workflows.
    Workplace lists the completed workflows.
  2. Filter workflows by business data.
    Prompt: Select the business data to filter by
    Answer: Select Location as business data.
    Prompt: Enter a value to search for, for example, Chicago.
    Answer:The assistant filters the workflow list and displays all the workflows with the location set to Chicago.
    Workplace lists the completed workflows.

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As a business user working off my task list in Workplace, I want to use the web chat to filter my tasks

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I would like to use the web chat to filter my tasks on different criteria.

Procedure

  1. Prompt: List all my overdue tasks
    Answer: The assistant filters the task list, showing only your overdue tasks.
    In the foreground, the assistant shows the results. In the background, Workplace shows a filtered list that includes only your overdue tasks.
  2. Prompt: Filter tasks by business data.
    Answer: Select the business data to filter by.
    Prompt: Select Hiring Manager as business data.
    Answer: Enter a value to search for.
    Prompt: Enter Tom Miller.
    Answer: The assistant filters the task list and displays all the tasks that are owned by the hiring manager Tom Miller.
    Workplace filters the task list and displays all the tasks that are owned by the hiring manager Tom Miller. The web chat in the foreground also lists all the tasks owned by Tom Miller.
  3. Prompt: Show all the unclaimed tasks.
    Answer: The assistant applies the filter to the task list and lists all the tasks that have no owner and are available to be claimed.
  4. Prompt: What tasks are due today?
    Answer: The assistant filters the task list and returns the tasks with a due date set to today.
    The assistant filters the task list and returns all tasks with a due date set to today.
  5. Prompt: Filter my tasks using a saved search.
    Answer: Select a saved view.
    Prompt: Select MyTasks as the saved view.
    Answer: The assistant applies the saved search to the task list and displays all the tasks that meet the selected criterion.
    In the web chat, the assistant applies the saved search to the task list and displays all the tasks that meet the criterion.
  6. Prompt: List all the tasks owned by Admin.
    Answer: The assistant filters the task list and displays all the tasks that are owned by Admin
    In the web chat, the assistant filters the task list and displays all the tasks that are owned by Admin.

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As a business user working in Workplace, I want to use the web chat to understand tasks

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You can use the assistant's summarization and answering capabilities to know more about any task that is shown in your task list. The assistant can answer specific questions about the content or status of a task and obtain a complete summary of the information that you requested.

Procedure

  1. From the list of tasks, select the task about which you want to know more. The assistant confirms your selection and offers a list of options for selection. Select the Ask a question about this task option.
    In the background, the Task: Create position request is selected in the task list. In the foreground, the web chat shows a list of options for selection. In the list, the option Ask a question about this task is selected.
  2. When prompted, type your question in the web chat, for example, When was this task due?. The assistant answers your question, as shown in the following example.
    The web chat answers the question, specifying the due date of the selected overdue task.
  3. To learn more about the task, ask for a task summary in the web chat. The assistant returns a full summary of the selected task, as requested.
    The web chat returns the summary of the task, as requested.

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As a business user working in Workplace, I want to prioritize tasks

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I want to use web chat to prioritize the next best task from my claimed or available list.
Tip: When prioritization is enabled, tasks are auto-selected based on expertise and completion time. If prioritization is not enabled, you can choose the next best task by priority or due date. For more information, see Prioritizing work.

Procedure

Prompt: Open my next best task.
Prompt: What is more important to you?

Select Priority as the criterion.

Answer: The assistant finds and opens the next best task for you.
Workplace finds and opens the next best task.

As a business user working in Workplace, I want to use the web chat to update tasks

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I would like to update one or more tasks directly from the task list by using the web chat. For example, I would like to update the task priorities and due dates. Also, I would like to bulk reassign all the tasks owned by a specified user to a different user in one step.

Procedure

  1. In the task list, select the tasks to update, for example, two tasks with the priority set to Normal. The assistant offers a list of actions to select from for the selected tasks.
    Prompt: Select the Update priorities > Update task priority: Low option.
    The task list, two tasks with priority Normal are selected. The web chat shows a list of options that you can do with the selected tasks. The option Update prioritiesLow is selected.
    Answer: The assistant updates the priority of the selected tasks, changing it from Normal to Low.
    In the task list, the priority of the selected tasks is changed to Low. The web chat confirms the priority change.
  2. Next, select the tasks whose due dates you want to update.
    Prompt: From the list of options, select Update the task due date and then enter the new due date.
    The web chat shows the prompt to update the due date of the selected tasks, and then confirms the new date choice.
    Answer: The assistant updates the due dates of the selected tasks. The updated tasks are displayed in the on-track list with their new due date.
    Workplace lists the two tasks with the new due date in the on-track list.
  3. Finally, bulk reassign all the tasks owned by one user, transferring them to another specified user in one step.
    Prompt: Reassign all of Bob's tasks to Tom.
    Answer: The assistant reassigns all of Bob's tasks to Tom.
    Tip: The bulk reassignment is a compound action that consists of two smaller actions: first, filter the tasks by owner Bob, and second, reassign all of Bob's tasks to new owner, Tom. The assistant understands and correctly executes the compound action in one single step.
    The reassigned tasks are shown in the response.
    Workplace reassigns all the tasks from Bob to Tom.

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As a business user working in Workplace, I want the web chat to help me complete a specific task

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I would like the assistant to help improve my productivity and complete my tasks more efficiently.

As a business user in the HR department, I've been assigned a task to create a request for a position in the Finance department. Creating the position request is part of the Standard HR Open Position Request process. I know the position title, its location, the hiring department, who the hiring manager is, but I need more information on what the position entails. I want to ask the assistant to generate a job description to help me complete the corresponding section and complete the position request.

Procedure

  1. In your Workplace task list, select and then open the Create position request task. Complete the Position Request form as needed.
  2. In the web chat, ask the assistant to help you generate a job description for the specified position.
    Prompt: For this task, what is a good job description for the Head of Product Development position in the Finance department?
    Answer: The assistant generates a job description for the specified position.
    In the background, the Position Request form has most fields filled out except for Job description. The web chat shows your typed prompt and provides content for the job description that you need to fill out.
  3. Copy the generated content into the Job description section of your form, and advance to the next step in the request preparation process. When you're done preparing the position request as needed, submit your task.

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As a team manager working off my task list in Workplace, I want to use the web chat to check my teams' status and their performance

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As a manager, I want to use the assistant's web chat to check the status, view, and manage the tasks and performance of my teams and team members.
Tip: The Teams dashboard, where you work with team tasks and access business data, is available in both federated Workplace environments with Process Federation Server enabled and nonfederated Workplace environments with Federated Data Repository enabled. For more information, see Enabling and configuring the Federated Data Repository.

Procedure

  1. Prompt: Show all the teams that I manage
    Answer: The assistant takes you to your Teams dashboard and provides a list of your teams' and their descriptions.
    The web chat shows the prompt "Show all the teams that I manage" and the response: you currently manage 4 teams, All Users, General Managers, Hiring Managers, and Human Resources. And in the foreground the assistant displays the Teams dashboard, which shows the summaries for all the managed teams.
  2. Prompt: I want to view summaries for all my teams
    Answer: The assistant takes you to your Teams dashboard and provides a list of your teams' and a breakdown of the status of their tasks.
    The web chat shows the prompt "Show me all the tasks for team HiringManagers". The assistant responds by listing all the tasks for team HiringManagers.
  3. Prompt: Show me all the tasks for team HiringManagers.
    Answer:
    The web chat shows the prompt "Show me all the tasks for team HiringManagers". The assistant responds by listing all the tasks for team HiringManagers.
  4. Prompt: Show me all the members of team HiringManagers.
    Answer: The assistant lists all the members in the HiringManagers team.
    The web chat shows the prompt "Show all the members of team HiringManagers". The assistant responds by listing all the team members.

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