Who is this article for?

Users looking to raise a workflow with the help of Ideagen Mazlan.

Ideagen Mazlan access is required. Initiate Workflow permissions are required.

The AI-assisted workflow initiation feature, powered by Ideagen Mazlan, helps you raise workflows faster by guiding you through the process in a natural conversation. Instead of navigating to the right workflow type, opening a blank form, and filling in every field manually, you simply describe what happened. Mazlan identifies the right workflow, collects the details it needs, and pre-fills the form for you to review before submitting.

This article explains where to access the functionality and how to get the most out of it.

Inbox Assistant is a pilot feature

This feature is available to selected pilot users only. It is disabled by default and must be enabled for your account by your Ideagen contact.

Accessing the Workflow Initiator

To access the Workflow Initiator:

1. Sign into Ideagen Quality Management via Mazlan Home.
2. Go to Workflows.
3. Click the Mazlan AI nutton.

The chat panel will open on the right-hand side of the screen.

No Ideagen Mazlan button?

If the Mazlan AI button is not visible, the feature has not been enabled for your tenant. Contact your Ideagen Customer Success Manager.

Using the Workflow Initiator

Process

The Workflow Initiator follows a guided conversation across five stages once it gets input:

• Identify - Mazlan matches your plain-language description to the right workflow template.
• Collect - Mazlan asks one open question, silently extracts everything it can, then asks only for what it could not fill in automatically.
• Validate - Mazlan checks collected values for completeness and consistency before proceeding.
• Summarise - Mazlan presents everything it has gathered (required and optional fields) for you to review and adjust.
• Confirm and create - You confirm the summary and Mazlan creates the workflow instance.

We will cover each step in more detail to help you raise workflows easily.

Identify

Open the Mazlan panel and describe the situation in your own words. You do not need to know the workflow name. The more context you include upfront, the less Mazlan will need to ask.

For example, you could say:

• "I need to raise a corrective action - we had a temperature exceedance in the cold storage room today."
• "We found a defective batch of parts in the production line. I was the one who found it."
• "There's been a quality issue in the Firearms section - need to log it."

More is better

Include the date, location, what happened, and who was involved in your first message. Mazlan silently extracts as much as it can. The more detail you provide upfront, the fewer follow-up questions you will get.

Based on your description, Mazlan identifies the most appropriate workflow using one of three approaches:

• Clear intent - If your description is specific (e.g. you mention "corrective action", "NCR", or a known workflow type), Mazlan recommends one workflow and asks you to confirm.
• Ambiguous intent - If your description could match several workflows, Mazlan asks one impact question first, for example: "Did this issue affect any samples, active cases, or ongoing work? Or is it more of an equipment event worth logging for now?" Your answer steers it to the right choice.
• Multiple matches - If two or more workflows are equally plausible after the impact question, Mazlan shows a short numbered list with plain-language descriptions and asks you to pick.

Important

Mazlan never shows internal workflow IDs or system names. If you want to see everything available to you, say "Show all" and Mazlan will list every workflow you have permission to initiate.

Collect

Once the workflow type is confirmed, Mazlan asks: "Tell me what happened and I'll fill in as much as I can for you."

From your reply, and everything you have already said in the conversation, Mazlan silently extracts values for as many fields as it can. It will only ask follow-up questions for required fields it could not fill automatically. Optional fields are never asked here. Instead, they appear in the summary later.

Mazlan handles different field types as follows:

• Basic information - Your name, department, today's date are resolved automatically from your session. Mazlan will never ask for these.
• First-person language - If you say "I raised this", "I was the witness", "I found it", or similar, Mazlan fills in your name as the reporter automatically without asking.
• Dropdown/list fields - Options shown as a numbered list. Reply with the number, a keyword, or the first few letters. If your input matches exactly one option, Mazlan selects it silently. If it matches several, Mazlan shows only the matching options.
• Person fields (e.g. Assigned To) - Mazlan asks for a name, looks up the person silently, and confirms the match. If the field is restricted to a specific group, Mazlan loads those members automatically.
• Free-text fields - Mazlan extracts what it can from your description. Values it has drafted are shown in the summary for your review.
• Conditional fields - Only shown when relevant, based on your earlier answers.

Validate and Summarise

Once all required fields are filled, Mazlan presents a full summary. Review this carefully before confirming.

The summary has two sections:

• Essential fields - Every required field and any optional field that already has a value, shown as plain bullets.
• Optional fields - Any optional fields not yet filled, shown as a numbered list. Reply with a number to fill one in, or ignore them and confirm.

You can ask Mazlan to change any value - filled or unfilled - before confirming. Mazlan will re-show the updated summary after any change.

Important:

azlan will never create a workflow without your explicit confirmation. When you are ready, say "Yes", "Create it", or "Looks good". Mazlan will not act on ambiguous replies.

Confirm and create

When you explicitly confirm, Mazlan creates the workflow instance and displays the new workflow ID with a link to open it.

There is no rollback capability

Once created, the workflow instance cannot be automatically undone. Take a moment to review the summary before confirming.

Capabilities

To help manage expectations, we also put together some examples of what the Workflow Initiator can and cannot do.

Not sure if what you're asking is in scope?

If you ask Mazlan to do something outside its scope, it will reply: "Sorry, out of my job scope.".

Understanding the Workflow Initiator

Limitations

As this is a pilot release, the following limitations apply:

• Responsible parties not set - Mazlan creates the workflow instance but does not assign responsible parties to steps. Configure these manually in the workflow editor after creation.
• Field description quality affects accuracy - Mazlan uses the field descriptions your administrator has configured. If descriptions are missing or vague, Mazlan may extract values incorrectly or ask less precise questions. Administrators are encouraged to write clear field descriptions before the pilot goes live.
• Workflow recommendation may vary - For ambiguous descriptions, Mazlan may not always recommend the same workflow on first attempt. If the suggestion is wrong, correct it in chat and Mazlan will re-match.
• No rollback - There is no automatic undo for workflow instances created by Mazlan. If a workflow is created in error, it must be removed manually.
• Audit trail differentiation - Workflows created via Mazlan are not yet separately identified in the audit trail. This will be addressed in a future release.
• Smart Distinction Rules not yet supported - Mazlan does not factor in Smart Distinction Rules when collecting or validating field values. Fields that depend on Smart Distinction logic will need to be reviewed and adjusted manually after the workflow instance is created.

Further reading

• AI-assisted Workflow Initiator | Frequently asked questions