Ezekia

AI Automations let you attach an AI agent to business events, such as a meeting being saved, a task being created, or a record being updated.

When the event happens, the automation receives the event details and follows your instructions to complete the next steps.

Unlike a simple prompt, an AI Automation can use approved MCP tools to take multi-step actions, such as updating Ezekia records, creating tasks, researching public information, sending emails, or creating calendar events.

Important: Automations Run Without Confirmation

AI Automations run automatically in the background when their trigger event occurs.

They do not ask the user to confirm each action before making changes, sending emails, creating tasks, or updating records. For this reason, instructions should include clear guardrails, duplicate checks, and fallback behaviour.

Before using an automation for live actions, test it with safe instructions that avoid workflow changes, emails, and calendar events.

Writing Good Instructions (Applies to Any Event)

When an automation runs, it receives:

• The event payload: what just happened
• Your instructions: what you want the agent to do next

Good instructions should:

• Clearly describe the desired outcome
• Include safety rules and guardrails
• Explain what to do when key details are missing
• Avoid unnecessary detail or long narratives

What to Include in Your Instructions

1. Outcome

Write one or two sentences describing the end result.

Example:

“Add the person to the Personnel Manager project as a candidate, move them to Candidate Status ‘Interview’, send an interview invite for 1 May at 11:30 GMT if the person has a valid email address, then notify the owner with a brief summary. If notification is not possible, create an owner task instead.”

2. 'Guardrails'

Guardrails prevent the AI from doing things you don't want to happen. They can include rules such as:

• Do not guess missing information
• Check whether the action has already been completed
• Avoid creating duplicate candidates, notes, tasks, emails, invites, people, or company links
• Only send emails or calendar invites when the recipient has a valid email address
• Clearly state when the automation should stop and create a human task instead

Because automations run without confirmation, instructions should clearly state when the automation is allowed to take action and when it should stop.

3. Fallback Behaviour

Tell the automation what to do if it cannot complete a step.

Example:

“If required information is missing, create a task for the owner explaining what is needed, then stop.”

4. Tool Expectations

Explain which tools the automation should use for each type of action.

Example:

• Use web search to research public information.
• Use Ezekia MCP to read and update Ezekia records.
• Use Outlook MCP for emails, calendar events, reminders, and Outlook tasks.

5. Keep It Concise

Use short, explicit steps instead of long narratives.

Good instructions should make it clear:

• What to do
• What not to do
• What to do if something is missing
• How to know the automation succeeded

Recommended Instruction Template

Outcome:

[Describe the final result in one sentence.]

Rules:

• Do not guess. If the Person, Project, date, time, or timezone cannot be identified, create a task for a human and stop.
• Check the current state first. If the action is already complete, do not repeat it.
• Avoid duplicates.
• Only send emails or invites when a valid email address exists.
• Do not take irreversible or high-impact action unless the instruction explicitly allows it.

Steps:

1. Identify the Person and relevant Project from the event payload.
2. Check whether the Person is already linked to the Project.
3. Add the Person to the Project as a candidate only if needed.
4. Update Candidate Status only if it moves the candidate forward.
5. If an invite is required, send it with the correct date, time, timezone, and location or video link.
6. If email or calendar action is not possible, create a task for the owner instead.
7. Notify the owner with a brief summary, or create an owner task if notification is not possible.

Success Criteria:

• Candidate exists on the correct Project.
• Candidate Status is correct.
• Invite is sent where possible.
• If an invite cannot be sent, a clear owner task exists.
• Owner receives either a short summary or a task.

Worked Example: Research People Moves and Update Company Records

This example shows how an AI Automation can research public people-move announcements, update company records, and create linked people profiles automatically.

Example Instruction

1. Run a web search for news related to these clients. The news should focus on people moves in the company.
2. Add the news as a formatted note to the company record with the “People moves” tag.
3. For each new person that joined each company, do a web search and create a person profile for that person, adding the profile as a contact to the company record. Make sure you create a profile for every person mentioned in each note, not just the first person. Before adding, check you are not creating duplicate people records.

What “People Moves” Means

In this example, 'people moves' means recent public information about:

• New hires
• Executive appointments
• Promotions
• Board appointments
• Partner admissions
• Leadership changes
• Departures or retirements

Relevant sources may include:

• Company press releases
• LinkedIn announcements
• News articles
• Industry publications
• Company blog posts

The automation should ignore unrelated company news unless it includes a clear people move.

Recommended Guardrails

Because automations run automatically in the background without confirmation, instructions should include guardrails such as:

• Do not create duplicate notes, people, or company links
• Search existing people records before creating a new person
• Create a profile for every relevant person mentioned, not just the first person
• Only use reliable public sources
• If the company cannot be identified confidently, create a task for a human and stop
• If no relevant people-move news is found, add a short note explaining that no relevant recent news was identified

Suggested Automation Steps

1. Identify the client company or companies from the event payload.
2. Search the web for recent public people-move announcements related to each company.
3. Summarise each relevant item as a formatted note on the company record.
4. Add the note with the tag People moves.
5. Extract every person mentioned in the note.
6. For each person:
   • Search the web for enough information to create a useful profile
   • Search existing Ezekia people records for possible duplicates
   • If the person already exists, update or link the existing record
   • If the person does not exist, create a new person profile
   • Link the person to the company as a contact
7. Add a short summary note describing what was updated.

Success Criteria

The automation succeeds when:

• Relevant people-move information is added to the correct company record
• The note is tagged People moves
• Every relevant person mentioned has a linked person record
• No duplicate people records are created
• All created or linked people are connected to the correct company record

Available MCP Tools

MCP tools are approved integrations your AI Automations can use to take action. Availability depends on what your firm has enabled and connected.

Ezekia MCP (Ezekia Actions)

Use Ezekia MCP to read and update Ezekia records.

Common actions include:

• Finding people, companies, projects, and tasks
• Reading record details
• Creating and updating people, companies, projects, notes, and tasks
• Adding people to projects as candidates or contacts
• Updating candidate status
• Creating follow-up tasks for record owners

Typical examples:

• Add a person to a project as a candidate
• Update Candidate Status
• Add a note with a summary
• Create a follow-up task
• Add people-move research to company records
• Create or link person records from public research

Outlook MCP (Email + Calendar + Tasks)

Use Outlook MCP for email, calendar, tasks, and contacts.

Common actions include:

• Sending emails
• Creating or updating calendar events
• Checking availability
• Creating reminders or follow-up tasks
• Creating or retrieving contacts
• 
  

Typical examples:

• Send an interview invite
• Create a calendar event
• Create a reminder
• Send a follow-up email

Testing an Automation Safely

Use test instructions when you want to confirm that an automation triggers correctly without changing workflows or sending emails.

Test Outcome

Confirm the automation triggers correctly and identifies the right records, without making workflow changes.