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Invoking flows in My Assistant

My Assistant is your default conversational AI experience in Amazon Quick Suite, designed to help you access organizational knowledge, analyze data, and accomplish tasks through natural conversation. When flows are enabled in My Assistant, you can seamlessly invoke and run your Amazon Quick Flows without leaving your conversational context.

Getting started: Invoking flows in My Assistant

What My Assistant provides

My Assistant serves as a comprehensive workspace where you can ask questions about company data, request analysis, generate content, and now run structured workflows through flows. It's designed to be your primary interface for knowledge work and task automation within your organization.

Unified experience: Access flows alongside all other My Assistant capabilities, including knowledge search, data analysis, content generation, and action running.

Organizational context: My Assistant understands your organization's data, processes, and available resources, making it an ideal environment for flow running that leverages company-specific information.

Broad access: Unlike specialized custom agents, My Assistant provides access to the full range of flows available to you, from simple automation to complex multi-step workflows.

Prerequisites for flow invocation

Before you can invoke flows in My Assistant, several conditions must be met:

My Assistant access: Your organization must have enabled My Assistant, and you must have appropriate permissions to use the conversational interface.

Flow permissions: You can only invoke flows that you have permission to access - either flows you've created or flows that have been shared with you through the standard Amazon Quick Flows sharing mechanisms.

Required capabilities: My Assistant must have access to the underlying services and data sources that your flows require, such as Amazon Quick Sight for visualization flows or action connectors for workflow automation.

Initial setup and access

When you first access My Assistant with flow capabilities enabled, you'll notice additional options for discovering and invoking flows. The interface remains familiar while providing new ways to access your automated workflows.

Flow discovery options: My Assistant provides multiple ways to find and access flows, including search and browsing.

Integration indicators: Visual cues in the interface indicate when flow capabilities are available and when you're interacting with flows versus standard My Assistant features.

Explicit flow invocation

Explicit flow invocation allows you to directly search for, select, and run specific flows within My Assistant. This approach gives you full control over which flows to use and when to use them.

Discovering available flows

My Assistant provides several methods for finding flows that are available to you:

Browse by category: Access flows organized by categories such as Recently Used, Popular, or All Available flows. This organization helps you quickly find flows based on usage patterns and relevance.

Selecting and launching flows

Once you've identified a flow you want to use, the invocation process is straightforward:

Direct selection: Choose a flow from search results or browse lists to begin running immediately.

Preview information: Before launching, you can view basic information about the flow, including its purpose, required inputs, and expected outputs.

Context preparation: If the flow can benefit from your current conversation context, My Assistant will prepare and share relevant information automatically.

Flow running modes in My Assistant

When you invoke a flow in My Assistant, you can choose how to interact with it:

Conversational mode: Interact with the flow entirely through natural language conversation with My Assistant. The assistant guides you through the flow steps, requests inputs, and presents outputs within the chat interface.

Structured mode: Access a more traditional form-based interface for flows that require precise inputs or complex configuration. This mode appears alongside your conversation and provides direct access to Flow components.

Hybrid approach: Switch between conversational and structured interaction as needed, allowing you to use the most appropriate method for each part of the flow.

Context sharing and log history

One of the key advantages of invoking flows within My Assistant is the ability to leverage your conversation history and context to enhance flow running.

How context sharing works

Automatic context detection: My Assistant analyzes your conversation history to identify information that might be relevant to the flow you're invoking. This includes data points, file references, previous analysis results, and stated goals or preferences.

Intelligent information extraction: When launching a flow, My Assistant can automatically extract relevant information from your conversation to pre-populate flow inputs, reducing the need for you to re-enter information you've already provided.

Seamless information flow: Information flows naturally between your general conversation and flow running, creating a unified experience where context is preserved and leveraged effectively.

Managing conversation history

Unified logging: Your flow invocations and runs are integrated into your My Assistant conversation history, creating a complete record of your work session.

Context preservation: When you return to previous conversations, the context of flow runs is preserved, allowing you to reference results or continue related work.

Cross-session continuity: Your conversation history with My Assistant persists across sessions, enabling you to build on previous work and maintain context over time.

Guardrails and tone honored

My Assistant maintains consistent security, compliance, and behavioral standards across both conversational interaction and flow running, ensuring a unified and safe experience.

For information about security and compliance guardrails, see Managing user access inside Amazon Quick Suite.

Behavioral consistency

Tone and style: My Assistant maintains its configured tone and communication style when guiding you through flow running, providing a consistent conversational experience.

Response patterns: The way My Assistant presents information, asks for clarification, and provides guidance remains consistent whether you're having a general conversation or running a flow.

Error handling: When issues occur during flow running, My Assistant handles them using the same helpful, clear communication patterns you're accustomed to in regular conversation.

User experience standards: The overall user experience standards that govern My Assistant interactions also apply to flow invocation, ensuring quality and consistency.

Customization and personalization

Organizational customization: If your organization has customized My Assistant's behavior, tone, or capabilities, these customizations are maintained during flow running.

Personal preferences: Your individual preferences for how My Assistant interacts with you are preserved when invoking and running flows.

Ending a flow in the conversation

Properly concluding flow running within My Assistant ensures a smooth transition back to general conversation and maintains the context of your work.

Manual flow termination

Explicit exit: You can end a flow at any time by explicitly stating your intention to stop, such as "Cancel this flow" or "I want to stop and return to our conversation."

Graceful interruption: If you need to interrupt a running flow, My Assistant handles the interruption gracefully, saving any progress where possible and providing options for resuming later.

Context preservation: When you manually end a flow, any progress made and information gathered is preserved in your conversation history for potential future use.

Clear transition: My Assistant clearly indicates when you've exited flow running and returned to general conversation mode, helping you understand the current context.

Post-flow conversation

Seamless continuation: After completing or ending a flow, you can immediately continue your conversation with My Assistant, referencing flow results or moving on to new topics.

Result discussion: You can discuss flow results with My Assistant, ask for interpretation or analysis, or request modifications or follow-up actions.

Flow chaining: You can easily invoke additional flows based on the results of previous flows, creating complex workflows through natural conversation.

Session management: My Assistant helps you manage your overall work session, keeping track of completed flows and helping you organize your activities.

Amazon Quick Suite reference