Kerika’s AI Helper just got better: you can now import a variety of files that contain the tasks you want to include in building a new Task Board.
What had previously been an IMPORT FROM TRELLO button is now a more general IMPORT MY DATA. Clicking on it brings up your import options: from Trello, as before, and now also by uploading a file:
For refugees from Trello, the CONNECT TO TRELLO option is the best way to bring all, or just some, of your Trello boards into Kerika. Pressing this button results in Trello asking if it is OK for Kerika to have access to your Trello account for an hour. (Actually, we just need a few minutes, but Trello’s minimum access is 1 hour.)
If you have tasks in a Microsoft Word or Excel document, the UPLOAD A FILE option is best for you: pick a file and Kerika’s AI Helper will read it and figure out how to make a board with its contents.
We have had problems with spammers and scammers signing up in bulk using disposable email domains, and one of the steps we are taking to stop this nonsense is to no longer allow people to use these emails.
Disposable email domains are used to sign up for services using an email that is automatically deactivated after a while. While there is some legitimate use of this, for people who want to conceal their main email addresses, far too many folks use these domains for nefarious purposes.
Our AI Helper just got better at creating new boards and templates: although it looks the same as before, behind the scenes it now can do Web searches to find relevant material to use for building what you need.
This means that you can now make more general requests to the AI Helper, like “make a board for me to learn about AI agents”. To build this board, the AI Helper will automatically do a Web search to find the best articles out there that cover AI agents, and then build a learning board for you.
We have made substantial improvements to the previously released AI Helper to make it more useful for anyone who wants to start a new Task Board or Template.
Creating New Boards
The AI Helper is always available when you want to start a new Task Board:
What’s different now is that clicking on the CREATE WITH AI button will open a new AI Helper pane on the right side of the window:
If you have access to multiple accounts — for example, if you are working with different organizations or companies that all have their own Kerika accounts — the AI Helper will first ask you which account you want to create the new board in.
(If you are working in a single account, which is true for the vast majority of Kerika users, the AI Helper skips this step.)
The AI Helper offers some suggested areas, as shown above. You can choose one, or simply provide more specifics about the kind of board you want to create.
In the example below the user selects the first suggested category: project management and task tracking:
Unlike our first (experimental) version of an AI Helper, the new version is much more interactive: it provides suggestions and prompts to help the user think about what the new board should do, and, in particular, what kinds of management and collaboration problems they are currently facing.
If you have something very specific in mind, you can skip the back-and-forth with the AI Helper and provide a specific request, like this example for a board that contains all the steps necessary to start a new business in Washington State:
Given a specific enough request, the AI Helper can quickly suggest a board that will meet the user’s needs:
The AI Helper doesn’t immediately create a new board; instead, if first offers a preview so the user can confirm the new board will meet their needs.
If the preview looks good, the user can ask the AI Helper to make the new board (this step can take a little time):
Once the new board is created, the AI Helper give a quick link to it:
Here’s the new board created by the AI Helper: as you can see, the AI has also created appropriate and helpful tags, assigned the work to the user (since the user hadn’t said anything in their request about working with a team), and even estimated how long each task might take and assigned due dates accordingly.
Click to see a larger image
Creating Templates
Creating templates works in the exact same way: for example, the user could have asked for a template to be created using the same reference source (Washington State’s Department of Revenue Guide for Starting Businesses).
This is what the output looks like:
Click to see a larger image
Mobile & Tablet
The AI Helper is available on phones and tablet as well; the user interface is, naturally, a little different to accommodate the more limited screenshot
Please give this a try and let us know what you think!
As folks use Kerika over a long time, and for a variety of purposes, they may end up with dozens or more Task Boards and Whiteboards in their account.
One easy way to keep your focus on the most important boards is to use the Favorites feature: the Home screen has separate tabs for Favorites and All Others:
We have made it even easier with two new filters:
Show only Active Boards: this means that only boards that are not in the Archive or have been deleted will be shown.|
Show all types of Boards: you can choose to see only Task Boards, only Whiteboards, or both.
The ability to hide (collapse) columns is very useful when a board has many columns, and not all of them are immediately important. We have now made it easier to use hidden columns: if you want to drag-and-drop a task into a hidden column, just hold it over the hidden column for a couple of seconds and the column will open to let you drop the task into it.
Did you know that you can easily rearrange the columns on a Task Board by pressing down on the column name for a couple of seconds? This makes the column “draggable” which means you can then move it easily to the right or left to change its position within the board.
