Tag Archives: AI

New AI Helper for starting Boards and making Templates

AI, Kanban & Lean, ,

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:

Screenshot showing the Start New Board dialog, which contains the new CREATE WITH AI button

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:

Screenshot showing a Kerika Home page with the AI Helper dialog open in a separate pane on the right edge of the screen. The AI Helper has asked the user which of several accounts to which he has access he wants to create the new board.

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.)

Screenshot showing the AI Helper pane asking what type of board the user wishes to create.

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:

Screenshot shows the AI Helper offering suggestions to help the user clarify what his new board should focus on.

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:

Screenshot shows an example of a user request that is very specific.

Given a specific enough request, the AI Helper can quickly suggest a board that will meet the user’s needs:

AI Helper offers a preview of a proposed new board.

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:

Screenshot showing that the AI Helper has created a new board

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.

Screenshot showing the new board created by the AI Helper
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:

Screenshot showing a template created by the AI Helper
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!

How we are using AI

Uncategorized,

At Kerika we have been experimenting with using AI for software development for some time now: Microsoft’s Copilot has been used by our developers to help with their coding, and it has definitely proven helpful. We are now adding AI to some of parts of our user interface.

Using AI help build a new board

When you want to start a new Kerika Task Board, you will see that there’s a new option for GET HELP FROM AI:

Screenshot showing the GET HELP FROM AI button in the Start New Board dialog
AI Helper in Start New Board

Clicking on this button brings up a dialog where you can tell our AI what you want your new board to do:

Screenshot showing dialog that lets user specify what the new board should do.
How you can specify what the new board should do

It’s very important to provide as much detail as possible! The more you tell about Kerika’s AI about what you want your board to do, the better it can help. Some suggestions for what you should tell the AI:

Do you need a board for something short-term (3-6 months), something for a longer period, or for ongoing work without an end-date?

Will you be working by yourself, or with others?

What challenges are you trying to solve with Kerika: missed deadlines, poor communication, lack of visibility, etc.?

What’s not working well with the tools that you have been using before?

Are there any specific features of Kerika that you are interested in trying, like due dates, task assignments, file attachments, comments/discussions?

Using AI takes some time, typically 1-2 minutes to build your board. You can do other things with Kerika in the meantime; you will be notified when your board is ready. You can also cancel your request if you change your mind.

Using AI to help build a new template

Similarly, you now have the option of getting help from Kerika’s AI in making new templates:

Screenshot showing the GET HELP FROM AI option making a new template.

If you choose to get help from AI, you are asked to provide details about what your new template should do, and how it will be used:

Screenshot showing the input the user is asked to provide to get help from AI in making a new template.

With templates there’s a little more detail that we ask for, and as with using AI to create new boards, the amount and quality of the instructions you provide to Kerika’s AI will make a big difference to how well the AI can help you make a new template.

Making a Board similar to a Sample Board

This last one is for new users only: when people sign up as Kerika, they are given the option of browsing our many sample boards (which are organized by job function) so they can get an idea of what Kerika can do before they start their first board.

Ever since we build our sample boards we have observed that they are very popular, and that people would make copies of them to either play with, or use as a basis for building their own boards.

Making a copy to play with is fine, but making a copy to create a starting point for your new board is not very effective.

To make it easy for people to handle both needs, we now include a MAKE A BOARD LIKE THIS button that’s shown whenever a new user is viewing a sample board.

Screenshot showing the MAKE A BOARD LIKE THIS button that's shown when a new user is viewing a sample board
The MAKE A BOARD LIKE THIS option shown to new users when they are viewing a sample board.

Clicking on this button brings up a dialog where the new user is asked what they would like to do with their version of this sample board:

Screenshot showing the dialog that let's a new user tell Kerika's AI what the new board should look like.
Make a board like this

If all you need is a copy, just tell that to the AI: “Make a copy of this board”. But if you want a version of the board that’s personalized to your needs, make sure you give plenty of input to the AI!