What is Automation 2.0?
Automation 2.0 is a guided, AI-assisted workflow-building experience in Keela that helps your team create, review, activate, and monitor donor engagement workflows with more confidence.
Automation 2.0 is powered by Mission Assistant, the AI layer across Velora’s suite of products. In Keela, Mission Assistant helps bring AI-powered guidance directly into the workflow-building process, so you can describe what you want to automate in plain language and get help turning that goal into a visible workflow draft.
Instead of starting from a blank canvas, you can use Mission Assistant to help draft, explain, and refine supported workflows. You stay in control: Automation 2.0 workflows remain drafts until you review them, complete any required setup, and choose to activate them.
Automation 2.0 is designed to make workflows easier to build, safer to launch, and easier to understand after they’re running.
What can Automation 2.0 help you do?
Automation 2.0 helps you create repeatable workflows for common donor engagement and team follow-up tasks, such as welcoming first-time donors, following up after a donation, celebrating giving milestones and several other fundraising-specific workflows.
For example, you could create a workflow that starts when a new donation is received, filters for first-time donors, waits two days, and then sends a welcome email and adds a tag for categorization or creates a to-do for further follow-up. Or, you could create a workflow that identifies lapsed donors and sends them through a re-engagement journey.
Key benefits of Automation 2.0
1. Start with written instructions
Rather than building from scratch, you can type or paste in a description of the workflow you want or your desired outcome in your own words, and Mission Assistant will help generate a draft workflow from your prompt.
This makes it easier to get started if you know the donor outcome you want but are not sure how to translate it into workflow logic.
2. Review the generated workflow
Automation 2.0 shows your workflow as a visible sequence of steps, including triggers, filters, delays, split paths, and actions.
This helps you understand:
- Who will enter the workflow
- What conditions apply
- What actions will happen
- What still needs setup before activation
3. Use plain-language filters and split paths
You can describe filters and split-path criteria, such as “only include first-time donors” or “separate donors who have given more than $500.”
Mission Assistant in Automation 2.0 helps interpret your request into workflow logic, while keeping the criteria visible so you can review it before activation.
4. Any missing setup will be flagged before a workflow goes live
Steps that need more information are marked as action required. For example, a Send Email action may need you to select the Email Marketing email that should be sent.
Automation 2.0 also includes Review & Activate, which checks whether the workflow is ready before it activates; any missing steps will be identified and flagged your manual review. Workflows will always remain drafts until you explicitly activate them.
5. Understand what happened after activation
After a workflow is activated, you can go to the Activity tab to track the flow of contacts in your workflow. The Contacts tab shows the list of contacts who have entered this workflow, while the Runs tab shows the list of individual entries to this workflow. Select any row in the Runs tab to view the detailed flow path of that entry - this will allow you to see which steps that contact went through, when and where they exited the workflow in real time.
This gives your team more visibility into workflow performance and makes troubleshooting much easier.
Examples of workflows you can create
Here are a few examples of what customers can accomplish with Automation 2.0:
| Goal | Example workflow |
|---|---|
| Welcome new donors | When a first-time donation is received, send a welcome email after a short delay. |
| Follow up with donors | When a donation is received, add a tag and send a thank-you email. |
| Segment donor journeys | Split contacts into different paths based on giving history or engagement criteria. |
| Re-engage lapsed donors | Identify donors who have not given recently and send a re-engagement email. |
| Help your team act faster | Add tags or create internal follow-up steps when key donor activity happens. |
How is Automation 2.0 different from legacy Automation?
Automation 2.0 is not just a redesign of the legacy automation tool. It introduces a more guided, AI-assisted workflow experience built around visibility, review, and confidence.
| Legacy Automation | Automation 2.0 |
|---|---|
| Users often had to build workflows manually from scratch. | Users can generate a workflow from a plain-language prompt or start from scratch. |
| Workflow setup could feel technical or difficult to translate from a desired outcome. | Mission Assistant helps turn desired outcomes into visible workflow drafts. |
| Filters and branching required manual configuration. | Users can now describe what they want the filter or split path to do, and Mission assistant will configure the right conditions for the desired outcome. |
| Branching was limited to a yes/no branching | Automation 2.0 supports more flexible split paths, allowing for nuanced donor journeys. |
| It could be harder to understand what happened after a workflow ran. | Activity tab views allow users view and track individual contact journeys through the workflow in real time. |
| Users had less guided support before launch. | Review & Activate helps check readiness before a workflow goes live. |
The biggest difference is that Automation 2.0 gives you more guidance while keeping you in control. Mission Assistant can help create, explain, and configure workflows, but workflows do not activate automatically. You still review the workflow, have control of the setup, and choose when to activate it.
Important things to know
- Automation 2.0 workflows remain drafts until you review and activate them.
- Donor-facing email actions require setup before activation.
- Send Email actions use existing Email Marketing emails.
- Mission Assistant helps with supported workflow patterns, but it does not replace your review or approval.
- The availability of triggers, actions, templates along with other AI-enabled features depend on the release phase and may not be available immediately.
To learn more about creating and managing an automation, click here.