Concept overview

Concept deep dive

Workflows, policies, and AI specialists

Workflows automate business processes. Policies evaluate rules. AI specialists can help with repeated judgment, outreach, document analysis, and follow-up when the data and allowed actions are clear.

Practical rule

Use workflows for repeatable sequences, policies for rule decisions, and specialists where interpretation or follow-up would otherwise consume operator time.

Use this page when you need to decide:

what to configure, where the data lives, who should see it, and what the next operational action should be.

Operational visualization

Workflows move records from signal to action.

1

Trigger

Record changed

2

Condition

Rules checked

3

Wait

Rollup updates

4

Action

Record or message

5

Review

Human exception

Automation path

When this happens, what rule should run and what should change next?

A good workflow is explainable as: when this happens, if this is true, do this next.

Definition

The parts operators need to understand

This is the vocabulary to use when explaining the concept to a scheduler, payroll lead, client manager, or implementation owner.

1

Trigger

The event that starts the workflow, such as record created, field updated, scheduled time reached, or request submitted.

2

Condition

The rule that decides whether the workflow should continue.

3

Wait

A delay or gated pause, often used before rollups update or before escalation.

4

Action

The outcome: update a record, send a message, assign a task, change access, request approval, or generate a document.

5

Specialist step

An AI-assisted action that reads approved data and performs a scoped task.

1

Workflow patterns

A workflow should be easy to explain in one sentence: when this happens, if these conditions are true, do this next. If that sentence is unclear, the workflow probably needs cleaner data or a narrower scope.

When a user is created, assign onboarding tasks.
When a shift is unassigned, notify eligible workers.
When a DNR field changes, remove restricted locations.
When late count reaches a threshold, move the worker to another tier.
When reimbursement is submitted, route it to admin review.
2

Policies

Policies decide whether an action should be allowed, blocked, flagged, ranked, or optimized. They can evaluate one record or match two records, such as worker-to-shift eligibility.

Blocking policies stop actions such as overtime or missing credential requests.
Flagging policies allow action but warn admins.
Matching policies rank qualified workers for a shift.
Optimization policies prefer lower-risk, lower-cost, or higher-priority matches.
3

AI specialists

AI specialists should be scoped like operational teammates. They need a persona, task instructions, data read permissions, data write permissions, Engage recipient rules, policy access, and file analysis access if needed.

Use specialists for repetitive follow-up, document reading, note parsing, or shift recovery.
Do not use specialists where the business rule is simple enough for a policy.
Give specialists only the data and actions required for the task.
Keep exception paths visible to humans.

Example: Late shift to tier movement

How this shows up in a real Teambridge workflow

Use this as the implementation checklist: each step should produce a visible record, permission, view, or automation.

1

Add a Late field to Shifts.

2

Create a rollup on Users that counts late shifts.

3

Create a workflow triggered when the late count changes.

4

Add a short wait so the rollup can recalculate.

5

If the worker has three late shifts and is Gold, update tier to Silver.

6

Notify the manager or surface the worker in a coaching workspace.