We're excited to share that generative AI and AI agents are coming to Makerble! We're keen to hear your thoughts and ideas for how this new technology can work best for you in a way that's ethical and responsible as well as efficient and effective. In looking for opportunities for AI to take work off your plate we've considered tasks that:

• can be easily delegated by providing clear instructions
• are time-consuming
• based on anecdotal evidence are tasks that people don't necessarily enjoy doing but know they need to do well

Using these criteria we're building our first set of AI agents and generative AI tools.

What are AI agents (and how do they differ from generative AI more generally)?

One of our developers, Chaitanya, describes AI agents like this: "When you use generative AI, you have to press the ENTER key in order for the AI to do its thinking or whatever task you've asked it to do. Once it gives you its response, you have to give it another prompt and press ENTER in order for it to act on that second prompt. With AI Agents, you don't need to press ENTER, or rather, you only press ENTER once. This is because the AI Agent already understands that there are a sequence of prompts and it knows how to act on the previous response to do the next part of the task."

In other words, AI agents are a bit more like a person than a robot, inasmuch as they can take responsibility for a string of tasks rather than needing to briefed task-by-task.

But if this is all too many definitions without practical examples, let's dive into some practical examples!

Make a CaseNote: get your case notes written up for you

After a support session, the last thing you probably want to be doing is taking thirty minutes to write up the notes from the conversation. This is the first area in which we're deploying AI.

Makerble's CaseNote AI agent records the audio of your 1:1 appointment, transcribes it (by 'diarising' the recording to distinguish who said what) and then writes a structured case note automatically that covers the topics discussed, progress against goals and any follow-up actions needed. The case note is saved in draft so that you can review it when you're ready or make any edits if necessary. You're in control of the entire process. You can optionally invite the participant to provide consent to being recorded at the start of each session (or only after their first appointment) and the agent handles the writing up from that point on. Once the case note is published, the audio recording and the transcript are automatically deleted unless the admin in your organisation has enabled the option to archive them.

The result? Better 1:1 appointments in which you can be fully present without needing to divert attention to taking notes. There's also the significant time-saving you'll gain from no longer needing to manually type up your written notes and add them to your case management system.

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Make a Report: create funder reports in a fraction of the time

Reporting to funders is essential, but gathering the anecdotes, stories and case studies, adding up figures from across multiple projects, disaggregating data demographically; these are all time-consuming, stressful tasks which are done out of obligation because you know you need to report in order to retain the support and funding your work deserves.

Makerble's Report agent can generate your funder report in minutes. You tell it the questions it needs to answer and the agent will pull together your results from the projects, albums and filters you've already got within the platform. The agent saves your report in a Word format that's structured around your funder's specific reporting requirements for that grant or contract. So if you've got various reporting requirements, that's not a problem. Whether you're reporting against outcomes, milestones or simply needing to share case studies, Makerble will give you a strong draft report that you can immediately share or refine as you see fit.

For organisations managing multiple funders and reporting deadlines simultaneously, this will enable you to produce accurate monitoring reports, delivered on time and created using far less staff time.

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Make a Toolkit: generate forms, surveys and outcome frameworks, whenever you need them

Every programme you run requires a set of data capturing tools that are tailored to that intervention. You need appropriate referral forms to capture people's details, baseline surveys you can compare results against, an updated impact framework that demonstrates the outcomes you're achieving; the list goes on. Building these from scratch requires time and expertise that many teams don't have on tap and can't always afford to buy in.

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Makerble's Toolkit agent works with you to create ready-to-use forms, surveys and impact frameworks. It's based on a chat conversation that combines your expert understanding of your project with its expert understanding of impact measurement methodology. Tell the agent what kind of information you'd like to collect and the types of outcomes you'd like to measure. The agent will then design the form, survey or outcome framework directly within your Makerble platform. You just need to preview it, tweak it and then add it to your projects to start using it. You can use the Toolkit agent during onboarding when you're first setting up your account but also at any other point in time as your programme evolves and you need your tools to keep up with those changes.

We're hoping that this will be a cost-saver, a time-saver and something that improves the standard of data collection. With better data you're able to gain sharper insights and make decisions that create an even greater impact.

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What's next?

Our CaseNote, Report and Toolkit agents are just the beginning. They all come under our AI Autopilot umbrella and have been designed specifically for the processes, terminology and reporting requirements that impact-focused businesses, charities, social enterprises and training organisations need. We're aiming to create a single place where you can ask Makerble anything about your impact, e.g. attendance patterns, referrals you haven't followed up with and more. Well be sharing more as we launch more of these exciting features.

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Join the waiting list

Makerble AI Autopilot is in development, sign up for early access here and optionally let us know any ideas, thoughts or concerns you have about this technology.

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