Transforming AI into action: An inside look at Tray Merlin

It’s no secret that AI is shaking things up. Every day, we inch closer to the cusp of a technological revolution that will, without a doubt, fundamentally change how we work and live. And while it may be a bit cliché to say, the possibilities truly are endless. 

However, harnessing the power of AI is about more than just creating a “brain” with vast knowledge, (which is essentially all an LLM is). While LLMs are trained on vast amounts of data to generate results, it takes human input and intervention to turn those results into actionable tasks. Something needs to act as the “body” for the LLM, taking the output and translating it into actions that can be executed without the need for human intervention or further training. This is where the true value of AI lies - in its ability to connect with real-world applications.

That’s how AI will transform businesses, and those that don’t use AI will be replaced by those that do. The urgency to adopt AI and leverage its power to maintain or accelerate competitive advantage has never been greater. 

Our mission at Tray.ai has always been to empower people with the ability to solve complex business problems quickly, independently, and without the constraints of technology. To that end, the Tray platform is uniquely designed to leverage the recent advancements in AI technology. Our user-friendly visual interface, standardized connector schema, and extensive workflow, authentication, and API technologies allow us to deliver a flexible, low-code, and AI-augmented automation builder.

Introducing Tray Merlin AI

Enter Tray Merlin AI, a groundbreaking innovation that transforms Large Language Model outputs into complete business processes. Unlike many other applications that interface with LLMs, Merlin and the Tray platform are self-contained, meaning Merlin only needs to fetch small pieces of information from the LLM when necessary during the building process. This ensures that customer data is never exposed or sent to the LLM. 

By leveraging OpenAI's cutting-edge technology and combining it with Tray’s extensive workflow, authentication, connector, and API technologies, we've created an intelligence layer in our platform that provides automation capabilities activated by natural language instructions, allowing developers, business technologists, managers, and front-line workers to achieve remarkable business outcomes at scale without needing to have prior knowledge or expertise in AI.

In other words, Tray acts as the “body” that connects AI with practical applications, transforming natural language into powerful automated workflows. With Merlin, the promise of AI-driven automation is finally within reach of anyone, offering unparalleled automation capabilities such as on-demand automation and the ability to build repeatable automations with advanced business logic. Let’s dive deeper with some illustrative use cases.

Use Case: Instant answers at the point-of-decision with AI-powered automation

Imagine a sales executive who needs specific data from Salesforce, such as all the open opportunities of large publicly traded enterprises with a high probability of closing. Merlin’s conversational interface makes this task as simple as typing the request. Merlin translates the user’s natural language query into a series of actions, quickly extracting the data from Salesforce, cross-referencing with a sales intelligence tool to identify accounts that are in the S&P 500, and presenting it to the user instantaneously. 

Use Case: Repeatable automation using advanced business logic 

A Customer Success Manager needs to prioritize outstanding issues for customers with upcoming renewals or current opportunities. To ensure that customer needs are being met, they want to perform this once a week. Using just natural language instructions, the automation builder in the CSM team can build a process in just minutes that pulls the report of all outstanding issues for customers with upcoming renewals or current opportunities and notifies sales reps via email. Merlin builds in steps for authentication and displays all the steps in the low-code visual builder that can be easily reviewed and modified to improve the workflow. Once built, Merlin quickly extracts the relevant data from their customer support system and generates a report with the list of issues and their priority level. The report is then sent to the corresponding sales rep and CSM on a weekly basis, ensuring that all issues are proactively addressed and solved, rather than being caught off guard during a deal or renewal.

These are just a few examples of the endless possibilities that Merlin can provide for any user. From automating mundane tasks to solving complex business problems, Merlin allows users to achieve more than what is possible without it. For instance, IT teams can easily automate provisioning processes by asking Merlin to sync employee Okta permissions with other tools on a daily basis. Sales reps can ask for a Slack message summarizing newly assigned opportunities that have a high score. So whether you need an on-demand answer at the point-of-decision or want to securely build out more complex, repeatable workflows, Merlin can do it. 

AI as a fundamental layer within the Tray platform

Tray's core technology is uniquely designed for AI-powered automation. There are three fundamental properties of the Tray platform that make Merlin possible. Without these capabilities, legacy iPaaS products will have no choice but to bolt-on AI functionality which will put the burden back on the user to complete things that the AI cannot do on its own.

First, Tray’s core technology works incredibly well with AI, as if it was purpose-built to do so. We built Merlin into our foundational core of connectors, authentications, and API technologies. Merlin automatically detects the necessary connectors needed for integration and seeks authentication when required. All the steps that Merlin builds are displayed in Tray’s low-code visual builder that allows the user to easily review and make any modifications if required.

Second, our 600+ out-of-the-box connectors use a standardized input/output schema that provides an easy-to-understand framework to integrate with AI systems. Utilizing an input schema with input validation allows us to fine-tune inputs for connectors based on provided validation messages. Validating inputs before sending requests to third-party services enhances the quality and consistency of integrations, ensuring no incomplete requests are made. The LLM can either adjust inputs using its existing knowledge or prompt users for additional information as needed. This approach means that the LLM doesn’t need to manage inconsistent error responses from third-party APIs.

Finally, the Tray platform lets users create workflows that precisely mirror their business processes. With features such as unlimited nesting, branching, loops, callable flows, and triggers, Tray lets anyone harness the power of AI and automation in tackling complex business challenges.

And that’s really why this is so exciting for us and our customers. Delivering AI-powered automation only accelerates our mission to transform fragmented business processes into powerful outcomes without the constraints of technology. 

Security and governance for AI-driven automation

As with any new technology, there will be concerns around data security and governance. The Tray platform ensures that the scalability, robust governance, security, and controls of the core platform extend seamlessly to its Merlin capabilities.

Authentication: Merlin automatically identifies and applies the required authentication access to apps and services, ensuring secure access to the necessary resources.

Security: Our platform prioritizes data security, preventing any sensitive information from being sent to third-party LLMs. All processing occurs within the platform, with Merlin fetching only the essential information needed for building integrations, keeping customer data secure.

Logging and instrumentation: Merlin provides a comprehensive audit trail and notifications, ensuring transparency and traceability for all sensitive data and core services.

Scalability: Our platform leverages highly parallel serverless architecture, allowing for concurrent automation executions and seamless scalability to meet the evolving demands of any business.

Governance: Merlin upholds all roles, permissions, authentications, and data access controls, ensuring a consistent governance framework across the platform.

By integrating our advanced AI capabilities with the robust security and governance measures inherent in the Tray platform, we can deliver an incredibly powerful automation solution that enterprises can trust. 

See Merlin in action

As the pace of innovation accelerates, Tray.ai continues to lead the charge in transforming business automation. With the launch of Merlin, we are the industry’s first iPaaS with generative AI that equips anyone to securely automate complex workflows without the need for LLM training or exposing customer data to LLMs.

To learn more about Merlin and see it in action, join our upcoming webcast hosted by me and discover what the future of automation holds for your business.