Harmony

It's hard to imagine what kind of tool can be a perfect fit for a formula that combines both technical and non-technical stakeholders. It's possible, though—just hear me out.

The key here is to look at the tool from two angles because the roles are different. IT will be deploying and managing it, while the non-tech teams will be using it to create AI automations.

1. Loved by IT

The IT team will be responsible for deploying, securing, and managing this AI automation infrastructure. This means the tool needs to address the following aspects:

• Deployment: It needs to be easy, scalable, and compatible with the existing infrastructure the team is already using.

• Data Residency: The tool should offer an on-prem option so the data can be fully secured. It should also allow visibility into the code to audit and continuously scan it.

• Managing Access to Connectors: The tool needs to allow the IT team to control which connectors are available to whom.

• Reporting Capabilities: The team should be able to create reports on how the tool is being used and set alerts based on these reports.

• Extensibility: This is crucial so they can extend any functionality as needed when the team asks for it.

• Observability: The necessary tools for the IT team to quickly fix issues when they arise.

This infrastructure tool should feel native to developers, fitting seamlessly into their workflow. The IT team needs to be enthusiastic about deploying and supporting this tool. Remember, the IT team is the core team in this process.

1. Loved by Non-IT

Non-technical teams love tools that are easy, sleek, and simple. This tool should look and feel this way when used by non-technical teams. They shouldn't worry about doing a lot of technical steps to achieve their business goals.

The tool should include elements like:

• Prebuilt Automation Connectors: This includes AI tools like OpenAI, Claude, Stability AI, and other essential tools.

• No-Code UI with AI-Assisted Code Options: If they get stuck, they can ask AI to help with writing code or making custom requests.

• Collaboration Tools: These tools should let teams build together, allowing them to own the same flows and projects collectively.

• Sharing Capabilities: So they can spread successful ideas across departments.

From our experience with customers at Activepieces, we know this combination works very well. We designed the core product as open source (under the MIT license), making it highly extensible and secure---hence, loved by IT teams. We also made the UI super simple and intuitive, which makes it loved by non-technical teams.

While Activepieces is an open-source tool at its core, we offer a lot more in a commercial version designed to allow for this AI transformation.

I'm not claiming that Activepieces is your only option, but it's one of the few that perfectly balances both ends. Of course, you can definitely make other infrastructure tools work for you too.