Get started with Asana Intelligence

This article explains how to use Asana Intelligence features. Learn how to successfully leverage AI to drive greater clarity, impact, and scale for executives, departments, and entire organizations.

Introducing Asana Intelligence, a smarter way to work. With our human-centered approach to AI, you can:

• Drive clarity and accountability: Take the guesswork out of strategic planning
• Maximize impact: Accelerate how work gets done
• Scale with confidence: Scale your organization’s work effortlessly

Read on to learn more about how to use Asana Intelligence features powered by Asana’s AI partners.

Smart status

Smart status is available on Asana Starter, Advanced, Enterprise, and Enterprise+ tiers. 

Save time by using AI to draft status updates to help identify blind spots, open questions, roadblocks, and an efficient path towards your goals. You can use Smart status to draft status updates for projects, portfolios, and goals.

Smart status for projects

1. Navigate to your project Overview tab and choose the current status of your project on the right hand side to begin drafting a new status update.
2. Click the Draft with AI button to draft a status update using Asana Intelligence.
3. Select the project status and choose the dates in which you’d like to include insights.
4. Click + Add guidance to add any instructions or content you'd like Asana Intelligence to include.

Once a draft is generated, you can choose to Discard, or Edit the draft. Once you've edited the draft to your liking, you can post the status by clicking Post in the top right corner.

You can view the status update at any time via the Overview tab.

You can also draft a status update using Asana Intelligence in any project view from the drop-down menu next to the project name.

Smart status for portfolios

Smart status on portfolios is available on Asana Advanced, Enterprise, and Enterprise+ tiers.

To create a status update with Asana Intelligence for portfolios, click Set status and select Draft update with AI.

You can then choose the projects from the portfolio that you want to focus on for the status update and click + Add guidance to add further instructions.

Smart status for goals

To create a status update with Asana Intelligence for goals, navigate to the goal’s details page, click the three dot icon, and click Draft update with AI.

You can then choose the sub-goals, portfolios, and projects that you want to focus on for the status update and click + Add guidance to add further instructions.

Adding guidance to Smart status

You can provide guidance to Asana Intelligence to structure your status update in a specific way.

1. Format the section names as a header to specify a status update structure.
2. All other input will be interpreted as instructions for Asana Intelligence to follow or content to include.

If instructions are not provided, Asana Intelligence will use the previous status update structure (if one exists) or a default structure.

Example 1: Giving instructions - “Bullet out current known or potential blockers that you foresee. Consider calling out where you might need help”.

Example 2: Specifying structure, format the titles as headings in this case - “Initiatives this work supports, Current Blockers, Next Steps”.

Once everything is added, click Draft update. Wait for Asana Intelligence to analyze your project, portfolio, or goal and draft a status update. You will be notified once the update is complete.

Once a draft is generated, you can choose to:

1. Discard the draft by click the X or back button
2. Edit the draft

Clicking Edit draft will insert the draft into the editor.

Once you’ve inserted your status update, you can review and make changes to the AI-generated status update in the editor and then click Post in the top right corner.

Smart answers

Use natural language to ask Asana questions, and get timely answers and insights about your projects, helping you to identify blockers, and determine next steps.

Asking Asana Intelligence questions about your project:

1. Open your project and click on the Ask AI button in the upper right corner.
2. Asana Intelligence will open and supply a list of questions. You can choose from the suggested prompts or type a question into the box provided at the bottom and click Ask.
3. Once Asana Intelligence has generated an answer you can choose Copy answer, the information can then be pasted wherever needed. 
4. You can also ask further follow up questions and share feedback on the answer received.

Smart digests

Learn what teams have been up to with Smart digests for projects. On the Overview tab, you can find a digest of recent activity in a project without checking each task individually. The digest will summarize all recent activities, like discussions, decisions, and work completed, in one place so it's easily scannable and provides valuable insights to jump back into a project. With Smart digests, you’ll be better equipped to stay informed and get up to speed on notable changes.

Using Smart digests on project overview:

1. Open the Overview tab of a project
2. Find Project summary in the right pane and select Show me
3. Once Asana Intelligence has generated the Smart digest, you will receive an email notification containing the generated output
4. You can also regenerate a Smart digest if you want to review different outputs 

Note: Smart digests are private to the user who generated it

Smart fields

Organize projects to support cross-functional collaboration with auto-generated custom fields.

To add auto-generated custom fields:

1. Open your project and click the Customize button on the top right.
2. Select Recommend fields. This feature is designed to create a number of field recommendations for you based on task and other content in the respective project.
3. You can choose to Discard, Add or Add and Fill the AI generated fields.

Smart fields use semantic matching to suggest existing global custom fields to promote consistency and reusability when there is a good potential match.

If there isn’t a good match with existing fields, it will suggest new fields.

To auto-fill existing custom fields:

1. Click on the dropdown arrow next to the name of a custom field in a project
2. Click Auto-fill field value
3. You will also have the option to undo the last autofill

Asana Intelligence will only autofill single-select and multi-select fields.

Smart summaries

Smart summaries allow users to get highlights from task descriptions and comments by summarizing task content and pulling out key action items as subtasks.

Smart summaries: summarize task content

1. Open the task details pane and select the Asana Intelligence icon from the rich text toolbar.
2. Choose Summarize task from the drop-down menu.
3. Asana Intelligence will generate a preview, and once the summary is available, you can choose to Discard, Copy or Edit before posting as a comment.

Content can only be summarized at the task level.

Smart summaries: create subtasks 

1. Open the task details pane, under Subtasks click the drop-down arrow on the Add subtask button.
2. Choose Create subtasks from the drop-down menu.
3. Asana Intelligence will generate suggested subtasks.
4. Once available, you can choose to Discard or Add subtasks. 

Smart summaries in Slack

Stay up to date on task details with Smart summaries directly in Slack. These Ai-generated summaries allows teams to get a quick overview of work happening in a task without having to leave their Slack workspace. Visit this Help Center article for more information on Smart summaries in Slack.

To use Smart summaries in Slack

1. Copy the task URL and paste it in a Slack channel or direct message.
2. A task preview will appear. Click Summarize task to generate a task summary.

The task summary is not visible to other members of the slack channel. It is only visible to the user who requested it. Any member of the Slack channel with access to the task will have the option to summarize the task, however the summary itself is only visible to the user that clicked on the Summarize task button.

Smart editor

Write clearer, more compelling responses with smart editor. The Edit writing and Improve format features help you strike the right tone, adjust the length of your writing, and improve the structure of your responses.

Smart editor can be used within task descriptions, comments, and status editor. Simply click the AI assist options button in the rich text toolbar to get started.

Edit writing

Use Edit writing to quickly perfect your text’s grammar and spelling, as well as tone and length. Tone adjustment options include: Direct, Polite, Professional, Casual, and Friendly. You can also adjust the length of your text to make it shorter or longer, depending on your need. 

1. Write a task description or comment, or begin a status update in the status editor.
2. Choose the AI assist options icon from the rich text toolbar as shown.
3. Select Edit writing. This feature is designed to correct any errors in grammar or spelling.
4. Adjust the length and tone via the pop-up window or by clicking the Tone and length button.
5. When adjustments are complete, click Replace to replace the existing text.
6. Click Discard if you wish to use your original text instead.

Improve format

Using Improve format allows you to focus on quickly capturing your thoughts, without getting bogged down in tedious formatting work.

1. Write a task description or comment, or begin a status update in the status editor.
2. Choose the AI assist options icon from the rich text toolbar as shown.
3. Select Improve format. This feature lets Asana Intelligence handle the formatting work.
4. When adjustments are complete, click Replace to replace the existing text.
5. Click Discard if you wish to use your original text instead.

Smart workflows

Smart workflows make it easier to build rules faster. Automate the rule creation process in the rule builder by providing simple, and natural language instructions via prompts or choosing from a selection of suggestions provided.

1. Navigate to the rule builder and select Create a custom rule
2. Select Create rule with Asana Intelligence
3. Provide simple instructions on the workflow you would like to automate or select one of the suggestions provided
4. Click Create and let AI build your automated workflow
5. Once the preview is available, you can choose to Discard, or Add before creating the rule

More Asana Intelligence resources

Why can’t I see these Asana Intelligence features?

Asana Intelligence features are now available for organizations and workspaces with a paid subscription. If your organization/workspace has a paid subscription and you don’t have access, please reach out to your designated admin/super admin (for organizations) or the billing owner/creator (for workspaces) to ensure that Asana Intelligence features are enabled in the admin console.

Note the following users do not have access to AI features in Asana:

What is powering Asana Intelligence features? 

Asana Intelligence features are powered by a combination of Asana-built machine learning models and models provided by our AI partners (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic). To learn more about these features, please see Asana Intelligence AI features and admin controls.

What if I don’t want my organization using features powered by AI partners (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic)? 

Admins can visit the Optimize with artificial intelligence tab of the Admin Console at any time to make changes to their AI feature preferences for their organization.

What languages are currently supported by AI?

While Asana's AI capabilities are designed to work in all supported languages, we have only completed testing for English at this time. We will continue to validate other supported languages as we roll out features to our customers and will share more details soon.