What are Sub-Assistants?
Sub-assistants are focused, user-created helpers designed to automate and streamline repeatable team or individual workflows. Built using a no-code workflow builder, they let anyone—from product managers to sales reps—extend the power of their Team PA with specialized, on-demand automation.What do Sub-Assistants Do?
- Automate routine or repetitive tasks (e.g., summarizing tickets, generating campaign briefs, drafting reports).
- Standardize processes across your team, ensuring consistency and quality.
- Save time by reducing manual work, so teams spend more time on high-value activities.
- Provide templates for common tasks that can be customized and shared.
How Do Sub-Assistants Work?
- Created and configured by users (not admins) using a no-code workflow builder.
- Can be built from scratch or by customizing templates for specific team needs.
- Activated on demand—users interact directly through the dashboard or chat interface.
- Can be personal (just for you) or published and shared across the team.
- Sub-assistants do not work in the background; they require user interaction to run.
Example Sub-Assistant Templates
- Marketing: Campaign Brief Generator What it does: Converts campaign ideas into structured briefs, gathering goals, assets, and timelines from recent Slack discussions or emails. How it helps: Speeds up campaign planning, ensures all requirements are captured, and centralizes information for approvals.
- Sales: Lead Research Assistant What it does: Collects lead data from CRM, LinkedIn, and recent emails, compiling a summary for each prospect. How it helps: Saves sales reps hours of manual research and ensures every conversation is informed by the latest context.
- Support: Ticket Summarizer What it does: Summarizes new support tickets and highlights urgent issues for triage. How it helps: Reduces triage time, ensures nothing is missed, and surfaces critical cases instantly.
- Product: PRD Drafter What it does: Turns meeting notes and feature requests into draft Product Requirement Documents. How it helps: Standardizes PRD creation and accelerates product planning.
- Content: Social Post Composer What it does: Drafts social media posts or email copy based on product updates or marketing campaigns. How it helps: Maintains message consistency and speeds up content creation.
- Operations: Onboarding Checklist Builder What it does: Generates personalized onboarding checklists for new hires, integrating tasks from HR, IT, and team managers. How it helps: Ensures nothing is forgotten and streamlines the onboarding process.
Collaboration Features
- Sub-assistants can be shared and published for team-wide use, enabling standardization and faster onboarding.
- Can work in conjunction with Team PAs—PAs may call sub-assistants for specific tasks as part of a larger workflow.
- Sub-assistants can cross-collaborate between teams when published beyond their original group.
How are Sub-Assistants Different from Team PAs?
Sub-assistants and Team PAs play distinct but complementary roles. Here’s how they compare:| Feature/Aspect | Team Personal Assistants (PAs) | Sub-Assistants (Sub-Agents) |
|---|---|---|
| Creation & Ownership | Provisioned/administered by organization; not user-built | Built and published by users via no-code workflow builder |
| Core Role | Dedicated, role-focused team orchestrator | Task automation for specific, repeatable workflows |
| Proactivity | Proactive summaries, nudges, and orchestration | User-driven and activated on demand |
| Scope | Dedicated to teams but cross-functional and organization-wide | Team-focused, but can be shared or published to other teams |
| Communication | Cross-functional via @mentions (e.g., Product PA to Eng PA) | Collaborate with PAs and other sub-assistants; team-driven |
| Customization | Configured by admins; not user-built | Fully customizable and template-driven by any user |
| Collaboration | Calls sub-assistants as part of orchestrating team workflows | Can be called by PAs, users, or shared between teams |
Core Role of the Team PA:
The Team PA is the dedicated, always-on orchestrator for your team. Configured by admins, it proactively organizes information, syncs tools, manages meetings, and coordinates workflows. PAs can communicate with other PAs across departments, providing a true cross-functional nervous system for the organization.Example Workflow
After a marketing campaign meeting, a user triggers the Campaign Brief Generator to capture all requirements and assets. The Team PA then uses the Social Post Composer sub-assistant to draft announcement posts, while the Sales Lead Research Assistant is used by a rep to prep for follow-up calls. The Team PA coordinates, ensuring every artifact is shared and synchronized with the right tools and teams.Best Practices for Using Sub-Assistants
- Start with templates—customize them to fit your team’s frequent tasks.
- Publish and share your most useful sub-assistants so the whole team benefits.
- Combine sub-assistants with Team PAs for end-to-end workflow automation.
- Regularly review usage to identify new automation opportunities.
- Iterate on sub-assistants to ensure they stay relevant as your team’s needs evolve.
What’s Next?
Now that you understand both Team Personal Assistants and Sub-Assistants, you’re ready to discover one of Envole’s most powerful features: how these assistants can collaborate with each other to tackle complex challenges.Explore Multi-Assistant Collaboration
Learn how to bring multiple assistants together using simple @-mentions