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Accio by Alibaba Group
Accio by Alibaba Group

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From Fake Automation to Real Flow: How We Reduced User Clicks by 90%

Every developer hates tools that call themselves "automated" but still require:

๐Ÿ”น Manual data bridging

๐Ÿ”น Constant confirmations

๐Ÿ”น Endless configuration

We learned this the hard way when our "AI procurement assistant" needed:

  • 5 clicks to start a purchase
  • 3 separate approval screens
  • CSV exports for "integration"

The Wake-Up Call

A user screenshot showed our tool beside a physical button labeled:

"Press here to pretend you automated something"

What Changed

1. Natural Language as API

  • Accepts commands like order 200 monitors under $200
  • Zero intermediate prompts

2. Silent Background Processing

  • Auto-selects vendors based on history
  • Parallel API calls with smart retries

3. One-Click Validation

  • Single "Confirm" at the end
  • Full audit trail available

Results

  • User actions reduced from 11 โ†’ 1
  • Support tickets dropped 70%

Discussion:

What's your #1 red flag for 'fake automation' in tools?

(I'll start: When the docs say "just add a few lines of code" but require 10 plugins)

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