What Are Actions and What Can They Do?
Your agent doesn't just answer questions - it can get things done.
Written by Outlearn Documentation
Updated at July 5th, 2026
Table of Contents
A customer asks when their order will arrive. A prospect wants to book a demo. A user needs their account reset. These are not questions that need an answer from a knowledge base. They need something to actually happen.
Actions are what make that possible. They turn your agent from a tool that answers questions into one that resolves problems end to end. Instead of telling a user to go somewhere else, your agent does the thing right there in the conversation - checks the order, books the meeting, sends the confirmation. No tab switching, no waiting, no handoff to a human for something a system could handle.
In this article, you'll learn:
- What Actions are and why they matter
- What kinds of tasks Actions can perform
- What's available out of the box and what you can build yourself
What Is an Action?
An Action is a task your agent can perform during a conversation. Where a knowledge source gives your agent something to say, an Action gives your agent something to do.
For example:
- A user asks "Can I book a demo?" - instead of just linking to a calendar page, your agent checks availability and books the slot directly in the conversation.
- A user asks "What's the status of my order?" - instead of telling them to log in and check, your agent looks up their order in real time and tells them the answer.
- A user wants to be notified by email after a conversation - your agent sends the summary automatically.
Actions run in the background. From the user's perspective, the conversation just flows naturally.
What Can Actions Do?
Actions fall into a few broad categories:
| Action Type | What Your Agent Can Do | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Communication Actions | Send messages and notifications to your team during a conversation | A customer flags a cancellation risk - your agent posts an alert to your Slack sales channel before the conversation ends |
| Email Actions | Send emails automatically at the right moment in a conversation | A user completes an onboarding flow - your agent sends a confirmation email through Gmail the moment it is done |
| Calendar & Scheduling | Check availability and book meetings without leaving the chat | A prospect asks for a demo - your agent checks your Calendly availability, offers slots, and confirms the booking in the same conversation |
| E-commerce Actions | Look up orders, products, and customer purchase data in real time | A customer asks where their order is - your agent pulls the live tracking status from Shopify and responds instantly (Coming Soon) |
| CRM & Sales | Access customer records, deal status, and account information | A user asks about their account tier - your agent looks up the record in Salesforce and answers without involving your team (Coming Soon) |
| Payments & Billing | Retrieve billing history, subscription status, and charge details | A customer asks why they were charged twice - your agent pulls their payment history from Stripe and explains the charge on the spot (Coming Soon) |
Actions Are Optional
You don't need Actions to get started. Your agent can answer questions from its knowledge sources without any Actions configured. Actions become valuable once your agent is live and you identify tasks that would make conversations more useful - like looking up live data or triggering follow-up messages.
Start simple. Add Actions when you have a clear use case for them.
Best Practices
- Don't add Actions just because you can. Each Action should solve a specific problem your users actually have in conversations.
- Think about what your support team does manually after a conversation ends - those are often the best candidates for Actions.
- Always test Actions using the Preview panel before going live to make sure they trigger correctly and return the right results.