How Next Actions Work

Purpose

The next-action system is how Audienti decides what should happen now for a person or conversation. It is conservative by default and event-driven in practice.

What shapes the recommendation

The latest outbound touch that actually happened.
The current signal and context available to the motion.
The person's current fit score and whether that score is allowed to move forward for this motion type.
The channels that are truly available right now.
Cooling-off windows, waiting checkpoints, sender assignment, and connected account health.
Whether the operator has already done something different manually.

What happens next in common cases

The queue reads the prospect's current account state, not an old motion-specific recommendation. If the visible facts change, the next action changes with them.

New LinkedIn prospect: motion-led prospects usually start with light pre-connect work, such as follow or profile view, before a connection request.
No usable profile: provider actions stay blocked or pending until the prospect has a usable channel. A missing LinkedIn profile, zero profiles, or a failed enrichment profile does not authorize a send.
Assigned sender has the right account: ready actions use that sender's connected account for the channel shown on the row.
Assigned sender lacks the right account: the row blocks instead of borrowing another workspace user's account.
Another sender already touched the prospect: that history is kept as context, but the current sender's real relationship still controls what can happen. If another sender has a pending LinkedIn request, the assigned sender can still do pre-connect work, but the system will not stack a duplicate connection request.
Accepted connection for the assigned sender: the next LinkedIn private step can move to direct message when the conversation and account state support it.
Inbound reply: replies take priority over ordinary outbound sequencing. The reply uses the source conversation and source connected account when that identity is known.
Relevant public post or comment: the queue may recommend a governed public action, such as a comment or reply, when the post is recent, relevant, and within account limits. If there are no relevant posts or the available activity is stale, it waits or chooses another valid channel.
Manual action happened: once a human performs a different valid action, the queue treats that real event as the new truth and recalculates from there.

Sender assignment is the execution boundary

Automated actions require an assigned sender. When a prospect is assigned, Audienti uses that person's connected accounts for automation and ordinary preparation. It does not borrow another user's LinkedIn or email account just because that account is available in the workspace.

Assigned and ready: the next action can use the assigned sender's eligible connected account for that channel.
Unassigned: automated provider actions stay blocked until a sender is assigned. A human can still take a one-off manual action after explicitly selecting an eligible connected account for that action.
Assigned but missing access: the row stays blocked until the assigned sender connects or repairs the required account.
Relationship history: prior touches from another sender can explain the recommendation, but they do not give the current sender permission to act as if they have that relationship.
Reassignment: the next action recalculates from the newly assigned sender's real relationship and account state.

Manual one-off actions

An operator may take a one-off manual action with an explicitly selected eligible connected account. That selected account is used only for that action. It does not assign the prospect, change the default sender, or authorize follow-up automation from that account.

How No fit affects next actions

No fit is score 4. In ordinary prospecting, it blocks new automated next actions instead of letting the system continue outreach because a prior queue card or motion still exists.

No fit people are kept out of forward automation for ordinary motions.
Low fit people are not automatically blocked. Low fit means weaker alignment, not a suppression decision.
Unscored people are not treated as No fit. They need scoring, refresh, or human review depending on the surface.
Transition motions are the exception: imported relationships are assumed valid, so No fit is informational and does not automatically stop automation.
A real inbound reply or other human-only situation can still create operator work. That is review of an existing interaction, not permission to start new automated outreach.

The operator contract

The system recommends the safest reasonable move. The operator can always choose a different valid move. Once that happens, the system recalculates from what actually happened rather than insisting on the older recommendation.

How to read the states

Needs action: the system believes a human or an allowed automation path can do something now.
Waiting: the current action is still inside its checkpoint window, so doing more now would usually be premature.
Blocked: the system cannot safely continue without a human clearing something real, such as assigning a sender or repairing the assigned sender's connected account.
Nurture or inactive: the active path is exhausted or intentionally paused until something new changes.

Agent contract

Use: explain next-action recommendations, waiting states, blocked states, assigned-sender execution, and operator overrides.
Inputs: prospect, latest event, current stage, assigned sender, connected accounts, available channels, cooldown windows, sender constraints, and operator history.
Surfaces: Operator, prospect timeline, Lists & Pipeline, Inbox, and audienti operator next.
Verify: confirm the latest real action, current assignment, connected account health, and current state before explaining why the recommendation is ready, waiting, blocked, or inactive.
Never: treat an old recommendation, another sender's relationship, or a one-off manual sender choice as permission for future automation.