Mathew PaquetChecklist · 4 min read
Before You Press Run: The Switch Check
Three checks to run on any automation Make's AI builds for you, before you turn it on.
Make is an automation platform. In Make, an automation is called a scenario: a chain of steps across your apps. Something happens in one app, and the scenario does things in the others.
Maia is Make's AI builder, inside that builder. You describe what you want in a chat. It plans the steps, adds them one at a time on the screen, and lists each action in the chat. You can ask why, and you can undo any change: scroll the chat to an earlier version and click Revert to this version.
Make's own rules say Maia can't run, turn on or turn off a scenario. It asks you to do that. Every answer it gives ends with the same line: "Output is generated by AI, please verify as errors may occur."
The question isn't whether an AI can build your automations now. It's who holds the switch once it's built.In the best test I found, Maia fixed a broken automation, labelled every step and explained what it did. Building something complex from zero was slower. So start with the automation nobody on your team understands anymore, and ask Maia to explain it.
Maia's help pages don't say whether it sets up any error handling. So assume that part is yours. The next three checks cover it.
Some scenarios start the instant something happens in another app, like a deal being marked won. Make calls that an instant trigger. Make's settings page says a scenario that starts with an instant trigger is switched off as soon as the first error happens. Nothing after that runs until somebody notices and turns it back on.
So test with the messy case, not the clean one. In the Scenario Builder, click Run once to run it a single time while you watch. Make's own advice is to test this way before you turn it on.
When a run fails, Make can save it as an incomplete execution in a folder, so you can fix the problem and finish the run later. That is your safety net.
But Make's settings page says that if that folder is full when an error happens, Make discards the failed data and keeps going. Discarded data can't be recovered.
To check it, which takes a minute:
Why it matters. This is the difference between a run you can finish tomorrow and a deal that's just gone.
When building took a specialist, the specialist owned it. Make now says any technically minded person on a team can build from day one. So ownership stops being automatic. Somebody has to be given it.
The owner gets told when it switches off, and knows what it was supposed to do. Usually that's whoever owns the result. For a deal automation, the person who runs sales operations, not whoever typed the prompt. Fill this in and keep it with the scenario.
What it does, in one sentence: [WHEN X HAPPENS, IT DOES Y]
Built by: [PERSON OR "MAIA, PROMPTED BY PERSON"]
Owner (gets told when it switches off): [NAME]
Backup owner: [NAME]
Tested with Run once on: [EMPTY FIELD / DUPLICATE / EACH BRANCH]
Store incomplete executions: [ON / OFF], room checked on [DATE]
The rule. If the honest answer to "who owns it?" is "the AI built it," it's not ready to turn on.
Make runs on credits, a monthly allowance in your plan. Maia's replies spend credits from the same pool your automations run on. An ordinary step in a scenario costs one credit. In Make's own help page example, a single reply from Maia used 140. Replies vary with the task.
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Pick one automation an AI built for you, click Run once with your messiest real example, and write down who gets told if it switches off.
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