Smartsheet unveils AI as a teammate to boost enterprise success

Smartsheet has outlined its approach to integrating artificial intelligence (AI) within its enterprise work management platform, aiming to provide meaningful value rather than features added for novelty or market pressure.

The company has articulated its strategy around the idea of AI working as an equal teammate to humans, supporting teams to achieve objectives more efficiently while ensuring that data privacy, oversight, and governance remain central concerns. This approach leverages a combination of knowledge graph technology, role-specific AI agents, and AI assistants embedded directly into existing workflows.

AI as a collaborator

Pratima Arora, Chief Product Officer at Smartsheet, described the company's vision in a recent blog post, emphasising collaboration between humans and AI rather than replacement of employees. Arora stated, "Smartsheet's vision for AI is centered on AI as a companion, not a replacement. AI should act as a true teammate: one that extends team capacity, expedites decision-making, and continuously learns from outcomes. This isn't about automating isolated tasks - it's about building a collaborative system where humans and agents work together to orchestrate enterprise-wide achievement."

According to Arora, Smartsheet has developed a unified AI system that relies on flexible data models, large language models, and the company's own knowledge graph. This AI is designed to be embedded within the existing Smartsheet platform to integrate smoothly with the ways teams already operate, whilst maintaining data security and control protocols.

Arora outlined, "Imagine an AI assistant that helps complete tasks more efficiently, or AI agents that understand your work and take action on your behalf - while allowing you to maintain governance and control. Whether it's generating reports, flagging risks, or recommending next steps, Smartsheet AI is designed to amplify human impact, not replace it."

The intention is for AI to adapt and improve continuously through every interaction. "Our platform doesn't just collect data - it creates organisational intelligence by connecting decisions, outcomes, and patterns across business processes with a flexible, graph-based data model. This gives Smartsheet a unique advantage in driving the velocity of intelligent work - helping organisations move from decision to impact faster, and with greater confidence," added Arora.

Enterprise context and intelligence

"The real breakthrough comes when AI understands the full context of work: the relationships between people, goals, documents, and outcomes," said Dion Hinchcliffe, Vice President & Practise Lead, Digital Leadership & CIO at the Futurum Group. "Smartsheet is ahead of the curve here. By embedding AI into a platform that already orchestrates enterprise-wide initiatives and building a data model that connects the dots across work, Smartsheet is creating a powerful foundation for AI to deliver real, measurable impact."

Smartsheet is positioning its AI to serve not just teams or individual users, but to empower organisation-wide initiatives. The company has announced the development of new AI-first capabilities designed to simplify complex workflows and help teams focus on their most significant objectives.

"Guided Actions for Smarter Outcomes" is one of the capabilities being introduced: an intelligent AI assistant that delivers proactive, personalised recommendations tailored to organisational needs. This assistant is accessible through a conversational interface, enabling users to request dashboards or insights and receive prompt, actionable results.

Additionally, Smartsheet's forthcoming "On-Demand Capacity" feature will support teams via role-based AI agents. These agents will operate under strict user control to assist with tasks including project planning, resource allocation, and risk management. The platform will also enhance its automation capabilities to include multi-step AI-driven workflows for tasks such as collecting, summarising, and distributing updates across systems.

Centralised oversight and privacy

Maintaining oversight and transparency over AI usage is a central element of Smartsheet's strategy. The company is launching a central hub giving organisations full control over how AI is deployed within their operations. This aims to ensure that all AI-driven actions are auditable and in compliance with governance standards.

The Smartsheet Knowledge Graph

One of the core technologies underpinning Smartsheet's AI vision is its new knowledge graph, powered by Amazon Neptune. This graph-based data model is designed to contextually connect people, projects, and processes across an entire organisation to deliver more intelligent automation and recommendations.

"Graph technology transforms how we understand connected data," said Brad Bebee, Director of Amazon Neptune at AWS. "Smartsheet's Knowledge Graph, built on Amazon Neptune, maps the relationships between projects, people, and processes across your organisation. By understanding how work actually connects, the Knowledge Graph enables Smartsheet to deliver more intelligent recommendations, better insights, and proactive assistance. This lays the foundation for Smartsheet to continue building powerful AI-first capabilities that enable its customers to work more effectively and efficiently."

Current features enabled by the knowledge graph include smart sharing suggestions, with plans to add smart task assignments, personalised workspace insights, and proactive recommendations that consider each user's context and role in the organisation.