Frequently Asked Question
Everything you need to
know about Matterway
Explore our most common questions. Still unsure? Our
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The Basics
What is the Matterway Assistant?
Matterway Skills are designed to improve and streamline everyday tasks through intelligent, interactive guidance and automation in real-time. Our innovative technology enables the addition of a user interface and automation layer to any web application, without requiring API integrations or system modifications. This, in turn, allows you to build super-specialized macro-like applications to assist employees in working more efficiently and effectively. These Skills act as a powerful toolbox to simplify the completion of manual tasks, making it easier and quicker for employees to achieve their goals.
How do you help employees simplify tasks concretely?
While we can technically create any kind of customized user experience, we’ve developed some core capabilities to address common digital friction patterns that hinder employees from performing well:
We can navigate systems and instruct users on actions with step-by-step guidance. We can visualize key decisional data and encode decision rules to provide recommendations. We can identify and extract data, populate it across systems, and automate redundant steps. We can validate data entries and help with calculations. We can perform real-time compliance and data checks. We can help users to decide on the best course of action. We can compose emails or documents and update archives.
All in real-time and across applications. This empowers employees to work faster and better, helping them to be more productive and achieve better results.
We can navigate systems and instruct users on actions with step-by-step guidance. We can visualize key decisional data and encode decision rules to provide recommendations. We can identify and extract data, populate it across systems, and automate redundant steps. We can validate data entries and help with calculations. We can perform real-time compliance and data checks. We can help users to decide on the best course of action. We can compose emails or documents and update archives.
All in real-time and across applications. This empowers employees to work faster and better, helping them to be more productive and achieve better results.
What tasks, workflows, or processes, and systems are supported?
Any manual tasks, workflows or processes can be supported as long as the underlying systems are web-based or API-based. Additionally, we can interact with Excel, PDF or Word documents and Outlook or other mail providers. We cannot support technologies like Java applets, Flash or Desktop Applications. For certain Desktop Applications (e.g. SAP R/3 client) custom integrations can be considered.
What’s the difference to Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?
RPA and Matterway are both non-invasive technologies that can be rapidly implemented. There is some overlap between the two, but in the details their approach is fundamentally different. They are designed for a different use case.
Robotic process automation (RPA) is a software technology to automate repetitive tasks. Software robots emulate human actions interacting with digital systems and software. They run independently on a server and operate on a preset schedule or are triggered by logic in a process flow. RPA bots follow a rule-based process to completion and are therefore best suitable for tasks that involve only clearly defined, digitized and rule-based steps.
However, many tasks combine routine steps with a higher form of knowledge work — they require an employee with contextual knowledge and experience to provide nuanced inputs, make judgements, handle exceptions and decide on the best course of action. These tasks are not designed to be done by a software robot.
Matterway is a software technology to support, not replace, employees in completing a task easier, faster and better. Complementary to RPA’s procedural capabilities, Matterway allows a more interactive flow to let an employee make judgements, provide contextual inputs, handle exceptions and decide on the best course of action. Complex decisions or actions can be left to the user. This makes Matterway faster and easier to implement and maintain for these specific use cases and a great, complementary addition to RPA.
Robotic process automation (RPA) is a software technology to automate repetitive tasks. Software robots emulate human actions interacting with digital systems and software. They run independently on a server and operate on a preset schedule or are triggered by logic in a process flow. RPA bots follow a rule-based process to completion and are therefore best suitable for tasks that involve only clearly defined, digitized and rule-based steps.
However, many tasks combine routine steps with a higher form of knowledge work — they require an employee with contextual knowledge and experience to provide nuanced inputs, make judgements, handle exceptions and decide on the best course of action. These tasks are not designed to be done by a software robot.
Matterway is a software technology to support, not replace, employees in completing a task easier, faster and better. Complementary to RPA’s procedural capabilities, Matterway allows a more interactive flow to let an employee make judgements, provide contextual inputs, handle exceptions and decide on the best course of action. Complex decisions or actions can be left to the user. This makes Matterway faster and easier to implement and maintain for these specific use cases and a great, complementary addition to RPA.
How is Matterway different from AI assistants?
Recently, a new breed of AIassistants has emerged, from consumer-grade chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude,Gemini, and Grok, to enterprise copilots like Microsoft Copilot, and agenticplatforms like Claude Cowork and OpenClaw. While all of these are powerful intheir own right, they serve a fundamentally different purpose than Matterway.
Compared toconsumer-grade assistants and enterprise copilots (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Microsoft Copilot): Matterway is not a chatbot.Rather than requiring employees to switch to a separate chat interface,Matterway embeds contextual assistants directly into the applications whereemployees already work, such as SAP, your ticketing system, ERP, or CRM. Theseassistants blend AI, LLMs, automation, and human actions together into aseamless workflow experience. The result is an enterprise-grade, flexible, andmodular platform for configuring assistants that appear right inside theapplication context, rather than in a standalone window.
Compared to agenticplatforms like OpenClaw: OpenClaw is a universal, highlyflexible framework primarily designed to help you build and run agents in thebackground, largely unattended. While powerful, it is still early-stage and notyet widely considered enterprise-secure. Matterway, by contrast, is an assistedform factor that operates in the foreground, embedded contextually inside theenterprise applications your employees use every day. It enriches existing ITsystems to make them easier to use, workflows more streamlined, and employeesmore productive.
Compared to agenticproductivity tools like Claude Cowork: Claude Cowork is a powerful agentic assistant, but it is primarily anindividual productivity tool, enabling tech-savvy builders to createautomations using plain English. Its agentic-first architecture means everystep involves AI execution, which is powerful but also costly at scale.Matterway is built for process excellence and IT teams whose job it is tocreate automations and streamline operations for their stakeholders across theorganization. It seamlessly blends traditional automations, AI and agentic AIsteps, existing applications, and human actions together, because theassistants are embedded into the workflows where people work today. This makesMatterway more flexible and significantly cheaper at runtime, while enabling anoperating model where process excellence or IT teams can centrally govern andmanage automations at enterprise scale.
Compared toconsumer-grade assistants and enterprise copilots (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Microsoft Copilot): Matterway is not a chatbot.Rather than requiring employees to switch to a separate chat interface,Matterway embeds contextual assistants directly into the applications whereemployees already work, such as SAP, your ticketing system, ERP, or CRM. Theseassistants blend AI, LLMs, automation, and human actions together into aseamless workflow experience. The result is an enterprise-grade, flexible, andmodular platform for configuring assistants that appear right inside theapplication context, rather than in a standalone window.
Compared to agenticplatforms like OpenClaw: OpenClaw is a universal, highlyflexible framework primarily designed to help you build and run agents in thebackground, largely unattended. While powerful, it is still early-stage and notyet widely considered enterprise-secure. Matterway, by contrast, is an assistedform factor that operates in the foreground, embedded contextually inside theenterprise applications your employees use every day. It enriches existing ITsystems to make them easier to use, workflows more streamlined, and employeesmore productive.
Compared to agenticproductivity tools like Claude Cowork: Claude Cowork is a powerful agentic assistant, but it is primarily anindividual productivity tool, enabling tech-savvy builders to createautomations using plain English. Its agentic-first architecture means everystep involves AI execution, which is powerful but also costly at scale.Matterway is built for process excellence and IT teams whose job it is tocreate automations and streamline operations for their stakeholders across theorganization. It seamlessly blends traditional automations, AI and agentic AIsteps, existing applications, and human actions together, because theassistants are embedded into the workflows where people work today. This makesMatterway more flexible and significantly cheaper at runtime, while enabling anoperating model where process excellence or IT teams can centrally govern andmanage automations at enterprise scale.
Can you integrate or trigger other tools and RPA bots into your solution?
We have developed a proprietary automation platform that is highly optimized for real-time browser automation. Additionally, it has the capability to seamlessly trigger other tools and RPA bots, as per the specific requirements of the use case.
How is Matterway different from Digital Adoption platforms?
Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) focus on guiding users through software interfaces with tooltips, walkthroughs, and in-app guidance overlays. They help users learn and navigate existing applications but don’t change the underlying workflow or automate tasks.
Matterway goes beyond guidance by actively automating steps, extracting and populating data across systems, performing compliance checks, and providing intelligent recommendations — all in real-time. Rather than simply showing users where to click, Matterway reduces the actual work involved by handling repetitive actions and simplifying complex decisions. This makes Matterway a productivity tool, not just a training tool.
Matterway goes beyond guidance by actively automating steps, extracting and populating data across systems, performing compliance checks, and providing intelligent recommendations — all in real-time. Rather than simply showing users where to click, Matterway reduces the actual work involved by handling repetitive actions and simplifying complex decisions. This makes Matterway a productivity tool, not just a training tool.
Technology & Compatibility
How does the UI + Automation layer interface with applications without APIs?
The UI + Automation layer is designed to seamlessly interface with applications that do not have APIs available. It achieves this by mimicking user-like actions in real-time directly on the website’s user interface within the browser. Through this approach, the layer can perform actions such as clicking, typing, and observing the elements on the website, replicating the behavior of a user at an accelerated pace. In essence, the user interface becomes the interface through which our automation layer interacts with the application, effectively serving as its API. This enables smooth integration and automation even in the absence of traditional APIs.
How does document extraction work? Do you use your own engine?
Document extraction operates based on the specific use case, taking into account factors such as the nature of the documents (scanned vs. digital) and their structure (templated vs. diverse). Our platform employs a proprietary engine for extracting information from digital documents, providing a basic extraction capability. For scanned documents, we seamlessly integrate with Azure Form Recognizer, leveraging its powerful capabilities. Furthermore, we have the flexibility to integrate with other major platforms like Google and AWS, based on specific requirements, upon request. In order to uphold the integrity of the extracted data, we present the extracted information to the user for validation purposes, thereby ensuring a high level of data quality.IT involvement is minimal compared to traditional change projects. Your IT department is only required for:Providing Matterway access to the systems employees use, plus test data and test users.Deploying the Matterway Assistant to employee workstations — a one-time action per workstation or user.
What if we want to use APIs, or AI/ML models, or Generative AI API calls?
If you wish to utilize APIs or leverage AI/ML models, our platform offers seamless integration capabilities. We have the ability to communicate with any API, enabling you to integrate with various external services. Additionally, we provide built-in support for OpenAI, enabling you to leverage their powerful parsing, summarization, and classification capabilities. While we offer a range of functionalities, we also have the flexibility to incorporate custom AI/ML models or integrate with other Generative AI APIs, catering to specific use cases as needed.
To what extent do I need to involve my IT team?
Very little. Matterway is designed as a non-invasive technology that works alongside your existing systems without requiring changes to your IT infrastructure. Your IT team only needs to be involved once for the initial setup of the runtime environment — installing the Matterway Assistant on end-user machines and whitelisting the matterway.io domain. After that, Skills can be deployed and updated without additional IT involvement.
What infrastructure is required for development?
The project team needs access to the respective systems (test or staging environment is fine) and test data for the specific use case. Developers build Matterway Skills locally on their (virtual) machines. In addition to the above-mentioned system access, developers need to have NodeJS version 18 and an IDE installed. They’ll also need access to our private registry for NPM (a tool for managing code libraries) to install the necessary parts for their work.
What infrastructure is required for deployment?
The Matterway Assistant, as the run-time environment, needs to be installed from a provided .msi file on every end user’s machine. Additionally, our matterway.io domain needs to be whitelisted to download and update Matterway Skills. There’s no additional infrastructure overhead required. Matterway Skills will inherit the existing authentication methods that the underlying applications or APIs require. Since the connection between a client and an application or API runs over HTTP/S, tokens or cookies, as applicable, can be passed back and forth in the same way as if a user were using a regular browser. In other words, no specific access rights are required as long as users have access to the respective systems.
What data is processed or stored?
No data is processed or stored outside of the existing infrastructure during the execution of a Matterway Skill. We don’t ever store any client data. Only JSON metadata about Skills (layout, styles, interactions, etc.) is stored in the Matterway cloud (app.matterway.io). Additionally, we can track and store anonymized usage data about Skills for adoption and error handling purposes.
What are the data security provisions for personal data?
The only personally identifiable information (PII) we handle is the Assistant user’s data stored within our system, enabling access to app.matterway.io for managing skills. This includes first and last name as well as the email address.
Getting Started
What are the steps involved in executing a project once a use-case is identified?
The steps involved in executing a project once a use-case is identified are as follows:
Capture As-Is Workflow: Using our proprietary tool called Designer, we capture the current workflow in a collaborative session with 1–2 key users. We take snapshots of each step and document the actions required to complete the specific tasks and map them out in a flowchart. On average, this step requires 1–2 sessions of each one hour with the key users.
Design To-Be Workflow: With a clear understanding of the current process, we utilize the Designer software to design a more productive and streamlined workflow. We create a prototype of the Matterway Skill, whereby we customize pre-built user interface components and define automation scripts to remove or simplify inefficient and error-prone steps. This step usually requires another 1–2 iterations of each one hour with the key users.
Implementation: Once the new workflow design (Matterway Skill) is approved, we hand it off to a JavaScript developer for implementation. The developer can export a significant portion of the code from the Designer software and leverage our SDK and development tools for a fast and robust implementation. On average, the development takes around 4–5 days.
User Testing: We conduct thorough user testing to ensure the Matterway Skill meets user requirements and expectations. This testing phase typically takes an additional 4–5 days.
Go-Live: With our live update technology, ready-made products can be tested and deployed in minutes. IT support is only required once to set up the run-time environment.
Capture As-Is Workflow: Using our proprietary tool called Designer, we capture the current workflow in a collaborative session with 1–2 key users. We take snapshots of each step and document the actions required to complete the specific tasks and map them out in a flowchart. On average, this step requires 1–2 sessions of each one hour with the key users.
Design To-Be Workflow: With a clear understanding of the current process, we utilize the Designer software to design a more productive and streamlined workflow. We create a prototype of the Matterway Skill, whereby we customize pre-built user interface components and define automation scripts to remove or simplify inefficient and error-prone steps. This step usually requires another 1–2 iterations of each one hour with the key users.
Implementation: Once the new workflow design (Matterway Skill) is approved, we hand it off to a JavaScript developer for implementation. The developer can export a significant portion of the code from the Designer software and leverage our SDK and development tools for a fast and robust implementation. On average, the development takes around 4–5 days.
User Testing: We conduct thorough user testing to ensure the Matterway Skill meets user requirements and expectations. This testing phase typically takes an additional 4–5 days.
Go-Live: With our live update technology, ready-made products can be tested and deployed in minutes. IT support is only required once to set up the run-time environment.
What do I need to have in place to work with Matterway?
You need very little to get started. The main requirements are web-based systems where your employees perform their daily tasks and a willingness to identify and address digital friction in your workflows. Our team handles the technical setup, design, and development of Matterway Skills. Your involvement is primarily needed during the initial workflow capture and design sessions.
How can I be sure there is enough digital friction in my processes?
Digital friction exists wherever employees spend time on repetitive manual steps, copy-paste data between systems, follow complex multi-step procedures, or make decisions that require pulling information from multiple sources. If your teams work with web-based applications and you notice bottlenecks, errors, or slow turnaround times in manual processes, there is likely significant digital friction that Matterway can address. We offer an initial assessment to help you identify and prioritize the highest-impact opportunities.
Which team members should be involved?
For best results, involve a small group of key stakeholders: 1–2 subject matter experts (the employees who actually perform the tasks daily), a process owner or team lead who understands the business objectives, and an IT contact for the initial setup of the runtime environment. During the workflow capture and design phases, the subject matter experts are the most critical participants.
What support is provided from Matterway to build and maintain Skills?
We provide professional services for planning, designing, scoping, developing, testing, and maintaining Matterway Skills. The service level agreement is subject to an agreement between the two parties.
Matterway is an enterprise-grade, AI-native intelligent assistance platform that simplifies complex employee workflows for large organizations and BPOs. Combining AI agents, automation, UX, and human-in-the-loop capabilities, it helps amplify human potential at scale. Acquired by Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) in October 2025.
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