5 Best Energy Alternatives for AI Workflows in 2026
Energy puts specialized AI assistants in a workspace for browser, inbox, and file tasks. If you are looking for an alternative, start with the work you want to hand over: answering customers, coordinating meetings, helping colleagues use company knowledge, or building repeatable automations. Those jobs lead to different shortlists.
Our pick for email and scheduling is Carly. Each agent has its own email address, so you can CC it on a client thread and delegate the coordination. AI agents start at $35/month. For shared internal agents, consider Dust; for workflows your technical team can host and customize, consider n8n.
This comparison covers Energy at getenergy.com, the AI workspace. For a closer look at Energy itself, see our GetEnergy product and pricing guide.
Energy alternatives at a glance
| Tool | Best fit | What to evaluate |
|---|---|---|
| Carly | Customer email, scheduling, and follow-up | Give an agent one complete client thread |
| Dust | Agents that use shared company knowledge | Connect the sources a department actually needs |
| Lindy | Team tasks with review before changes | Check how approvals fit the daily workload |
| Zapier Agents | AI tasks across an existing Zapier stack | Verify the actions and activity allowance you need |
| n8n | Custom workflows and self-hosting | Budget for building and maintaining the workflow |
1. Carly — best for delegating email and calendar work
A prospect asks for a call, then changes the date, then brings in a colleague. That is the kind of job where Carly earns its place: the task is a conversation that needs to reach a result.
Create a Carly agent, connect your email and calendars, and give it your meeting rules. CC its address with an instruction such as: “Find a 30-minute slot next week, avoid Fridays, and send the invite once everyone agrees.” The agent can handle the replies and booking under the permissions you set. The prospect uses ordinary email.
You can also create agents for recruiting, customer follow-up, or operations, each with its own instructions and memory. Carly connects to thousands of apps, including Gmail, Outlook, HubSpot, and Slack. Workflows let you repeat a process when an event happens or on a schedule.
Why choose it over Energy: Your main handoff is an email, a text, or a recurring business process. Carly gives that work a named assistant people can contact directly.
Tradeoff: If your main requirement is watching an agent operate an arbitrary website, evaluate that browser task separately. Carly’s email and scheduling strengths do not establish that it replaces every browser workflow.
Pricing: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month.
Try Carly with one scheduling thread →
2. Dust — best for shared company knowledge and agents
Dust connects company sources and tools to agents that colleagues can share. It supports multiple models and controls over access to data and actions.
Choose it when: A support or operations team needs reusable agents grounded in internal documentation. The setup decision is which sources and permissions each agent should have. That takes more planning than delegating one email, but makes sense for a department-wide rollout.
3. Lindy — best for a team assistant with review built in
Lindy combines connected tools, shared meeting context, reusable skills, and scheduled work. Its current product explicitly asks before making changes.
Choose it when: You want colleagues to review the assistant’s proposed actions. During evaluation, try a recurring task and check how often someone must return to approve work. Lindy offers a seven-day trial.
4. Zapier Agents — best for teams already using Zapier
Zapier Agents lets you give an AI teammate instructions and access to app actions. It is a sensible shortlist entry when your business already depends on Zapier connections.
Choose it when: You want AI judgment inside work spanning those apps. Check the exact action you need, along with the agent activity allowance: an app appearing in a directory does not guarantee every operation is available. Compare agent usage and ordinary Zap requirements before choosing a plan.
5. n8n — best for custom automation you can inspect
n8n combines a visual workflow editor, AI steps, and code, with cloud and self-hosted deployment options. You decide how data moves between steps.
Choose it when: Someone on the team can own the workflow, handle failures, and maintain credentials. The self-hosted Community Edition removes a software subscription for that edition; hosting and model usage can still cost money. It is a better fit for building your own process than for handing a ready-made assistant its first task.
Questions to ask before switching from Energy
Which alternative can handle customer conversations?
Start with Carly if you want to CC an assistant into an email thread and let it coordinate directly. Connect the relevant accounts, set its instructions, and test the full exchange, including a changed date or an unanswered reply.
Do I need an AI agent for every automation?
No. Moving a form response into a spreadsheet or routing a record according to fixed rules may only need a workflow. Carly offers free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents start at $35/month. Use AI where the task needs interpretation or conversation.
How should I compare the cost?
Use one week of representative work: the number of people using it, the tasks they run, and the AI usage those tasks consume. Compare completed jobs and required review time alongside the subscription price.
Give Carly your first email task →
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See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
