AI Automation for Indian SMEs: 7 n8n Workflows

n8n is the open-source automation tool quietly transforming how Indian SMEs work. Cheaper than Zapier, more flexible than Make, fully self-hostable on a ₹500/month VPS. Combined with OpenAI or Claude APIs, you can automate genuinely intelligent workflows, not just "if X then Y" bots. Here are 7 production-ready workflows we've built for Indian SME clients, all doable in a weekend.

Lead and customer workflows

1) New website lead → AI enrichment (LinkedIn lookup, company size, intent score) → routed to nearest sales rep on Slack. 2) Customer support WhatsApp → AI tries answer from knowledge base → escalates to human if not 80% confident. 3) Quarterly customer pulse survey → AI summarizes responses → flags churn risks → creates retention task in Zoho CRM.

Operations and finance workflows

4) Vendor invoice arrives via email → AI extracts amount/date/GST → drafts entry in Tally → notifies accountant. 5) Customer asks for quote on email → AI drafts quote based on price list → sends to sales rep for one-click approval. 6) Daily P&L summary email → AI analyzes vs last week → highlights anomalies → CEO gets a 3-line summary instead of 20-page report.

Content and marketing workflows

7) New blog post published → AI generates 3 LinkedIn variants + 5 Twitter threads + WhatsApp blast copy → schedules them via Buffer. Saves 2-3 hours per blog post on social distribution.