Inspiration

I recently conducted an experiment as part of writing an article about AI-assisted process mapping and thought I’d post the results here.I’ve been investigating using AI to turn narrative text into process maps and many of the roads I’ve followed have led to Lucidchart!I decided to try narrative-to-map three different ways:Claude to Lucidchart via the MCP connection Lucidchart AI without the Process Agent Lucidchart with the Process AgentHere’s the narrative description of an HR recruiting process.This is the prompt I used in each case:You're a business analyst with particular skill at capturing knowledge about and then mapping business processes. Please create a flowchart in Lucidchart for the process described in the attached PDF.Note that I only included “in Lucidchart” when I was working in Claude; clearly that wasn’t necessary when I was in the Lucidchart app!Case 1: Claude using Lucidchart MCP connectionClaude used the MCP to create this diagram. It’s an OK start but has several

As part of the Legends Challenge for June, I wanted to show off a use case. This is not the only place where I volunteer. When I created this I thought about presenting it to officers at a future board meeting at the other place where I volunteer. The entire thing didn’t take very long (especially since it was based on a template). The most challenging part of it was the mini Gantt chart. This is something anyone can do if you have the ability to influence purchasing decisions.My Lucid Challenge: Lucid at Adoptee Hub

Join me for an interactive training, where I’ll show you how your team can use Lucid to make plans visible, adaptable, and aligned with organizational goals. Learn more about Dynamic Tables, Timelines, Lucid Cards, Jira and ADO integrations, and more.Hands-on workshop: Streamline planning with LucidJune 25, 2026 at 1 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. MTRegister nowSee for yourself how Lucid enables more effective planning for every team.

While the Cloud Accelerator is great for visualizing your cloud architecture, its real power is unlocked when you layer in external business data. This walkthrough shows you how to use a unique identifier to bridge the gap between your spreadsheets and your automated cloud models. What you’ll learn:How to prepare data from Google Sheets, CSV, Excel, or APIs for a seamless import. How to use the lookup formula to map external spreadsheet rows to specific cloud shapes using a unique Resource ID. For full formula information, please view this documentation.  How to extract specific data points—like average cost or trend data—and display them directly on your infrastructure. How to apply conditional formatting and dynamic shapes to visualize compliance, security, or usage data against manual benchmarks.⚙️ A note on the UIThis video was produced around 2024. While Lucidscale is now Cloud Accelerator and the Lucid interface has been refreshed since then, the core logic for data mapping and t

With budgets facing constant scrutiny, leaders are under immense pressure to eliminate tool sprawl and protect the bottom line. Consolidating disparate platforms into the Lucid Work Acceleration Platform does more than just streamline workflows—it delivers massive, direct financial relief. We recently worked on a customer story roundup that showcases how replacing redundant applications like Miro and Mural with Lucid allows organizations to break down operational silos and instantly slash software licensing costs.Tool consolidation savings: A global insurance company saved an estimated $300,000 in software spend by standardizing on Lucid, while a global pharmaceutical company cut its visual collaboration tech spend by 30%. Standardization payoff: A leading financial services company eliminated over $200,000 a year in legacy tech spend by transitioning its cloud architecture strategy to Lucid.Beyond software licensing, Lucid drastically reduces the hidden costs of manual planning and ex

Thank you for joining us for our webinar, “Demo: Saving time with Lucid AI”! (If you didn’t have the chance to join, you can access the webinar on demand here.)Check out these additional resources:Blog post: A quick guide to Lucid’s AI features Help center article: Boost productivity with Lucid AI Help center article: Use Lucid AI's Process Agent to build complex diagrams faster Training course: Create a diagram with Lucid AI Lucid AI templatesLeave any follow-up questions you have from the webinar in the comments below so that a Lucid team member can help answer them.

This week, we launched the Cloud Agent in beta for Cloud Accelerator users.Cloud infrastructure is dense. Even experienced architects spend hours filtering environments, isolating relevant resources, and writing narratives that explain what the diagrams mean. The Cloud Agent is built to close that gap. It works with your actual cloud data to produce the exact view you asked for, rather than generating a generic diagram.How it worksThe agent takes your imported cloud data as its foundation and your prompt as its direction. Describe the view you need ("show only resources in PCI scope and their external ingress points" or "filter to the us-east-1 region and generate an audit summary") and the agent produces a purpose-built diagram that matches your intent. The output is grounded in your imported infrastructure, not invented, which matters when you're producing evidence for an audit.What's supported at launchAWS environments (Azure and GCP coming soon) Natural language driven diagram gene

During our Lately @ Lucid webinar in March, my colleague ​@birch and I showed off how Lucid AI can take you from a blank canvas to a polished masterpiece in seconds, and your response was loud and clear: “Show us more!”Ask and you shall receive. 😉Birch and I are officially heading back to your screens on June 18th to put Lucid AI through its paces. No boring slides here! Just pure, live demos showing you how to brainstorm faster, build technical diagrams without the headache, and map out your processes in record time.  🚀 Pro tip: Bring your actual workflows, project ideas, and prompts to the session! You can follow along with us live and test them out in real-time. 👉 [Register here]June 18, 2026 | 1 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. MTCan't make it live? Sign up anyway and we'll send you the replay! Can't wait to hang out and build some cool stuff together. See you there!

Understanding the "price tag" of your cloud architecture shouldn't require switching between five different tools. This video walks through how to import data from Lucidscale (now Cloud Accelerator) to create a live, cost-aware model of your AWS environment.What you’ll learn:How to assign imported cost data directly to your AWS shapes for granular tracking. How to use formulas to automatically roll up individual component prices into a total application cost. For full formula information, please refer to this documentation.  How to use conditional formatting and dynamic shapes to visually compare your live spend against a manual budget. How to export your finalized cost model into a CSV for further reporting and analysis.⚙️ A note on the UIThis video was produced around 2024. While Lucidscale is now Cloud Accelerator and the Lucid interface has been refreshed since then, the data-linking workflow and the formula logic for cloud cost modeling remain fully operational.Are you tracking cl

When you need to see exactly how a single component impacts the rest of your system, highlighting the shapes alone isn't enough. This video shows you how to use page data to create a comprehensive spotlight that illuminates a target shape, its immediate neighbors, and the specific lines that connect them.What you’ll learn:How to create a custom data field at the page level to act as a dynamic "search" or "selector" tool. How to build formula-based conditional formatting rules that reference your page data to apply styles automatically. For full formula information, please refer to this documentation. How to use filters to identify both connected shapes and the corresponding lines in a single rule. How to apply global visual changes, like bright border colors, to create an instant "pathway" on your canvas.⚙️ A note on the UIThis video was produced around 2024. While the Lucid interface has been refreshed since then, the logic for page data and the formula syntax for connection-based for

When working with complex networks or process maps, it can be hard to see the "ripples" from a single change. This video shows you how to use page data and conditional formatting to create a spotlight effect that highlights a target shape and everything connected to it.What you’ll learn:How to link a shape's formatting to a custom page data field to create a dynamic "target" selector. How to use formulas to match shape text with page-level variables for instant color changes. For full formula information, refer to this documentation.  How to build an else if condition to expand your highlighting logic beyond a single shape. How to use the filter and connected formulas to automatically identify and style all shapes directly linked to your target.⚙️ A note on the UIThis video was produced around 2024. While the Lucid interface has been refreshed since then, the logic for page data and the formula syntax for connection-based formatting remain fully operational.Do you use "spotlight" rules

Legacy software tools like Visio and PowerPoint often turn documentation and alignment into a manual, time-consuming chore. In today's fast-paced business environment, true productivity is about moving the needle for your business. When teams transition to the Lucid Work Acceleration Platform, they achieve immediate ROI and reclaim hundreds of hours across their workflows:Massive time savings: A global auto manufacturer’s enterprise architects found they were 5x more efficient standardizing on Lucid, saving 140 hours per project. Reduced maintenance overhead: That same auto manufacturer reduced their documentation maintenance time by over 95% compared to legacy tools. Faster roadmapping: A national public health agency found its project management team is 75% faster at creating diagrams in Lucid than in Visio.Instead of manually building out complex systems or maintaining tedious spreadsheets, Lucid connects directly to your existing tech stack so you can let your data do the heavy lif

When managing complex projects, understanding the health of your dependency chain is critical. This video walks through how to use advanced formulas to calculate totals and completion percentages for Jira issues across your entire workflow. For full formula information, please view this documentation.What you’ll learn:How to use the downstream and upstream deep functions to trace the full length of a dependency path. How to write count if formulas to dynamically total tasks based on their current status. How to use the filter function to isolate specific data points, such as story points, from a set of dependent issues. How to calculate and display a live completion percentage directly on the canvas to monitor project health.⚙️ A note on the UIThis video was produced around 2024. While the Lucid interface has seen visual updates since then, the advanced formula logic for tracing dependencies and filtering Jira data remains a core feature of the platform.Are you managing complex Jira de

Ever needed a quick count of how many tasks are in a specific stage of your workflow? This walkthrough shows you how to use conditional formatting to automatically total cards, and their metadata, directly within your Lucidchart tables. For full formulas information, please refer to this documentation. What you’ll learn:How to use shape types and formulas to isolate specific rows or columns for targeted calculations. How to use the contents attribute to count the total number of cards within a table cell. How to sum up specific properties from external data, such as Jira story points, across a dynamic range. How to customize text badges and hover text to display these live calculations without cluttering your diagram.⚙️ A note on the UIThis video was produced around 2024. While the Lucid interface has been refreshed since then, the logic for referencing table contents and the formula syntax for summarizing data remain fully operational.Are you using tables to manage your project veloci

Navigating a dense VPC topology can be overwhelming when you need to see exactly how resources are linked. This video walks through how to use Lucid’s Cloud Accelerator and the connected deep formula to create a clear, visual map of every resource tied to a specific VPC. For full formula information, please refer to this documentation. What you’ll learn:How to use the connected deep formula to trace complex paths across non-container items. How to customize resource highlights using specific icons and hover text for better clarity. How to duplicate and adapt rules to make specific VPCs stand out from the rest of your topology. Why conditional formatting is a more reliable method than filtering when you need to preserve the integrity of your connection lines.⚙️ A note on the UIThis video was produced around 2024. While Lucidscale has become Cloud Accelerator and the interface has seen updates since then, the underlying logic for connection tracing and the formula syntax for cloud resour

Hey community 👋airfocus recently surveyed 500 product leaders across the US and the UK to understand how product teams are actually doing with AI: how it’s being used, where it's falling short, and what stands between AI adoption and true AI maturity. One finding stopped us in our tracks: 71% say they would be less productive if AI was removed from their workflows tomorrow. 40% cite trust in AI outputs as their #1 blocker to scaling AI.Product teams still don't trust AI, yet they already depend on it. How did we get here?Product teams are past the "Should we use AI?" question. AI is already woven into how work gets done: analytics, user research, feedback synthesis. The harder question is: “Are we actually getting smarter with it?”The survey shows a sharp tension around product teams’ strategic approach to AI.80% of respondents say that their product organization has a clearly defined AI strategy. 57% also agreed that their AI strategy is only informal.That's the crux of the maturity

Managing date-driven data doesn't have to be a manual process. This walkthrough shows you how to use Lucid formulas to filter dates from a linked Google Sheet and calculate totals for any specific range you define. For full formula information, please view this documentation.What you’ll learn:How to split text inputs into an array to prepare your data for date calculations. How to use the date formula to convert spreadsheet strings into recognizable date formats. How to apply lookup, filter, and count functions to identify data points within a specific window. How to dynamically display the number of entries—such as job applicants—that fall within your chosen dates directly on the canvas.⚙️ A note on the UIThis video was produced around 2024. While the Lucid interface has been refreshed since then, the logic for date parsing and the formula syntax for filtering arrays remain the standard for building data-intelligent documents.Are you tracking deadlines or timelines in your diagrams? T

Did you know that Lucid tables can do more than just hold text? This walkthrough shows you how to use formulas to turn your table cells into dynamic calculators for averaging, summing, and rounding your data. For full formula information, please refer to this documentation. What you’ll learn:How to open the formula editor within a table cell using interpolated text and the proper syntax. How to reference specific cells within a table using the exclamation point notation. How to dynamically calculate averages or totals using functions like mean and sum. How to use the round function to clean up your data and limit the number of decimal places displayed.⚙️ A note on the UIThis video was produced around 2024. While the Lucid interface has been refreshed since then, the table cell referencing and formula syntax remain the standard for building data-driven tables.Are you using tables to track project metrics? Share your favorite calculation hacks in the thread below! 

AI is already changing how people work, collaborate, and manage daily tasks, but it still feels like we’re only at the beginning.Right now, many workflows involve switching between multiple tools, manually reviewing outputs, and spending time organizing information that AI should theoretically handle more efficiently. At the same time, new AI-powered systems are becoming smarter, faster, and more integrated into everyday work.I’m curious how others see the future of AI-powered workflows evolving over the next few years.Do you think AI will eventually handle most repetitive and operational tasks automatically? Will workflows become more centralized around AI assistants, or will teams continue relying on multiple disconnected tools?What changes are you most excited about, and what challenges do you think still need to be solved before AI workflows become truly seamless?Would love to hear different perspectives, predictions, and real-world experiences from people actively using AI tools t

Ever feel like your team is spinning its wheels trying to solve a problem, only to realize everyone is fixing a completely different issue?Before jumping straight into solutions, consider developing a problem statement—a focused summary that bridges the gap between your current reality and your ideal outcome. An effective problem statement outlines the context, impact, and significance of an issue to secure stakeholder buy-in and keep everyone aligned on the same goal. By diagnosing the root cause using structured frameworks such as the 5 Whys or process mapping, you can easily shift your team from merely managing symptoms to implementing long-term solutions.Lucid's powerful collaboration features make it easy to analyze data, mitigate risks, and organize your strategy on a shared canvas.Here are a few templates to help you get started:A3 problem solving Customer problem statement Current vs. future state How does your team align on obstacles before diving into execution? Drop your fav

AI productivity tools are evolving fast, but many still don’t fit naturally into real-world workflows. Some feel overly complicated, while others promise automation but still require a lot of manual effort.I’ve been testing different AI tools recently, and I’m curious what challenges others are facing when trying to use AI for daily work, collaboration, research, or productivity.What’s the biggest frustration you’ve experienced with AI productivity tools so far?Are there specific problems that current tools still haven’t solved well? Or have you found approaches that actually improved your workflow in a meaningful way?Would love to hear real experiences, opinions, and what people think AI tools should improve next.

I used Lucidspark to Design a Karyotype Simulation for my students.  They are able to rotate, move, and match up Chromosomes into a blank Karyotype Form using a Karyotype Key as reference.  Upon completing their Karyotype, students can determine the gender and any genetic anomalies present in the Karyotype.I’m attaching a Link to my template below.  There is an embedded video link to explain how I use the Lucidspark Document with my students in my LMS system ( Canvas ) Lucidspark Karyotype Template

If you are managing a diagram with dozens of external links, manual entry is a thing of the past. This video shows you how to use data linking and formulas to automatically assign unique URLs to your shapes directly from a Google Sheet.What you’ll learn:How to import URL data from a spreadsheet and map it to specific shapes on your canvas. How to use the formula editor to dynamically pull link data into a shape's action settings. How to save your data-linked shapes into a custom library to quickly apply links across multiple rows of data. How to use conditional formatting to automatically display a "link" icon only on shapes that contain a valid URL.⚙️ A note on the UIThis video was produced around 2024. While the Lucid interface has been refreshed since then, the data-linking workflow and the ability to trigger actions via formulas remain core features for building "smart" documents. Are you using Lucid to map out external resources? Let us know how you're using automated links to sav

Want to build a truly interactive diagram? This walkthrough shows you how to use the isVisible() formula to create smart buttons that act as "active" indicators when toggling between different layers, such as current and future state views. What you’ll learn:How to use the isVisible() formula to detect which layers are currently active on your canvas. How to create unique labels for your layers using custom data properties. How to link those layer labels to specific shapes to build a functional navigation menu. How to apply conditional formatting rules that visually highlight a button only when its corresponding layer is turned on.⚙️ A note on the UIThis video was produced around 2024. While the Lucid interface has been refreshed since then, the layer logic and the isVisible() formula remain the standard for building interactive, multi-state documents.Do you use layers to show "before and after" scenarios? Tell us how you're styling your interactive toggles below! 

Since I teach High School with a LMS delivery system ( Canvas ), I’ve been using Lucid to solve a problem that has plagued me for years.  How does one create a “digital” activity for Lab Based Experimentation that often requires multi-media formats?Since my new friend Lucidspark came on the scene, I’ve been able to create one stop shopping boards to meet the unique needs of a Scientific Lab Report.  Lucid allows me to include video content, background text, instructions, links to other documents / web pages, as well as include tables, charts, illustrations and spreadsheets.  All of this in one single format for teaching and grading within the Canvas LMS System grade book.  There’s no need to toggle back and forth between different document types ( text vs. spreadsheets  etc. ) and have multiple file uploads. The Frames and Pathway features allow me to instruct students; moving from item to item ( Introductory Information,  instructions, Data tables, Graphs, resource materials, Q &