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AI-tomation: how Zapier is using AI to make automation easy

by | Oct 2, 2023 | Zapier

Part 1 - An overview of AI in Zapier

Solvaa blog image header AI-tomation: How Zapier is using AI to make automation easier. Part 1 - An overview of AI in Zapier.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionised the way we do business. With so much potential, apps are increasingly building AI into their product. Zapier, the popular automation app, is no exception. This is the first in a series of blog posts that will explore the AI features and apps in Zapier. Future posts in the series will dive deeper into the nuts and bolts of how things work. In this post we’ll take a high-level overview to give you a picture of everything that’s available.
 
These features are currently in beta and may change. Some are only available to users who are part of Zapier’s Early Access program. Some are available to all users, but you need to agree to an additional set of terms and conditions to use them.

Canvas

Canvas is Zapier’s hot-off-the-press, newly announced, diagramming tool. It allows you to create diagrams for workflows and processes in your organisation. You can add ‘default’ steps, things that happen outside of Zapier (e.g. a client fills in a webform), and steps that are Zaps. You can also ask for suggestions on improving the workflow by adding more automation, this is where AI comes in. The AI provides Zaps that could help you to minimise the manual work in the process. You can review the suggestions and, if something looks good, a couple of clicks will take you to the Zap editor to set up and publish the Zap. The tool is still in Alpha, so it’s very early days but it’s worth requesting access and having a play to see if it could help you improve your processes and documentation.
A screenshot of Zapier's diagramming tool, Canvas. It shows a diagram of an example sales flow that includes manual actions and Zaps.

Build a Zap using AI

It can be daunting to know where to start with a Zap, especially if you’re new to Zapier. It can also be time consuming to create Zaps with a lot of steps. The ‘Create a Zap’ AI feature aims to remove both of these barriers to Zap building. You can find the feature on your Zapier dashboard (this is the page that you generally see when you log into Zapier). To use it, type in a description of what you’d like a Zap to do and, through the magic of AI, Zapier will suggest a Zap for you. You can then edit the Zap or ask the AI builder to try again.
A screenshot of Zapier's AI Zap builder prompt window.

Chatbots

Using Zapier interfaces, you can create AI-powered chatbots. When you build a new interface, you can select the option to insert an AI chatbot. There are chatbot templates that are ready to go for example, a blog post creator, a research assistant, and a dad joke generator. You can also create your own chatbot by providing the bot with a ‘directive’. For example, if you wanted a bot to help you write social media posts you could try: “you are a friendly assistant who provides suggestions for facebook posts for an independent fitness brand’. If you’re on the Zapier Companies plan, you can also upload your own data set for the bot to use.

Learn more here: Build a free AI Chatbot on Zapier.

Create an app extension

Another AI tool Zapier provides is the ability to generate app extensions. An app extension allows you to build a custom action for a Zap that you can share with your team. Similar to the Zap builder above, you describe what you’d like the app extension to do in and Zapier will build an extension based on AI suggestions. In our experience, these suggestions aren’t as reliable as the Zap builder, but hopefully that will improve as the AI model learns.

The Zapier Chrome extension

If you’re using the Zapier Chrome extension, there’s a new AI powered feature that lets you create actions. The actions you create for the extension use AI to complete fields that you choose. For example, you could create an action to create an email draft in Gmail, and ask AI to fill the subject and body based on the prompt you provide. The example below shows how you would create an action to send yourself a Slack message. When the action runs, you can type a prompt that the AI will use to compose the message.
A screenshot of an AI-powered action in the Zapier chrome extension. It shows the app for the action and the fields needed for the action to work.
 

Other places you can find AI in Zapier

You can find AI tools across the Zapier experience. Including:
  • Using AI to generate a description and notes for your Zap
  • Suggesting the correct field from a previous step to add to an action.
  • Suggestions for troubleshooting an error in a Zap run.
 
As a reminder, these features are in Beta so won’t always be correct. If you use AI in your Zap, check the content to make sure that it’s correct!
 

App integrations powered by AI

In addition to the built-in features that use AI, you can also connect Zapier with apps that use AI. Zapier has added AI options into Formatter and Code by Zapier, in addition to their existing AI by Zapier app. There are also integrations for popular AI tools like OpenAI and ChatGPT, and apps that heavily rely on AI, like Fireflies.ai.

We hope you enjoyed this whistle-stop tour of the AI that you can find woven throughout Zapier. In the next post of this series, we’ll dig into using ‘natural language’ to build automations with the Zap builder, the Chrome extension and OpenAI.

Solvaa: Strategy, Solutions, Support, Education

UK-based Solvaa® is a systems, process and automation consultancy specialising in improving business workflows. Solvaa® works with SMEs worldwide to implement digital tools, better processes, use business process automation and generative AI to boost productivity, enhance lead management, and remove unnecessary time, costs and hassles from stretched business owners’ days.

We help you simplify and streamline existing processes, integrate your business tools to make data transfer more efficient, and automate manual tasks. Our business process automation specialists have extensive experience using multiple cloud-based business tools, including Zapier, Pipedrive CRM, SmartSuite, Xero, Google Suite, ClickUp, Asana, Airtable, Hubspot, Active Campaign, Salesforce, Mailchimp, Quickbooks and many more. We are Zapier Certified Experts, SmartSuite Certified Partners, Pipedrive Certified Partners and Xero Certified Advisors. We also educate teams about using AI in their daily roles, mindset, governance and strategy in our Solvaa AI Academy.

Solvaa® was founded in 2016 by Kelly Goss, a no-code solutions architect, business process automation specialist and author of Automate It with Zapier (first edition) and Automate It with Zapier and Generative AI (second edition).

A thought leader on business process automation and digital adoption, Kelly attended an invite-only Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the UK government at No.10 Downing Street, providing insights and recommendations on how SMEs can benefit from productivity gains by using digital technologies, automation and AI. She has also been invited to speak at the House of Lords and at many other events.

Contact us today to find out how Solvaa can help your business make big savings on operational costs and time, and significantly increase productivity.

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