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Create an AI digital assistant with Zapier

Kill the admin work and take control of your day.

By Elena Alston · May 9, 2023
An orange robot icon on a light purple background.

When do you find your job most satisfying? Probably not when you're doing administrative work—whether that's taming your email inbox, summarizing meetings, or creating a to-do list. Most of us spend more time than we'd like doing busywork when we'd prefer to be doing what we're actually passionate about. 

And that's exactly where AI comes in. 

When combined with Zapier, AI apps are powerful tools that can help you with everything from organizing your emails to scheduling your appointments. In this blog post, we'll show you how to create your own AI digital assistant using Zapier and AI.

Zapier is the leader in workflow automation—integrating with thousands of apps from partners like Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft. Use interfaces, data tables, and logic to build secure, automated systems for your business-critical workflows across your organization's technology stack. Learn more.

Table of contents

To get started with a Zap template—what we call our pre-made workflows—just click on the button. It only takes a few minutes to set up. You can read more about setting up Zaps here.

Organize, tame, and write your emails

We've all spent too much time organizing email inboxes and separating the stuff that matters from spam.

Whether you get too many emails to count, regularly miss out on important information that gets buried, or struggle to write business-appropriate emails at scale, AI can help you tame your inbox—and streamline your output. 

That's because AI can write summaries of emails and send them to you where you spend most of your time (like Slack), create email digests of summaries for you, define the tone of an email, and, yes, even draft responses for you. 

Get an OpenAI-generated email summary in Slack for new Gmail emails

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  • Slack logo
Gmail + Formatter by Zapier + OpenAI (GPT-4, DALL-E, Whisper) + 1 more
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    Don't get distracted by your inbox. For each new email you receive in Gmail, get a summary sent to a Slack channel, written by OpenAI. Keep up with your inbox without context switching with this workflow. Read our tutorial for setting up this workflow here:

    Get an AI-generated daily digest of your emails in Slack

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    • Slack logo
    Gmail + Formatter by Zapier + Digest by Zapier + 2 more
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      Don't get distracted by your inbox. Have OpenAI create summaries of each of your Gmail emails. Then get a daily digest of all of your email summaries in Slack so you can quickly and easily stay on top of your emails. Read our tutorial for setting up this workflow here:

      Answer questions from new inbound emails with My AskAI

      • Email by Zapier logo
      • My AskAI logo
      • Email by Zapier logo
      Email by Zapier + My AskAI
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        Bored of answering the same questions over email again and again? Get My AskAI to answer them for you. Each time a new question is submitted in the subject line via email to your Zapier email address, My AskAI will answer the query and respond to the sender, answering based only on your content.

        Learn more: Read our in-depth tutorials on using AI to write business emails at scale, send you a daily summary of your emails, or draft email responses for you.

        Create transcripts, to-dos, and summaries of your meetings  

        I can't tell you the number of times I've missed out on important meetings due to a timezone clash—or because I've gotten side-tracked by a fast-approaching deadline. 

        While a co-worker usually records most meetings, watching them later (even with playback sped up) takes a lot of time and doesn't always give me clear next steps. 

        Fortunately, these Zaps can do everything from creating transcripts from an audio file, drafting summaries, and creating a personalized to-do list based on the contents of a meeting—saving the whole team from taking notes and assembling them later manually. 

        So whether you need to gather product feedback from user interviews or catch up on a project sync you missed, AI can do all the heavy lifting for you. 

        Create meeting transcripts and summaries with OpenAI from audio files

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        • OpenAI (GPT-4, DALL-E, Whisper) logo
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        Dropbox + OpenAI (GPT-4, DALL-E, Whisper) + Slack
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          Ever missed an important meeting and don't want to listen to the entire recording? Save yourself the time with this Zap, which when triggered, creates a meeting transcript with OpenAI, uploads the text to Dropbox, then creates a detailed summary of the meeting with OpenAI. Finally, the Zap will share the summary in Slack as a channel message. Never miss important information or tasks again.

          Create transcripts of audio files with OpenAI's Whisper

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          • ChatGPT (OpenAI) logo
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          Dropbox + ChatGPT (OpenAI)
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            Need a transcription of a meeting recording or another audio file? This Zap takes audio files uploaded to a file in Dropbox, creates a written transcript, and uploads it to Dropbox. Never miss out on important meetings or other information again.

            Does your business ever create personalized video demos for new employees or prospects? You can also get AI to generate videos and automatically append them to your meeting invites.

            Generate Synthesia videos for new meeting invitees in Calendly

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            Calendly + Synthesia
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              Want to generate a personalized video for each new Calendly invitee? Now with this Zap, you can connect and Synthesia to Calendly and automatically request a new personalized video in Synthesia for each new invitee created in Calendly.

              Add your Synthesia videos to a detailed event in Google Calendar

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              Synthesia + Google Calendar
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                Whenever a new AI-generated video is ready in Synthesia, create a detailed event in Google Calendar with the video. Whether you're creating a demo, a personalized introduction, or a welcome video, this workflow can do the heavy lifting for you, so you can focus on wowing your attendee.

                Prioritize and personalize your daily schedule

                Everyone's schedule is subject to change on a daily basis. Whether you need an extra hour to meet a deadline or completely re-shuffle your day based on your to-do list, AI can help you decide what to prioritize—without wasting precious time figuring it out yourself. 

                Alternatively, you can also use AI to find specific events or send you personalized messages about new events scheduled on your calendar, including details about the project involved, the people attending, and the start and end time. Get prepped from the get-go. 

                Receive an AI-generated message about new calendar events in Slack

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                Google Calendar + OpenAI (GPT-4, DALL-E, Whisper) + Slack
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                  Get OpenAI to tell you when a meeting's been added to your calendar, what you need to prepare for it, and when it's scheduled for. That way, you never have to miss email notifications about new calendar events again—and come prepared. Whenever a new event is scheduled in Google Calendar, this integration prompts OpenAI to draft a personalized message for you, and then sends it to you as a private Slack message.

                  Find Google Calendar events with new pushed voice messages in Google Assistant

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                  Google Assistant (Legacy) + Google Calendar
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                    Take action on your voice messages right away, once you set up this integration. It automatically finds a specific event in your Google Calendar, or creates a new event, from the details left in a new pushed voicemail recorded in your Google Assistant.

                    Streamline your to-do lists and projects 

                    Need a project manager but don't have the budget? Whether you'd like to save time by having AI create or summarize a brief, outline content to get you started, or notify your team with AI-generated summaries, you can get your own AI assistant to do the heavy lifting. These Zaps can help you enhance and streamline your project management flows. 

                    For example, whenever a new project is created inside your project management tool, you can get an AI app to create a description (or generate content) and specific next steps for every teammate, then email or Slack it to your team. 

                    Create OpenAI content from new Zenkit items and update them

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                    • OpenAI (GPT-4, DALL-E, Whisper) logo
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                    Zenkit + OpenAI (GPT-4, DALL-E, Whisper)
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                      Use newly added item information in Zenkit to generate creative content in OpenAI. This integration will update the item with that creative content to save you from manual work.

                      Create OpenAI content from a brief and append to a Google Doc

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                      Google Docs + Slack + OpenAI (GPT-4, DALL-E, Whisper)
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                        Every time a new project is added to Asana, you can get OpenAI to generate content according to the brief, add it to a Google Doc, and then message your team to let them know. Get started on projects automatically with creative content.

                        Generate images with OpenAI's DALL.E from Airtable records and update it with your image

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                        Airtable + OpenAI (GPT-4, DALL-E, Whisper)
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                          Want to prompt OpenAI to create images based on your design briefs? Set up this Zap to generate images with DALL.E based on the content inside an Airtable record, then update that Airtable record with your new image.

                          Or, say someone has a specific request in Slack, email, or elsewhere. AI can expand on the message and send it as an item to your project management app. 

                          Create Trello cards with OpenAI responses to new or updated Google Sheets rows

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                          Google Sheets + OpenAI (GPT-4, DALL-E, Whisper)
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                            This Zap feeds your projects with AI-enriched text, images, and related content without any added clicks or keystrokes. Once it’s active, this integration automatically sends a prompt to OpenAI using the details in each new or updated row in a Google Sheets spreadsheet. The response is then added to a Trello card, all without the need to leave your spreadsheet interface.

                            Learn more: Read our in-depth tutorials on using AI to create social media copy or design logos according to briefs in your project management tools. 

                            Control your home devices from afar

                            At work all day and don't have time to manage your home devices? Or maybe you just want to automate the process, so you can get more done in the day without worrying about household chores piling up. 

                            These integrations let you control your devices from afar, so you can automate all your routines—from house cleaning to turning off the heat. 

                            Activate Alexa routines with new Flic presses

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                            Flic + Virtual Buttons
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                              Using your voice to control Alexa is great, but sometimes you just want to press a real button. This template uses virtual buttons to connect your physical Flic button to an Alexa routine, automatically triggering the routine as soon as the Flic button is pressed.

                              Execute HomeKit Scenes in Pushcut from new trigger phrases spoken in Amazon Alexa

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                              Amazon Alexa + Pushcut
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                                Tell Alexa to set a HomeKit scene with Pushcut. Just say the word and Alexa will set the correct scene in your HomeKit home - safely handled by the Pushcut Automation Server.

                                Create custom chatbots to do your bidding

                                Want to make use of ChatGPT without context switching? Fortunately, you can easily create a ChatGPT slack bot that allows users to ask questions in a specific Slack thread and have the AI reply—helping employees to ask questions and get replies directly in Slack. 

                                Start a conversation with ChatGPT when a prompt is posted in a particular Slack channel

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                                • ChatGPT (OpenAI) logo
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                                Slack + ChatGPT (OpenAI)
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                                  Ready to bring the power of ChatGPT to your Slack workspace? Use this Zap to create a reply bot that lets you have a conversation with ChatGPT right inside Slack when a prompt is posted in a particular channel. Now, your team can ask questions and get responses without having to leave Slack.

                                  Learn more: Read our in-depth tutorial on how to create a ChatGPT Slack bot for your whole team to enjoy. 

                                  Even better, you can also create custom chatbots using Zapier Interfaces

                                  The chatbot component taps into GPT, and by feeding it a "directive", or prompt, you can tailor the chatbot's use case and give it information specific to your company or your role. 

                                  For example, you could create a bot that gives career advice based on your company's documentation or that can provide editorial feedback based on your company's voice and tone guide. 

                                  Want to help employees write manager feedback or generate personal growth goals at work? A chatbot can do that, too. 

                                  Screenshot of bots built with Zapier Interfaces

                                  These chatbots can act as your own digital assistant, saving you time and resources. 

                                  Learn more: Want to have a digital assistant directly within ChatGPT? The Zapier ChatGPT plugin lets you connect thousands of apps (like Google Sheets, Gmail, or Slack) and automate tasks directly inside ChatGPT. You can join the waitlist here.

                                  Reply to prospects and customers

                                  Already use a chatbot to help your customers and leads with queries or issues based on your company's documentation? That's a great start! 

                                  But maybe you find yourself constantly answering the same questions from customers on other platforms. Or perhaps you just want to make sure new prospects get added to your company's sales platform. 

                                  Fortunately, these Zaps can help you streamline the whole process—ensuring your audience and sales team always get the information they need. 

                                  Answer questions from new inbound emails with My AskAI

                                  • Email by Zapier logo
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                                  • Email by Zapier logo
                                  Email by Zapier + My AskAI
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                                    Bored of answering the same questions over email again and again? Get My AskAI to answer them for you. Each time a new question is submitted in the subject line via email to your Zapier email address, My AskAI will answer the query and respond to the sender, answering based only on your content.

                                    Send prompts in Chatbase for new chat messages in Microsoft Teams

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                                    Microsoft Teams + Chatbase
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                                      Enhance your customer support experience by connecting Microsoft Teams and Chatbase. With this workflow, whenever a new chat message is received in Microsoft Teams, a prompt will be sent in the Chatbase app. This helps analyze and improve your chatbot's interactions and responses, ensuring better communication with customers and increased satisfaction.

                                      Send emails for new ChatBot messages

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                                      ChatBot + Email by Zapier
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                                        Use this integration to automatically send emails when a new client signs in, a transaction is complete, or when any other important event occurs in ChatBot. Never miss a beat!

                                        Create new Salesforce leads from new ChatBot messages

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                                        ChatBot + Salesforce
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                                          Connect the power of AI ChatBot and your favorite marketing tools together to let Zapier automatically add new leads to your Salesforce lists. Stop doing manual work!

                                          Learn more: Read our in-depth tutorial on how to use OpenAI to add acceptance criteria to product issues

                                          Streamline your work life with AI

                                          You owe it to yourself—and your team—to not get bogged down by admin. 

                                          The combination of AI and Zapier can help you focus on your most important work and let AI do what it's meant to do: support humans. 

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                                          A Zap with the trigger 'When I get a new lead from Facebook,' and the action 'Notify my team in Slack'