https://zapier.com/blog A blog about productivity, workflow automation, company building and how to get things done with less work. Wed, 28 Oct 2026 18:09:07 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/automationbench-on-specialized-intelligence-index Today, AutomationBench joins Fireworks' Specialized Intelligence Index (SII), bringing business workflow automation to a growing collection of practitioner-built benchmarks that compare AI models on real work. We're one of 32 new partners in this round, alongside teams covering fields like finance, healthcare, software, and ML research. AutomationBench measures whether an AI agent can finish a business workflow end to end across sales, marketing, operations, support, finance, and HR. Being part Tracy Lee Wed, 28 Oct 2026 07:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/automationbench-on-specialized-intelligence-index https://zapier.com/blog/slack-to-do-list I know the best approach to a calm, focused workday is to dive into my deepest work with as few distractions as possible. But we live on Slack at Zapier, so calm, focused, and distraction-free are hard to come by. Slack to-do lists give you a one-click way to corral chats into an organized to-do list without leaving the app. But beyond Slack's dedicated to-do list feature, here are a few other ways to create and manage a to-do list in Slack. Table of contents: How to use Slack to-dos How to use Jessica Lau Wed, 28 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/slack-to-do-list https://zapier.com/blog/perplexity-ai There comes a time in every professional's life when they have to choose a favorite AI assistant. I didn't expect to pick a search engine. Someone recommended Perplexity to me as a research tool. Since I'm a content writer, I spend a lot of time checking facts and tracking down references. AI-powered search with sources I could easily inspect sounded promising, and as I used it more, I kept discovering other features that helped me get work done. Based on my experience with Perplexity, here's wh Sara J. Nguyen Wed, 28 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/perplexity-ai https://zapier.com/blog/hubspot-certifications When I started out as a freelance writer, I didn't have a professional background in content marketing. I not only needed to learn everything I could about my new industry, but also had to show potential clients that I was worth investing in. And after creeping on a few freelancer subreddits, I learned HubSpot certifications were exactly what I needed. But the courses you can take from HubSpot Academy go well beyond my niche—in fact, they run the gamut from marketing to sales and even web develo Kiran Shahid Wed, 28 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/hubspot-certifications https://zapier.com/blog/best-notion-alternatives Notion is a special app. Starting from an empty screen, you add notes and documents in a freeform way. Then, when the original page is too crowded, you create your first database and the possibilities explode: you can create a custom productivity system and change it as you evolve. But productivity is evolving. Knowledge management platforms need to support human teams while making room for AI agents, with automation and guardrails in place to make sure you do more work, not spend more time revi Miguel Rebelo Wed, 28 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-notion-alternatives https://zapier.com/blog/tables-build-actions Originally released July 28, 2026. A new customer just placed their first order, 12 products due out Friday. Your warehouse packs from a table with one row per product, and nothing ships until every row has a check mark. If your Zap drops that order into a single record, the packer gets a paragraph instead of a checklist. Somewhere around product nine, a line gets skipped. Your new customer's first box arrives one product short. Twelve products should mean twelve rows, and now your Zap can write Joe Stych Tue, 27 Oct 2026 17:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/tables-build-actions https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-image-generator AI image generators have been brewing (generating?) up a storm for the last few years. If you've been on social media, watched prime time news shows, or ordered from GrubHub, AI-generated images have been impossible to miss. These kinds of AI-generated images are everywhere, and sometimes you won't even realize. If you want to join in the fun, or add some AI-powered features to your business workflows, the apps on this list will give you what you're looking for. I've been writing about AI image Harry Guinness Tue, 27 Oct 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-image-generator https://zapier.com/blog/ai-models-on-zapier Staying up to date on the latest AI models is like trying to keep my house vacuumed in the height of my dog's shedding season (a losing battle). New AI models drop practically every week, and it's not exactly obvious which ones deserve a spot in your workflows. This guide is your cheat sheet, with every model you can automate on Zapier right now, sorted by provider. If you just want to cut to the chase and find out which model you should be using for which task, that's what AutomationBench is fo Nicole Replogle Tue, 27 Oct 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/ai-models-on-zapier https://zapier.com/blog/gmail-vs-apple-mail Gmail and Apple Mail are two of the most-used email apps, but there's a key distinction between them. While the former is a full-fledged email provider, the latter is more popular as a client app, where you can toggle between multiple accounts. The Gmail email service sends and receives emails. You can then use any of the Gmail email clients—the web app, iOS app, and Android app—to access it, or you can use a different, third-party email client, like Outlook or Spark. Apple Mail is just an ema Shubham Agarwal Tue, 27 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/gmail-vs-apple-mail https://zapier.com/blog/what-is-figma There's a chance that I may have once stretched the truth about my Figma proficiency only to have my skills tested in real time—in front of a team of designers. (How you're imagining that went is exactly how it went.) Not a shining career moment by any stretch of the imagination, but one of those "it made me who I am today" bits where I can now confidently—and honestly—say that I can whip you up a basic wireframe in Figma if you needed one. (How aesthetically pleasing that wireframe would look i Jessica Lau Tue, 27 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/what-is-figma https://zapier.com/blog/google-forms-vs-surveymonkey Google Forms and SurveyMonkey are leaders in their category for different reasons: one is a simple form tool that nearly everyone already has free access to, and the other has been the poster child for survey creation for over two decades. SurveyMonkey, despite its cuddly name, has evolved into a distinctly corporate tool focused on things like market research, Net Promoter Score surveys, and brand health tracking. Google Forms, meanwhile, is hugely popular for sending out free forms and surveys Ryan Kane Tue, 27 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/google-forms-vs-surveymonkey https://zapier.com/blog/openai-models Keeping track of all the new AI models getting released at the moment is practically a full-time job. The GPT-6 models were first released about two months after the GPT-5.6 series, which itself was released less than three months after GPT 5.5—you get the picture. I've been writing about OpenAI's models for the past few years, and it feels like every time I publish an article, another new model drops. OpenAI seems to be serious about pushing point-releases more frequently rather than waiting lo Harry Guinness Tue, 27 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/openai-models https://zapier.com/blog/cron-job A new Culver's opened up in my neighborhood, and to say I'm stoked is putting it mildly. Although I live in Colorado, I'm a Midwestern girl at heart. Each location offers a rotating flavor of the day, and I try to never miss the devil's food cake. I could sign up for the monthly newsletter, pick up a paper calendar in-store, or check the website every day, but in addition to being inefficient, none of those offer a real-time alert to get my devil's food cake. I took matters into my own hands and Maddy Osman Mon, 26 Oct 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/cron-job https://zapier.com/blog/landing-page-examples Any time I publish a landing page, I'm immediately thinking about what I could do next to make it better. How can I optimize the page to pull in more visitors? What new things can I add to see if we can improve conversions? Managing a successful landing page involves constantly testing new ideas, keeping an eye on the data, and adapting to whatever seems to resonate with your target audience. It's the beauty (or the drag, depending on how you look at it!) of online marketing. To inspire your nex Katie Paterson Mon, 26 Oct 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/landing-page-examples https://zapier.com/blog/gemini-omni It feels like it was only last week when spotting an AI-generated video was easy peasy. All you had to do was look for the very obvious tells—like when a dog spawned a mysterious fifth limb mid-run or crowds of people walked through an otherwise lively city like they were loading in (it's exactly as unnerving an image as you're picturing). Those seams are getting harder to find. For better or worse, AI video models can now produce really good videos, and Gemini Omni—Google's latest model—is no e Jessica Lau Mon, 26 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/gemini-omni https://zapier.com/blog/best-pomodoro-apps The Pomodoro Technique is one of the most deceptively simple and effective productivity tools I've ever used. It stops you from procrastinating or getting distracted, so you can just get things done. All it takes is enough commitment to start a timer. While any timer (or timer app) will work for the Pomodoro Technique, a dedicated Pomodoro app can make the already simple technique even simpler by automatically alternating between work and break periods, tracking how many different periods you've Harry Guinness Fri, 23 Oct 2026 14:23:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-pomodoro-apps https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-agents AI agents were the promise of 2024, the hype of 2025, and the expectation of 2026 and beyond. The category has matured, and a handful of agents are ready to use out of the box, with tool access, task completion, and guardrails for the data they touch. I've spent a lot of time with AI agents, and I have some opinions about which ones stand out. Based on my own experiences, hours of testing from the Zapier team, and reviews from other real users, these are my picks for the best AI agents. This lis Nicole Replogle Fri, 23 Oct 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-agents https://zapier.com/blog/google-forms-vs-jotform Google Forms and Jotform are two of the biggest online form and survey makers, but they're pretty different tools. Google Forms is simple and lightweight and allows you to collect basic responses to most types of questions you might want to ask. It's fast, free, and almost everyone is familiar with it. Jotform can be used to collect the same sort of information—but it can also do a whole lot more. That doesn't mean that Jotform is necessarily better for your needs, though. Both apps have their p Ryan Kane Fri, 23 Oct 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/google-forms-vs-jotform https://zapier.com/blog/what-is-slack When I first used Slack back in 2015, I could not for the life of me wrap my head around the concept of threads. Now, after a decade or so of Slacking, I'm the person passive aggressively reminding people to please respond in threads for the love of all that is productive. That's all to say: I know what it's like to completely not understand Slack—but I also know enough to help you understand it. The short version: Slack is a team chat app that organizes conversations into topic-based channels. Deb Tennen Fri, 23 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/what-is-slack https://zapier.com/blog/obsidian-vs-notion Modern note-taking platforms go beyond documenting your thoughts. They offer powerful workplaces to manage your knowledge, no matter where it comes from. Whether that's turning a bunch of data into a live website or visualizing relationships between piles of notes, they've got you covered. Few do it better than Obsidian and Notion.  For years, I've relied on Notion to make sense of the avalanche of digital information I collect, like personal notes, web snippets, movie watchlists, itineraries, w Shubham Agarwal Fri, 23 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/obsidian-vs-notion https://zapier.com/blog/vetano-next-gen-zaps Chris Fairley founded the hiring platform Vetano in early 2025. After a particularly challenging job-hunting experience, Chris found that a strong resume was no longer enough. Resumes get about seven seconds of attention, according to Ladders' eye-tracking research. With AI now screening many of them, one formatting slip ends the read. If a candidate could show their skills on video instead, Chris thought, the whole process might work differently. Vetano replaces the resume with ID-verified skil Rob Ayre Thu, 22 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/vetano-next-gen-zaps https://zapier.com/blog/blue-castle-agency-zapier-mcp Curtis Key has been building automation for about 20 years, first with basic code and scripts, then in Salesforce at a real estate brokerage that grew from 8 to 105 agents. But when hiring became the brokerage's hardest problem, he founded Blue Castle Agency, a recruitment firm exclusively for real estate and property management. Curtis keeps one idea in front of the team: the best candidates aren't looking. They're already employed, and a recruiter has to find them and earn a conversation. Most Rob Ayre Thu, 22 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/blue-castle-agency-zapier-mcp https://zapier.com/blog/ai-training-for-employees Most teams don't struggle to implement AI in their daily workflows because they're resistant to change—they struggle because they haven't been given the structure to learn how to use it effectively. Employees who receive formal AI training are far more likely to see it as a boost to their productivity and efficiency. Yet while 63% of executives think AI literacy is valuable for their workforce, less than half of their teams get any sort of formal training structure. That's the gap. Teams are eag Jessica Lau Wed, 21 Oct 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/ai-training-for-employees https://zapier.com/blog/best-mobile-scanning-ocr-apps For the longest time, I relied on a photo to take my documents from paper to the digital world. But now that I've discovered the power of OCR scanning software, I have no intention of going back to the Paper Ages. I most often use scanning apps for business-related documents and forms of ID, but as you'll see below, you can use these apps for almost any kind of document: books, receipts, certificates, or even a page of your own handwriting. I've been updating this article for a few years, and af Kristina Lauren Wed, 21 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-mobile-scanning-ocr-apps https://zapier.com/blog/framer-vs-webflow As a web designer in the mid-2010s, I used what everyone recommended at the time: WordPress. While it's a great tool, I found myself spending hours trying to fix spacing issues, reconcile bugs created by incompatible plugins, and troubleshoot server errors. (There's nothing quite as terrifying as WordPress's "White Screen of Death.") Because of this, I deeply understand the pain points that website building apps were created to solve. Most of those apps, though, are aimed at beginners and small Ryan Kane Wed, 21 Oct 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/framer-vs-webflow