Using Open AI to write Airtable formulas

[@GarethPronovost]

Grab our Airtable Crash Course to master the basics 👉👉 garethpronovost.com/airtable-crash-course 🧠🧠

[@smvvirtual]

Hi Gareth 👋 , as I fellow Airtable Consultant, I was wondering the same thing a few months ago and I've been testing this as well. As shown in this video, I had similar results. It does give you a head start with writing some formulas, but it's not always accurate and you have to understand the syntax to make adjustment. I think our jobs are safe for now 😉 . great video!

[@raphaelbanuelos2271]

Lol for now haha 😅😅

[@GarethPronovost]

Thanks! The truth is, the real work we do isn't in the formula or the automation, but it's in helping the client identify and articulate their process. The software is just the container for all that information. I don't think there will be a replacement for that anytime soon, but who knows! 😅

[@cottagekeeper]

I just discovered ChatGPT today and immediately thought I wonder if this will help me with Airtable Formulas? And then I go to my subscription list on KZbin and here you are explaining it! 😂 Thanks for the tutorial! I like your statement ’Garbage In - Garbage Out’. I’m a terrible communicator, my brain knows what result I need but trying to verbalize or write it out a difficult process for my brain. Makes me slower than the average human. I’m hopeful ChatGPT will help me get better. I appreciate all you do! 🙌🏼

[@GarethPronovost]

Thanks Cottage, hoping this helps you get better results from Chat GPT with your formulas. Also hoping some of the pitfalls I experienced will help you skip some hurdles!

[@cottagekeeper]

@@GarethPronovost Just tried asking ChatGPT this: What is the best way to itemize a receipt in Airtable using an Airtable Form? It gave a basic answer to enter a receipt total but no solid answer as to how to list each item purchased and the item cost. The only way I know to do this is by creating 2 fields for each item on a receipt in one record. My form has 200 fields, in the event I buy 100 items, I'm covered. I think the next big breakthrough for Airtable will be to offer the ability to use a form to create multiple records with some of the fields populating the same data. For example: When I open a form I would select the Date, I would select which Store I'm shopping at (This information comes from a linked table titled Stores and it includes a field with the sales tax rate), then I would enter the item and the item cost. THEN... to have the option to add another item (record) with the already selected Date and Store on the form would be so useful. ☺

[@GarethPronovost]

@@cottagekeeper agreed, but we've been waiting for this functionality for a long time! Until they make this feature a priority, we have to use third-party form software and integrate it with Airtable. 😢

[@karinaschafer4940]

That was fun! I literally was laughing along... and yelling at the TV, "Riiiiiight!" when you said that writing the GPT prompts seem to take longer than writing the formula! HA!

[@GarethPronovost]

That's my opinion too, but as someone new to formulas, I think this could be really helpful! 🤞

[@attilavass6935]

ChatGPT is trained on pre-2021 data ( 2021 included), so that time perhaps the Airtable syntax was not the same as today. This might be the reason of issues.

[@GarethPronovost]

possibly, although Airtable's formula syntax hasn't changed much in the 5 years I've known it (started in 2017). I don't think ChatGPT knows the syntax, unless you expressly tell it, but that's just my experience!

[@ChristineBenton]

I love how ChatGPT has taught you to communicate like a robot lol. By the end you were speaking computer. Our whole West Coast leadership team has been playing with ChatGPT to our amusement and many giggles. We started having it write our emails to each other and noticed that suddenly we sounded very cordial and polite. Which we are not. :D

[@GarethPronovost]

This cracks me up! We should try it over here, too! 😂

[@Minimustech]

Awesome video! This has basically been my experience with chatgpt using it for work. It’s fatal flaw is that it always attempts to “fill in the gaps” even when it doesn’t know exactly what the answer is (actually I’m not even sure if, used by itself without any prompt engineering) it even “understands” which parts of its output are correct and which are wrong. Basically it’s an incredible productivity tool (well until it really starts to break down, then as you saw it’s just faster to do it yourself) if you know what you’re doing. If you don’t, it’s pretty bad. Like a teacher that just makes stuff up sometimes and doesn’t bother to explain his solutions.

[@GarethPronovost]

100% agreed! It has helped me with so many things, but for more technical concerns (like this) I find that it's just easier to do it myself, given that I actually know how to do it! 😂

[@matthewsimon1994]

Thanks Gareth! Another great video. Are there professional designations for automation consultants? Ie; diploma, certificates, courses, etc.

[@GarethPronovost]

Great question. Some software is offering their own certifications (SmartSuite just launched their own cert program) but others don't try to monitor or police this. Airtable, for example, doesn't yet have a sponsored program for certification. It's kind of the wild west.

[@matthewsimon1994]

That’s crazy considering how large scale complex some of these databases are. On the other hand, it’s such a great niche with lots of room in a growing market. People should be paying more attention to this stuff.

[@GarethPronovost]

@@matthewsimon1994 thanks exactly what I keep screaming from the rooftops! Millionaires will be made here in the next 10 years 🔥

[@matthewsimon1994]

Big time. Thought leaders in process automation, combined with the power of a.i is the most lethal business proposition I can think of.

[@matthewsimon1994]

@@GarethPronovost since GPT has your business seen a drastic increase in efficiency, ie, it improved your already impressive automations or just eliminated some things to make it easer?

[@IraGaar]

HELLO GARETH! Thanks for all the great content! I love the idea of blending Airtable and ChatGPT. I am looking for a course to help me produce social content from the transcript of my podcast. Do you have any courses specific for IOS, chatgpt and Airtable? I would love to purchase the course if you do!

[@GarethPronovost]

Hi Ira, we definitely have a couple of course options for Airtable, but nothing for chapGPT at this time.

[@rs832]

A few things to note: the punctuation you’re calling a ‘tilde’ is actually a ‘back tick’ (located next to the “1” key on the top row) - back ticks are used in JavaScript for something called a ‘string literal’, so when ChatGPT is using a back tick it wasn’t understanding the Airtable syntax for a field name containing spaces was to be wrapped in braces, whereas in JavaScript back ticks are used,

[@GarethPronovost]

oh sweet, thanks for letting me know!

[@TheMitchpower]

That was actually quite fun 🥳😂

[@GarethPronovost]

Thanks, had a good time with this one! 😂

[@stevecox8948]

Hi Gareth. One thing ChatGBT cant do is tell me how to set up Automations. i have tried and tried and it just keeps sending me in circles. Getting me to create fields which automation can't read.

[@GarethPronovost]

Hey Steve, sorry to hear that! For sure, Chat GPT isn't perfect at this, but it's progress!

[@laurenphillips330]

Open AI is great for Airtable formulas!

[@tommycoe2333]

I just started asking it do my webhooks yesterday

[@GarethPronovost]

That's awesome! I haven't tried that yet!

[@tommycoe2333]

@@GarethPronovost lol, it didn't work. Just kept giving me the steps. I figured my prompts were wrong

[@raphaelbanuelos2271]

@@tommycoe2333 That's am interesting idea were the steps helpful?

[@agoogleuser6937]

Much better than airtableAI

[@danielayouroukova9876]

Is it phyton