New — Airtable formula field with ChatGPT formula suggestions!
You will never have to worry about creating Airtable formulas again!
Creating the right Airtable formulas can be a struggle, even for those well-versed in formulas (like us at Business Automated! 😁). Sometimes, the mental overhead of writing a new formula can be overwhelming 😉.
Whether you’re an Airtable newbie or expert, this new Chrome extension can help speed up the formula creation process. The new Airtable Hint GPT Chrome extension adds the long sought AI after feature that Airtable was missing — AI formula suggestions for Airtable formulas.
For newcomers, the tool can point you in the right direction and even provide complete formulas. For experts, having an AI robot to replace variables in nested IF statements can save a lot of time. Additionally, the tool can assist in rewriting formulas, such as converting IF statements to SWITCH statements.
Overview
The Airtable Hint GPT extension is based on Open AI’s GPT language model. This model uses deep learning techniques to generate human-like text based on a given prompt. Our extension utilizes this technology to help users create Airtable formulas more efficiently.
Once the user inputs a partial formula, the GPT model generates a list of possible completions based on the input. The user can then select the most appropriate completion for their needs. This saves time and mental effort by automating the formula creation process.
The ChatGPT feature of the Airtable Hint GPT Chrome extension takes the formula creation process to the next level. Rather than simply suggesting formula completions, ChatGPT allows users to chat with the GPT model to generate a formula. The user can simply describe the desired outcome and ChatGPT will generate the formula for them. This feature is perfect for those who may not be well-versed in formulas or are simply looking to save time.
Use cases
Any formula you are looking for — just describe what it supposed to do and press the green “Hint GPT” button.
Here are a few examples of prompt that could inspire you and a base to test it in:
Base:
Prompt ideas:
- To create a visible warning with a stop emoji and a warning message if Status field is empty and show green check if status is OK, use the following formula:
IF(
Status = BLANK(),
"❌ Warning: Please fill out the Status field",
"✅ Status is OK"
)- To extract first name from the Project lead field, use the following formula:
LEFT({Project lead}, FIND(" ", {Project lead})-1)- To add 90 days to the adjacent date in the Current Period Start Date field in the Next Renewal Date Calc field, but only if there is data in that record, otherwise leave the Next Renewal Date Calc field blank, use the following formula:
IF(
{Current Period Start Date},
DATEADD({Current Period Start Date}, 90, 'days'),
BLANK()
)- To create a warning if the Subtask field contains the word MSA, use the following formula:
IF(
FIND("MSA", Subtask),
"⚠️ Warning: Subtask contains the word MSA",
""
)- To convert the below IF formula to use SWITCH instead of IF:
IF(
Status = "Complete",
CONCATENATE("😃 ", UPPER(Name)),
Name
)Use the following SWITCH formula:
SWITCH(
Status,
"Complete", CONCATENATE("😃 ", UPPER(Name)),
Name
)- To combine the Task with Project lead starting with “Task”, use the following formula:
"Task " & Name & " - " & Project lead- To display the number of days between Due date and Kick off, use the following formula:
Caveats
AI makes mistakes! Sometimes it will give you back formulas that are incorrect. You can realize that by the name of functions not being highlighted correctly. Airtable will also not let you save incorrect formulas. Sometimes formulas might look correct, but they produce unexpected results.
If your AI assistant cannot help you with your Airtable formulas, always try experts at the community forums: https://community.airtable.com/ — official community
https://air.tableforums.com/ — unofficial community driven by Airtable power users
Installation
Visit the download page on Gumtree and download the extension.
Extension set up
- Open chrome://extensions
- Enable developer mode in top right corner
- Load the folder containing the extension in your browser. Click “Load unpacked” , enter the extension folder and “Select Folder”
- Now the extension is loaded and ready to use. It will show up whenever you open Formula field in Airtable
- During the first use you will need to add your OpenAI token in side the settings
Usage
Type any request you have directly in the Airtable formula field and press “Hint GPT”
Once you get response from ChatGPT you will see the formula directly in the Formula field. You can ask to “Retry” to see if you will get different result (especially with higher temperature setting) or you can press “Back” to go back to the previous suggestion:
It is also possible to change the settings of the extensions with 2 parameters
Temperature
Default is 0.2. Setting temperature to 0 will make the answers mostly deterministic, while a higher number will create more randomness/variety in the responses.
Completion mode and model
Default completion mode and model is ChatGPT Completion Model. We recommend using ChatGPT completions (based on the “gpt-3.5-turbo” model). Regular GPT completions are based on “text-davinci-003” model. While both types yield similar results in most cases, the ChatGPT model is significantly cheaper to use.
Final words
This extension is a proof of concept that we have built to facilitate our work at Business Automated as well as help our clients. We would love to hear feedback from other Airtable users how this tool fits into their workflows!
Reach out to us on Twitter https://twitter.com/BAutomated !
Download the extension
Watch full tutorial on Youtube
Business Automated is an independent automation consultancy. If you would like to request custom automation for your business, visit us at https://www.business-automated.com
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