Getting Started with AI Automation: Zapier and Make

Getting Started with AI Automation: Zapier and Make

Automation is where AI delivers the most consistent time savings for knowledge workers. Not the flashy kind — the quiet, reliable kind where tasks that used to take 10 minutes just happen on their own. Zapier and Make are the two leading platforms for connecting your apps and automating workflows without writing code. Here is how to get started with both.

What These Tools Actually Do

Zapier and Make both work on the same principle: when something happens in one app (a trigger), do something in another app (an action). For example:

• •When a customer fills out a contact form, add them to your CRM and send a Slack notification
• •When you receive an email with an attachment, save the attachment to Google Drive and log it in a spreadsheet
• •When a new row is added to a Google Sheet, create a task in your project management tool

The AI angle is that both platforms now include AI-powered features. Zapier has an AI Copilot that helps you build automations in plain English, plus AI processing steps that can analyze, summarize, or categorize data within your workflows. Make supports OpenAI and other AI model integrations as modules you can add to any automation.

Zapier: The Beginner-Friendly Option

Zapier connects to 8,000+ apps and is designed to be usable by anyone, regardless of technical skill. Automations in Zapier are called Zaps.

Pricing

• •Free: 100 tasks/month, single-step Zaps, unlimited Zaps
• •Professional: $19.99/month (annual) — 750 tasks/month, multi-step Zaps, premium app connections, webhooks
• •Team: $103.50/month (annual) — 2,000 tasks/month, shared workspace, premier support
• •Enterprise: Custom pricing — advanced admin, SSO, SCIM

Your First Zapier Automation

Here is a practical example to get you started. We will create a Zap that sends a Slack message whenever you receive an email from a specific sender.

Step 1: Sign up at zapier.com and click Create a Zap.

Step 2: Choose your trigger. Select Gmail as the app and New Email as the trigger event. Connect your Gmail account and set a filter for the sender you want to monitor.

Step 3: Add an action. Select Slack as the app and Send Channel Message as the action event. Connect your Slack workspace, pick the channel, and write your message template. You can insert data from the email (subject, sender, snippet) into the Slack message.

Step 4: Test the Zap. Zapier will pull a sample email and show you what the Slack message will look like. Adjust the message format until it looks right.

Step 5: Turn it on. The Zap runs automatically from now on.

That entire setup takes about 5 minutes. No code, no API keys, no server to maintain.

Adding AI to Your Zaps

Zapier's AI features let you add intelligence to your automations. For example, you can add a step that uses AI to categorize incoming emails before routing them:

• •Email about a support issue? Send to the support Slack channel
• •Email about a sales inquiry? Add to CRM and notify the sales team
• •Email about billing? Forward to accounting

You do this by adding a Formatter by Zapier or AI by Zapier step between your trigger and action. The AI step analyzes the email content and outputs a category, which you use in a conditional branch to route the message.

Make: The Power User Option

Make (formerly Integromat) is more powerful than Zapier for complex workflows. It uses a visual, node-based builder where you can see your entire automation as a flowchart. This makes it better for automations with multiple branches, conditions, and error handling.

Pricing

• •Free: 1,000 operations/month, 2 active scenarios, 15-minute scheduling
• •Core: $10.59/month (annual) — 10,000 operations/month, unlimited scenarios, 1-minute scheduling
• •Pro: $18.82/month (annual) — priority execution, custom variables, full-text search
• •Teams: $34.12/month (annual) — role-based access, team templates

Make counts operations differently than Zapier counts tasks. A single multi-step automation in Make might use 5 operations (one per module) where Zapier would count it as 1 task. This means the pricing comparison is not apples-to-apples, but Make is generally cheaper for high-volume, complex workflows.

Your First Make Automation

Let us build the same email-to-Slack automation in Make to see the difference.

Step 1: Sign up at make.com and click Create a new scenario.

Step 2: Click the plus icon and search for Gmail. Select the Watch Emails module. Connect your Gmail account and configure the filters.

Step 3: Click the plus icon again on the right side of the Gmail module. Search for Slack and select Create a Message module. Connect your Slack workspace and configure the channel and message.

Step 4: Click Run once in the bottom left to test. Make will check for a matching email and show you the data flow through each module.

Step 5: Set the scheduling interval and turn the scenario on.

The visual builder makes complex workflows more intuitive. You can see data flowing between modules, add routers for conditional branching, and handle errors with dedicated error-handler modules.

Adding AI Modules in Make

Make integrates directly with OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI providers as first-class modules. You can add an OpenAI module to any scenario to analyze, generate, or transform text. The difference from Zapier is that you have full control over the prompt, model selection, and parameters.

For example, you could build a content pipeline: watch an RSS feed for new articles, use an OpenAI module to summarize each article, then post the summary to a Slack channel with a link to the original.

Zapier vs Make: When to Use Which

Choose Zapier if: - You are new to automation and want the simplest setup - Your automations are mostly linear (trigger, then action, then action) - You need connections to niche apps — Zapier's 8,000+ integrations cover almost everything - You want AI features built in without configuring API keys

Choose Make if: - Your automations need branching logic, loops, or error handling - You process high volumes of data and want cheaper per-operation pricing - You prefer a visual builder that shows data flow - You want granular control over AI model parameters and prompts

Many teams end up using both. Simple automations go in Zapier because setup is faster. Complex workflows go in Make because the visual builder handles branching better.

Five Starter Automations Worth Building

1. New form submission to CRM + notification. When someone fills out your website form, create a contact in your CRM and notify you in Slack.

2. Weekly report compilation. Every Friday, pull data from your analytics tool, format it with AI, and email a summary to your team.

3. Social media monitoring. When your brand is mentioned on social media, log it in a spreadsheet and send a Slack alert.

4. Invoice processing. When a new invoice arrives by email, use AI to extract the key details (amount, due date, vendor) and add them to your accounting spreadsheet.

5. Meeting follow-up. After a calendar event ends, send a follow-up email template to all attendees with a link to the meeting notes.

Start with one automation. Get it working reliably. Then build the next one. The compounding time savings from well-built automations are significant — 10 automations each saving 5 minutes per day adds up to over 4 hours per week you get back.