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Automating SMS Reminders with Airtable + ChatGPT Integration

Sistema_Aotearo
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Hi everyone,

I’ve been working on an overengineered but functional solution to send SMS reminders for my school’s classes. It’s a little unconventional, but it works for now! I’d love to hear any feedback or suggestions for optimising it further, especially from anyone with experience automating communications through Airtable.

The Problem:
We have hundreds of students across dozens of classes every day, and sending SMS reminders manually is no longer feasible. Hiring a communications manager isn’t in the budget yet, and solutions like Twilio are not cost-effective for us in New Zealand.

The Current Workflow:

  1. Airtable as the Data Hub:

    • Airtable stores all our class schedules, student rosters, and contact info.
    • An automation sends an email 8 hours before each class, containing:
      • The subject line: Key details like the class time, group name, and teacher.
      • The email body: A list of student phone numbers.

  2. Generating SMS Content with ChatGPT:

    • The email triggers an iOS Shortcut that:
      • Extracts the subject line and passes it as a prompt to ChatGPT (via the app).
      • ChatGPT generates a friendly SMS reminder, e.g.:

        "Hi [Group Name]! Just a reminder about your class today at [Time]. Please arrive 10 minutes early. See you soon!"

    • The Shortcut then preloads the SMS message in the Messages app with all the relevant phone numbers.

  3. Why Not Twilio?

    • While Twilio and similar platforms are great for automation, the costs don’t justify the switch for us, given that most New Zealand mobile plans offer unlimited SMS.

Challenges with ChatGPT:
Using ChatGPT for SMS generation has been effective, but there are a few limitations. One key challenge is that the ChatGPT app needs to be open for the process to work. If it’s closed, the SMS content can’t be generated. If anyone has insights on how to get around this issue—perhaps through the ChatGPT API or other methods—I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Exploring Airtable AI Features:
Airtable has built-in AI capabilities, which might help streamline the content generation process. However, Airtable AI could add up quickly when dealing with dozens of reminders each day. I haven’t explored this deeply yet, but if anyone has experience using Airtable AI for tasks like generating personalised reminders, I’d love to hear about it, especially with respect to cost-effectiveness.

Questions for the Community:

  1. Is there a better way to handle SMS content generation and sending, particularly for those of us in regions where Twilio isn’t cost-effective?
  2. Has anyone successfully used Airtable’s AI features for similar workflows? How effective are they for generating natural-sounding messages?
  3. Are there any other integrations or tools you’d recommend for simplifying or scaling this system?

This workflow has been a fun experiment, but I know there’s room for improvement. Any advice or alternative approaches would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Justin NgProgramme Coordinator at Sistema Aotearoahttps://www.sistemaaotearoa.org.nz/
    TheTimeSavingCo
    1 person likes this
    • TheTimeSavingCo
      TheTimeSavingCo

    3 replies

    TheTimeSavingCo
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    Thanks for sharing this!  I tried setting it up myself and it works really well, do you have an IF action set up to determine which group of phone numbers to send to based on some text within the email or something?

    ---
    Hmm yeah, replacing the ChatGPT action with an API call directly would work, although that'd start incurring costs whereas the ChatGPT app is free?  I think I'd do the API call within Airtable automations instead of doing it via Shortcuts too as it'd be easier to setup/debug, and I'd just dump the text within the email and use that as a variable to send into Messages

    I don't have any insights for your questions (sorry!) and hope someone can help you out, thanks again for sharing this!

    Adam, Consultant @ The Time Saving Co
    Sachin_191
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    • Sachin_191
    • Participating Frequently
    • 93 replies
    • January 28, 2025
    Hey Justin,
     
    Your current setup is impressive! It’s a great mix of tools designed to tackle a specific challenge. To optimize it and address some limitations, I recommend considering the following options:
     
    1. ChatGPT API Integration: Instead of relying on the app, you could utilize the ChatGPT API to automate SMS generation directly. Airtable automations can trigger a webhook (using platforms like Make.com or Zapier) to call the ChatGPT API and retrieve the message. This approach eliminates the need for manual steps, such as opening the app.
     
    2. Direct SMS Sending with Native Airtable Integrations :  Services like ClickSend or Message Bird offer SMS APIs that are cost-effective in regions like New Zealand. Airtable can integrate directly with these services, allowing for automatic SMS dispatch. This solution is smoother and does not require preloading messages.
     
    Let me know if you have any questions!
     
    Sachin karma - Automation consultant Growwstasks Automation Solutions https://www.growwstacks.com
    ScottWorld
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    • ScottWorld
    • Brainy
    • 8763 replies
    • January 28, 2025

    @Sistema_Aotearo 

    Yeah, as you have discovered, Twilio is a gigantic pain, and I no longer recommend it to any of my clients. It is also extremely expensive as well.

    My clients have had MUCH better success by using other SMS providers like SimpleTexting, SMS-Magic, and  TextMagic. However, I’m not sure if all of those platforms support sending from a New Zealand phone number, so you would need to check into that.

    All of those SMS apps can be very easily automated and integrated from Airtable using Make’s automations and integrations. You can also explore the other 2,300 apps that Make supports on this page.

    For automating AI: using Airtable’s AI integrations could be a good idea, but you can also use ChatGPT in your Make automations because Make has native ChatGPT integrations, and it would likely cost you significantly less than using Airtable’s native AI automations.

    If you’ve never used Make before, I’ve assembled a bunch of Make training resources in this thread. For example, here is one of the ways that you could instantly trigger a Make automation from Airtable.

    Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld

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