Module 6, New

Summary

This module demonstrates how to plan and build a basic AI-powered email assistant using Zapier, Gmail, and a large language model (LLM).

The workflow has three steps:

1. Receive an email: Connect Gmail and set a “new email” trigger for the inbox.
2. Draft a reply: Send the email’s subject and body to an LLM action, such as OpenAI’s “Write an Email” feature. The instructor uses a prompt that defines the assistant as a helpful, professional responder for Hablu Programmer.
3. Send the reply: Use Gmail’s “Reply to Email” action, mapping in the original message ID, sender’s address, and AI-generated subject and body.

Before building the automation, the instructor recommends mapping the workflow with a tool such as Miro, Draw, or Figma. This helps identify the trigger and each subsequent action.

The tutorial covers connecting a Gmail account, testing the trigger, configuring the LLM connection with an API key, and testing the generated reply before publishing the Zap. Once enabled, the workflow automatically replies to new emails.

In a test, an inquiry about an agent course receives a response. However, the instructor notes that a basic setup lacks detailed business information and may ask follow-up questions. Providing relevant business details or connecting a knowledge source can make replies more useful. A more advanced, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) email assistant is mentioned as a topic for a later module.

Guide and Tutorial Topics

• Planning an automation as a step-by-step flow
• Creating a Zap with Gmail as the trigger and reply sender
• Connecting an LLM and prompting it to write email responses
• Testing the workflow before publishing
• Recognizing the limitations of a basic, prompt-only setup

Main Speaker and Sources

• Main speaker: Hablu Programmer instructor
• Tools and services discussed: Zapier, Gmail, OpenAI (including GPT-4 mini), ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok
• Workflow-mapping tools mentioned: Miro, Draw, and Figma