Fill a table column with AI

An AI column fills itself in from the other columns in the same row. Use one to write a short description for every product, sort enquiries into categories, or ask one of your agents a question about each row.

You need the Owner, Admin or Builder role to set up and fill AI columns. Viewers can see the results.

Set up an AI column

1. Open Knowledge, select the Tables tab and open a table. If you don't have one yet, see Tables.
2. Select Add column, or open an existing column's ⋯ menu and select Make it an AI column.
3. Choose the column's Type. The answer has to fit it: a Number column gets a number, a Choice column gets one of its choices.
4. Tick AI column and choose what fills it:
   • An AI prompt: one AI answer per row. Pick the model: Smart (the default: quick and low cost), Smarter or Smartest.
   • One of your agents: each row becomes a message to the agent, which can use its knowledge and tools. Test uses the agent's saved draft, and nothing is sent anywhere. Real uses the live version, and its tools act under their approval settings.
5. Write the prompt. Select a column name under the box to insert it; it appears as {{column_key}} and is replaced by each row's value.
6. Select Save.

For example, in a Branches table:

Write one friendly line about the {{branch}} branch in {{city}} for our website.

Fill the column

1. To fill only some rows, tick them in the table first.
2. Open the column's ⋯ menu and select Fill column.
3. Choose Empty cells only, All rows or Selected rows.
4. Check the preview: how many rows will be filled, which rows are skipped and why, the first rows that will be sent, and the estimated cost.
5. Tick the box to confirm, then select Fill.

The fill runs in the background, so you can leave the page. A bar above the table shows how far it has got, and Cancel stops the rows that haven't started yet. One fill can run per column, and two per project.

Read the results

Each cell shows how its row went:

• Filled: the value is written. It works like any other value, and editing it by hand replaces it.
• Failed (a red mark): the AI didn't answer, or its answer didn't fit the column's type. The cell keeps its old value. Hover over the mark to see why.
• Skipped (a grey mark): the columns the prompt uses are empty in that row, or the AI had no answer.

When the fill ends, the bar above the table shows how many rows were filled, failed or skipped, and what the fill cost.

Costs and safeguards

• The estimate uses the model's prices. For an agent, it uses the average cost of the agent's recent tasks. The real cost depends on each answer, and every AI call shows in Analytics.
• If AI work is paused on the platform, or the daily spending limit has been reached, a fill can't start, and a fill that is running stops. Rows that didn't start keep their values.
• A fill from an AI prompt stops if the AI model fails several times in a row.
• Row values are given to the AI as data, apart from your instructions, so text in a table can't change what the AI is asked to do. Don't keep passwords, card numbers or OTPs in tables.

Tips

• Try a new prompt on two or three selected rows before you fill the whole table.
• Say what a good answer looks like, for example "one sentence, under 20 words".
• For an agent column of type Number, Date, Email, Web address or Phone, ask the agent to answer with the value only. We take the value from the reply when it holds exactly one; otherwise the cell is marked failed.
• Leave the model on Smart unless the answers aren't good enough; the other models cost more.