United Kingdom
Argentina 
Australia 
Austria 
Brazil 
Canada 
Germany 
Ireland 
Italy 
Malaysia 
Mexico 
New Zealand 
Poland 
South Africa 
United States Zapier Central debuts as no-code tool for building enterprise AI bots
Join leaders in Boston on March 27 for an exclusive night of networking, insights, and conversation. Request an invite here.
When it comes to business automation, Zapier is undoubtedly one of the most well recognized names, counting more than 2.2 million lifetime customers, according to its website, thanks to its ability to set up workflows across more than 6,000 third-party workplace applications.
Now, the company wants to make it even easier for said customers (and new ones) to set up automated services, launching Zapier Central, an “AI workspace” that allows customers to build AI agents that leverage its many connected apps and services, using natural language alone — no coding required.
Build-a-bot
These AI “bots,” as Zapier calls them, are customized with the users’ data and preferences. Similar to OpenAI’s custom GPT Builder and Hugging Face’s Hugging Chat Assistants introduced previously, a user of Zapier Central can simply describe in text what they want their AI bot to do and it will try to do it for them.
Unlike those other aforementioned direct-to-consumer tools, Zapier Central includes more fields allowing users to specify a “trigger,” that initiates the bot’s behaviors, a “trigger phrase” that can deploy it when typed by the user, and the “actions” the bot can perform, as well as which additional apps and services. ithas access to.
VB Event
The AI Impact Tour – Boston
We’re excited for the next stop on the AI Impact Tour in Boston on March 27th. This exclusive, invite-only event, in partnership with Microsoft, will feature discussions on best practices for data integrity in 2024 and beyond. Space is limited, so request an invite today.
Already, some users are trying it and posting their results, as seen in the following post on X from tech investor and writer Ben Tossell.
Ok trying Zapier Central, and am building myself an AI executive assistant.
starting simple but can think of lots to add. currently:
– ping slack for new ad sales– search urls I give it for summaries– finds info in emails for me (do I have a flight confirmation, do i have a… pic.twitter.com/6M5WEYNtJO
— Ben Tossell (@bentossell) March 6, 2024
Mike Knoop, Zapier co-founder and head of its AI division until recently, called the launch of Zapier Central a “new era of AI Automation” in a post on X.
Zapier is opening a new era of AI Automation today with our public preview of Zapier Central — a new workspace where you can build, teach, and work with AI bots that do useful work for you! Entirely through natural language, no code or tricky config required. pic.twitter.com/5FHQeTUwN1
— Mike Knoop (@mikeknoop) March 6, 2024
A surprise acqui-hire, too
The company further announced today that it has acqui-hired the team behind Vowel, a defunct videoconference app, and appointed its former CEO Andrew Berman as the new director of AI at Zapier.
Sheryl Soo, Zapier’s SVP of New Products and Head of Strategy, emphasized the significance of this move, stating, “The acquisition of Vowel enhances our AI capabilities and furthers our mission of democratizing AI and automation for businesses.”
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings.
