Natural language automation for teams that build infrequently
A consumer tax filing software company uses Airtable Omni to give employees who build automations only occasionally the ability to generate workflows and interfaces from plain-language descriptions. Non-technical team members across Operations, Finance, and other functions can now prototype and deploy automations without waiting for Engineering support.
The problem
Employees who needed automations but built them only occasionally faced a choice: invest significant time learning Airtable's automation builder deeply, or submit requests to Engineering and wait. Simple workflows that should take hours were taking days.
The dependency on Engineering for routine automation tasks created bottlenecks and slowed down the teams that needed operational improvements fastest.
What they built
The company deployed Airtable Omni as the tool for infrequent builders. Employees describe what they want in plain language, and Omni generates the automation or interface from the existing tables. The result is a working prototype that the requester can refine without code.
Make.com handles notification automations and more complex orchestration. Airtable Omni covers the self-service layer: quick builds, interface generation, and workflow prototypes that do not require Engineering to be in the loop.
The outcome
Non-technical team members across multiple functions can now build and iterate on automations themselves. Engineering bottlenecks on routine workflow requests dropped because teams that previously could not self-serve now can.
Prototyping cycles became faster. Teams test workflow ideas in Airtable without a development sprint, and only escalate to Engineering when the complexity genuinely warrants it.
Inside the solution
Automation Building with Airtable Omni
Rapid App Development Solution / Other
- Natural language automation generation from existing tables
- Interface and app building without code
- Workflow prototyping by non-engineers
- Notification automation via Make.com for complex orchestration
- Automation complexity for employees who build infrequently
- Engineering dependency for simple workflow requests
- Slow prototyping cycles across non-technical functions
- Self-service automation capability for non-technical team members
- Faster workflow prototyping without Engineering queue
- Reduced bottlenecks on routine operational improvements
- Engineering
- Operations
- Cross-functional
- Airtable
- Omni
- Make.com
- Airtable Automations
Automation building with Airtable Omni
Track every plain-language automation request from the moment someone describes it to the moment it ships, with the generated automations, interfaces and forms, the refinement passes each one took, and the small set of builds that genuinely needed Engineering. AI fields turn a description into a structured build spec, explain each generated automation in non-technical language, and triage what can stay self-serve, while automations open the first refinement cycle, flip requests to Deployed on publish, and email a weekly digest of drafts still in flight.
From Engineering dependency to self-service automation
Start with an existing table
Describe what you want in plain language
Refine and extend with Make.com
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Employees across Operations, Finance, and other cross-functional teams use Omni to generate automations and interfaces for their own use cases. Typical requests include status-triggered notifications, interface views over existing tables, and lightweight coordination workflows that do not require Engineering.
The team uses Make.com for more complex orchestration, particularly notification automations and multi-step sequences that cross system boundaries. Omni handles the self-service layer. Engineering stays involved for anything that genuinely requires custom logic or external API connections.
No. The value for infrequent builders is that they can describe the behavior they want without knowing automation builder syntax. Omni translates the plain-language description into a working automation that the user can then inspect or modify.
Routine automation requests that previously went to Engineering now get handled by the requester directly. Engineering focuses on complex integrations, external API work, and cases where self-service tools are not sufficient. Omni changes the threshold for what requires Engineering involvement.
Yes. Airtable automations generated by Omni can trigger Make.com scenarios or be triggered by them. The two tools work alongside each other: Omni for building within Airtable, Make.com for cross-system orchestration and notification flows that extend beyond Airtable.