Hi folks! I’ve been trying to create an automated system using ChatGPT, Typeform, and Zapier but I think I’m making some mistakes along the way.
I’m not really a technical person but I can handle basic automation tools pretty well. The problem is that I can’t seem to get good results when everything runs automatically, especially when saving files to Google Drive.
Here’s what I’m trying to accomplish:
Users complete a Typeform survey
Survey responses get processed by ChatGPT using my custom instructions
AI creates a customized report based on their answers
Final document gets saved to Google Drive automatically
The main problems I keep running into:
The formatting looks messy and keeps changing
When I test the same prompt manually in ChatGPT it works much better than through Zapier
I suspect there might be an easier approach that I’m missing
Does anyone know a better way to set this up? Maybe there are other tools that work better for people who aren’t programmers but still want to build AI workflows?
I’d really appreciate any suggestions or guides that explain things in simple terms without requiring coding knowledge. Thanks in advance!
I’ve faced similar challenges when integrating ChatGPT with Zapier. The formatting can often get lost during the automation process. To enhance the structure of your outputs, I recommend leveraging OpenAI’s API instead of the ChatGPT integration within Zapier, as it typically retains formatting better and offers more flexibility.
Regarding Google Drive, try setting up a template document beforehand, as this method tends to yield better results than generating new documents each time. Additionally, utilizing Google Docs may improve the formatting experience since it inherently manages documents more effectively.
You might also explore Make.com as an alternative to Zapier; I found their ChatGPT integration to be more stable for generating documents, although there is a little bit of a learning curve.
The formatting issue you’re experiencing is quite common with Zapier’s ChatGPT integration. What helped me was adding specific formatting instructions at the end of my prompt, something like “Format the output as clean paragraphs with proper spacing for Google Drive storage.”
For the manual vs automated performance difference, I found that breaking down the workflow into smaller steps works better. Instead of one large prompt, try splitting it into two separate ChatGPT actions - one for analysis and another for report generation.
You might want to consider Bubble.io if you’re looking for no-code alternatives. Their ChatGPT plugin handles document generation more reliably than Zapier in my experience, though there’s some initial setup involved.
Also check if your Typeform responses are being passed correctly to ChatGPT - sometimes special characters or long text fields cause unexpected behavior in the automation chain.
honestly zapier can be pretty finicky with chatgpt integrations. i’d suggest checking your prompt formatting first - sometimes extra line breaks or characters mess things up during automation.
try using google docs instead of drive for the final output, it handles formatting way better. also test your zap step by step to see where exactly it breaks down.
might be worth looking into notion too - their ai integrations are getting pretty solid lately and easier to setup than zapier imo.