Build Your First AI Automation Without Writing Any Code

Most automation tutorials assume you already know what 'webhook' means and 'API' means and 'JSON' means. This one doesn't.

We'll start from 'I just made a Make.com account' and end with a real, useful, running automation: every time someone fills out your contact form, the lead gets logged in your CRM, you get a Slack notification, and the customer gets an AI-drafted personalized reply automatically. No code, no copy-pasting, no babysitting.

Plan to spend about 30-45 minutes the first time. Once it's running, it runs forever.

What automation actually is

Automation is just this: when X happens, automatically do Y.

Every automation has two parts:

• The trigger, the thing that makes the workflow run (a new form submission, a new email, a calendar event ending)
• The actions, the things that happen after (create a record, send a message, generate text with AI)

Make.com is a tool that lets you build these chains visually, you drag boxes around a canvas and draw lines between them. No code.

Step 1: Sign up and pick our example

1. Go to make.com and sign up. Free tier is fine, it gives you 1,000 operations/month, which is plenty for testing and small workflows.
2. Pick the region closest to you when prompted (US or EU). Doesn't matter much, just keeps your data in the right region.
3. Skip the onboarding tutorial. We'll go faster by just building.

The example we'll build: every time a customer fills out a Typeform contact form, save them to a Google Sheet, send a Slack notification, and email them an AI-drafted reply. Real-world useful. Easy to adapt to your actual stack.

Step 2: Create a new scenario

1. On the Make dashboard, click + Create a new scenario top right.
2. You'll see a blank canvas with one big circle in the middle. That circle is where your first module goes.
3. Click the circle. A search panel appears.

Modules in Make are the building blocks. There's a module for every app, Typeform, Gmail, Google Sheets, Slack, OpenAI, Claude, hundreds of others. You search for the app you want, then pick what action to take.

Step 3: The trigger, Typeform 'Watch responses'

1. In the module search, type Typeform. Pick the official Typeform app.
2. You'll see a list of actions. The first one we want is Watch Responses (triggers are usually 'Watch X' or 'New X').
3. It'll ask you to connect your Typeform account. Click Add, sign in to Typeform, authorize Make. Standard OAuth dance.
4. Once connected, pick which Typeform form you want to watch. (Don't have one yet? Create a basic 'Contact us' form in Typeform, name, email, message. Takes 3 minutes.)
5. Click OK to save the module.

Congrats, you just built the trigger. Anytime someone fills out that form, this scenario can now run. But right now there's nothing to do after the trigger. Let's add actions.

Step 4: Action 1, log to Google Sheets

1. On the canvas, hover over the right edge of the Typeform module. A little plus icon appears. Click it.
2. A new module appears. Search Google Sheets. Pick the app.
3. Action: Add a row.
4. Connect your Google account.
5. Pick the spreadsheet and worksheet where you want leads logged. (Pre-create a sheet with columns: Date, Name, Email, Message, Status.)
6. For each column, click the field. A panel pops up showing all the data from the Typeform trigger. Drag Name into Name, Email into Email, etc.
7. Save the module.

Now: every form submission logs a row in your sheet. We're going to keep going and add more steps.

Step 5: Action 2, generate an AI reply with Claude

1. Add another module after the Sheets one (hover, click plus).
2. Search Claude (or Anthropic). Pick the official Anthropic module. (If you prefer OpenAI/ChatGPT, that module works identically, the rest of this walkthrough applies.)
3. Action: Create a message.
4. Add your API key when prompted. (Get one from console.anthropic.com → API Keys.)
5. Model: claude-sonnet-4-6 is a good default for most use cases.
6. Max tokens: 500 (enough for a short email reply).

Now the important part, the prompt:

You are the customer service rep for [YOUR BUSINESS NAME]. A new lead just submitted our contact form.

Their name: {Typeform name}
Their email: {Typeform email}
Their message: {Typeform message}

Draft a warm, brief reply email (3-4 sentences) that:
- Thanks them by name
- Acknowledges what they specifically asked about
- Offers one clear next step (book a call, reply to schedule, etc.)
- Signs off as "[YOUR NAME], [YOUR BUSINESS]"

Output the email body only. No subject line. No "Dear [Name]", just open with their first name.

In Make, the {Typeform name} bits aren't typed text, you drag the actual fields from the Typeform trigger into the prompt. Make handles the substitution automatically.

Save the module.

Step 6: Action 3, send the email

1. Add another module. Search Gmail. Pick the Gmail app.
2. Action: Send an email.
3. Connect your Gmail account (or, if you'd rather use a transactional service, use the SendGrid, Postmark, or Resend module).
4. To: drag the email field from the Typeform trigger.
5. Subject: write something like Re: your message to [Your Business].
6. Body: drag the Content output from the Claude module.
7. Save.

Step 7: Action 4, Slack notification

1. Add a final module. Search Slack. Pick the official Slack module.
2. Action: Create a message.
3. Connect your Slack workspace.
4. Pick the channel where you want lead alerts (e.g., #leads).
5. Message text: drag in the lead's name, email, and message. Format like:
   New lead: {Name} ({Email}), '{Message preview}'
6. Save.

Step 8: Test the whole thing

1. Click Run once at the bottom of the canvas.
2. Make waits for a Typeform submission. Submit your form with test data.
3. Watch the modules light up one by one, green checkmarks = success.
4. Check your Google Sheet (row added), your inbox (test reply sent to the test email), and your Slack (notification posted).

Step 9: Turn it on

1. Once the test pass works, toggle the Scheduling switch from OFF to ON (bottom left of the canvas).
2. Choose how often it should check for new submissions, for low-volume forms, every 15 minutes is fine. Higher volume, every 1-5 minutes.
3. Save the scenario.

You're done. The scenario now runs forever (or until you turn it off).

The five automation patterns every small business should run

Once the first one's running, the next four take 15-30 minutes each because you already know the pattern. The starter five I recommend for every business:

• Lead intake, what we just built. Form → CRM + reply + notification.
• Review request, every paid invoice triggers a polite 'leave us a review?' SMS or email 3 days later.
• Calendar follow-up, every completed meeting triggers an AI-generated follow-up draft based on the calendar invite + your meeting notes.
• Abandoned conversation, if a customer goes 3 days without a reply, ping them automatically with a soft check-in.
• Daily digest, at 8am, you get a Slack/email summary of yesterday's leads, completed jobs, and outstanding tasks. Pulled from your CRM automatically.

Common mistakes (so you skip them)

• Trying to automate too much on day one. Build one workflow, run it for a week, then expand. Don't design a 17-step scenario from a blank canvas.
• Skipping the test step. Always run a real test submission before turning a scenario on. The cost of an automated workflow doing the wrong thing 50 times before you notice is way higher than the cost of one test.
• Hardcoding values that should be dynamic. If you put 'support@mybiz.com' as a literal recipient, you'll forget when the email changes. Use variables or workflow-level settings.
• Not labeling your scenarios. 'Scenario 7' tells you nothing in 3 months. Name them: 'Typeform → Sheets + Claude Reply + Slack'.