Using Omni AI in Airtable

Note

AI credits and enabling Airtable AI are required to use Omni to its full extent.

What is Airtable’s Omni AI?

Omni is Airtable’s integrated AI assistant, designed to help users build apps, research the web, analyze data and documents, create and update records, and answer questions on request. It allows both builders and end-users to use natural language conversation to interact with Airtable’s core functions.

Accessing Omni in Airtable

From a base:

1. Open the base where you want to use Omni.

2. Click the Omni icon on the upper-left corner of the screen.

From an interface:

1. Open the interface where you want to use Omni.

2. Click the Omni icon in the lower-right corner of the interface.

Understanding Omni’s capabilities

Using plain language requests, there are several ways to utilize Omni. The options listed below are just some of the common examples of how you can use Omni to gain efficiency and sophistication in your everyday usage of Airtable.

1. Ask

   1. Ask Omni a question about the data in your base

   2. Ask Omni to search the internet for an answer to a question you have

2. Analyze

   1. Have Omni read all of the data in a field to find patterns and insights

   2. Have Omni perform one or more calculations based on data in your base

3. Build, Create, or Edit

   1. Tell Omni to create a new base feature

      1. New table

      2. New view

      3. New field - This includes the ability to create both traditional field types as well as field agents.

   2. Tell Omni to build a new interface

   3. Tell Omni to create a new automation

   4. Tell Omni to edit the data in one or more records/fields/cells

   5. Tell Omni to rename a field

   6. Have Omni pull of the key points from a document that you upload and then add those key points to a long text field in your base

Tips for best results using Omni

• Describe the task you want Omni to accomplish and give the model as much context as possible

• Add any rules that will provide guardrails for Omni

• Provide any data or benchmarks that might be relevant to the request you are writing

• Include any formatting instructions to drive consistency in the AI output

• Give Omni specific instructions of what data it should be accessing or which piece of your app it should be building or updating

• Utilize standardized Airtable terminology to help prevent confusion or conflation

Understanding Omni’s permission access

When Omni interacts with your Airtable app, it will mirror the same permission settings of the user interacting with it. This means that:

• Omni can only perform actions that the user could perform in the base or interface

• Omni only has access to the data within a base or interface that the user can see

• Field and Table permissions can also prevent Omni from making changes

Note

Consult the Airtable permissions article to better understand your permissions that Omni will mirror and remember that your permissions can vary by the workspace, base, and/or interface that you are working out of.

Adjusting Omni AI settings

Note

Adjusting Omni’s settings can only be performed by users with Owner or Creator permissions.

To access Omni’s settings:

1. With Omni open, click the dropdown icon ⌄ next to the name of your chat. If you have not renamed the chat, then the name will be “New chat.”

2. Click Settings.

From the settings menu, you can adjust various settings for Omni at the app level:

• Enable Omni in {Your base} - Toggling this option off will turn off Omni in your base as well as interfaces. You must enable Omni in your base to allow it to be used in any interfaces.

• Enable Omni in interfaces - Toggling this option off will turn off Omni in any interfaces that are part of your app.

• Customization - There are two text boxes you can use to set guardrails or give Omni more specific instructions of how to respond or build in your Airtable base:

• What context should Omni know about your organization or app?

• What preferences should Omni consider in responses?

• Internet access - Toggle this option on to allow Omni to utilize internet resources when answering questions or pulling data in from external sources. When toggled off, Omni will only utilize information in your Airtable base to answer questions and generate content.

After adjusting Omni’s app-level settings, be sure to click Save before returning to your base.

Renaming or deleting an Omni chat

1. With Omni open, click the dropdown icon ⌄ next to the name of your chat. If you have not renamed the chat, then the name will be “New chat.”

2. Click Rename or Delete.

   1. If you are renaming, then type out a new name and press Enter/Return

   2. If you are deleting, then a confirmation modal will appear. You’ll need to confirm by clicking Delete chat.

Post response considerations

After Omni has completed its response to a request, you will see several additional options appear.

• Undo icon - This option will appear in responses where Omni built or updated something in your app. Use this option if the results were unexpected and you would like to undo the actions that Omni performed.

• Checklist icon - Click this icon to show the steps that Omni took in order to respond to your request. This can be helpful when trying to determine how you can improve a request or see what Omni may have missed.

• Thumbs up/down icon - This allows you to share positive or negative feedback relating to the way Omni responded to your request. This feedback helps us improve Omni over time.

• Follow-ups - Omni will generate additional suggestions of requests you could use to improve or gain insights into your app.

Note that sometimes you may need to hover over Omni’s output to see these icons appear.

How to turn on or disable Airtable AI

Note

• This section covers the general steps taken to enable or disable AI features at the workspace level. To adjust AI integration settings from the admin panel level, consult this section in the admin panel settings article.

• Workspace Owner permissions are required to turn on or off AI workspace settings.

  • By default, Airtable AI is automatically enabled for all plans including legacy plans.

    This is not true for our EU / GDPR customers, who may choose to turn on Airtable AI features by choice instead.

FAQs