How to Automate Customer Email Responses Using Latenode and OpenAI

How to Make an AI Answer Your Customer Emails with No Coding Skills

In this post, we'll dive into creating an AI assistant that can respond to customer emails by referring to the product's documentation. You don't need any coding skills to follow along. Just learn how to use OpenAI's assistance API and the no-code automation magic of Latenode.

Creating Your AI Assistant with OpenAI

First, head over to the OpenAI API portal to create an assistant. Navigate to the 'Assistance' section in the upper left corner and click on 'Create'. Although I've already created one for this demonstration, I'll guide you through the steps.

Once you've created your assistant, you'll see an instructions panel. Ensure that your assistant uses attached files by specifying this in your instructions. I used a TXT file for simplicity; all our AI needs is the information, not the format.

For this example, I added the first chapter of Latenode's documentation as a TXT file. After setting up your assistant, you will receive an ID. We will need it later. Finally, navigate to the API keys section to create a new secret key. With these steps completed, our OpenAI setup is ready.

Setting Up Your Latenode Automation

Now, let's switch to Latenode. The scenario you'll create gets unread emails from your mailbox, sends them to the AI assistant, gets responses, and sends those back to your customers via Gmail. It will also mark the emails as read.

You can use this scenario as a template, available in the description. The process begins with triggers—scheduled or manual, using a Webhook trigger.

The first trigger activates the scenario on a set schedule. For a manual trigger, use the HTTP node to request unread messages from Google Workspace. The unread messages list moves to an iterator, which processes each emails' body into a variable using the JavaScript node.

You'll need to create a chat thread with your AI assistant. Though OpenAI recommends creating a new thread for every conversation, you can opt for a single thread to save costs. Positioning the 'Create Thread' node after the iterator node ensures only one thread is created.

Sending Customer Emails to the AI Assistant

Next, we send the message bodies to the AI assistant. Use the 'Create Message' node within the Chat GPT module to send your email content. Configure it with the API key and the thread ID generated earlier. Run this node to verify the message transfer.

Afterward, use the 'Create Run' node. Again, input the API key, thread ID, and assistant ID. Choose your model—in this example, GPT-4. This process generates the assistant's response.

With the AI response ready, it's time to send it back to the customer using Gmail. Configure the Gmail node with the assistant mailbox's access token. Set the recipient email address to the variable holding the original sender's email. You can add fixed text like 'Best regards, The Latenode Team' before running this node to send the email.

Finalizing the Automation

The last step is marking the email as read. Use another HTTP request to Google Workspace for this. Change the method to POST and configure it to remove the unread label from your message.

Finally, test your entire setup by adding a Webhook trigger to activate it manually. Observe the execution process in the scenario's history tab to ensure everything works smoothly.

Conclusion

Implementing an AI assistant to answer customer emails using OpenAI and Latenode is straightforward and doesn't require coding skills. This step-by-step guide can help you automate your communication effectively.

If you found this content helpful, consider subscribing and hitting the notification bell for more low-code and business automation tips. Latenode also offers a dedicated Discord channel where you can ask questions and interact with developers. Happy automating!