SoftTech AI Registry
Airtable · Airtable Automations

Generate with AI

An automation action step that runs a configured prompt against a selected AI model and returns generated text or structured data to later automation steps, which may then write records, send email or post to connected third-party services.

Recorded characteristics

Function
Airtable documents "Generate with AI" as an automation action step with two variants: "Generate text", which returns a Response value, and "Generate structured data", which returns output matching a user-defined JSON schema using string, number, boolean, array, object and enum types with up to four levels of nesting. Airtable documents that an automation using this action has at least three components: a trigger, the Generate with AI step configured with prompt, randomness and model, and one or more later action steps that consume the generated content, for example writing it to a record, sending it in an email or posting it to Slack. Airtable documents that structured output can be looped over as a repeating group or mapped to individual steps such as creating or updating records.
Data access
Airtable documents that the prompt can combine static text with dynamic tokens from earlier steps, including records returned by a "Find records" action, and that referenced field content counts toward model word limits. For "Generate structured data" Airtable documents an "Allow AI to access the Internet" toggle; when it is off, the AI can only use data already available in the base and web-dependent schema properties return empty or a "could not find values" error.
Actions
Can take actions
External actions
Conditional
Human confirmation
Not required
Permission basis
Separate permissions
Administrative control
Airtable documents organisation-level admin panel AI settings: an "Airtable AI" toggle that prevents AI use in all organisation-owned workspaces when off, an option to allow AI only in allowlisted workspaces, control over which AI platforms and model developers may be used, an Omni toggle, an "Enable internet access" setting that controls whether AI may access the internet, an "Enable AI web prototype generation" setting and an "AI Labs" early-access setting. Airtable documents that workspace owners can disable AI at the workspace level even where admins have enabled it, and that admins can review AI credit usage in AI settings.
Default state
Disabled
Availability
Airtable documents the Generate with AI action as available on all plan types with varying limitations, on Web/Browser, Mac and Windows apps. Airtable documents per-plan monthly automation run limits and run-history retention: Enterprise Scale 500,000 runs and 3 years, Business 100,000 and 1 year, Team 25,000 and 6 months, Free 100 and 2 weeks, with the Run a script action unavailable and Send email limited to base collaborators on Free.
Licensing
Airtable documents that all plans include AI functionality with a monthly AI credit allowance that is pooled across the workspace or organisation, with documented per-plan allocations, credit resets and options to purchase additional credits. Airtable documents that creating, configuring or renaming an automation requires Owner or Creator permission and that Editors can only view an automation configuration.
External model or provider
not_established
Limitations and uncertainty
Airtable documents a model selection for the action but the current help article for this action does not name the specific models or providers, so the external model or provider is recorded as not established. Airtable documents word limits of approximately 12,000 words for lower-powered models and approximately 90,000 for higher-powered models, a 64,000 character prompt limit, truncation of over-long responses, and that an enum returns only the first matching value and silently drops the rest. Airtable documents that automations run server-side and do not rely on any specific user credentials, but the current documentation does not establish an AI-specific audit trail, per-run human approval step, or agent identity beyond the automation itself. Whether generated content reaches systems outside Airtable depends entirely on which later action steps the creator configures.

Evidence