Build a Custom AI Chatbot in Just a Few Minutes

It’s just like the title says: build a custom chatbot in just a few minutes for FREE!

Creating a custom AI chatbot might sound like a complex technical challenge, but it’s very achievable in just a few minutes using free tools and a simple copy-paste approach. My directions combine the power of ChatGPT’s language capabilities with Zapier’s automation platform, which recently introduced a beta chatbot feature that makes deployment incredibly simple.

You’ll build the generative AI chatbot on the platform Zapier using a prompt that you will customize in ChatGPT. If you can copy and paste, you can do this!!!

Resources

• Zapier
• Google doc with prompt and instructions
• Example Zapier-built chatbot: Carey the Career Coach

Step-by-Step

1. Log into Zapier (create a free account)
2. Select Chatbots in left sidebar
3. Select Create button
4. Name your chatbot
5. Opens to Instructions tab
6. Edit Directive
   1. Delete existing text
   2. Write your chatbot prompt with ChatGPT
   3. Paste prompt into Directive
   4. Select Done
7. Edit Greeting
   1. Choose how your chatbot should greet users
      1. Static = always the same
      2. Generated = different each time based on your short prompt
8. Select Save changes in lower left
9. Open Settings tab
   1. Change “Public name” if needed
   2. Optional: Edit the “user message placeholder”
10. Select Save changes in lower left
11. You’re done! Select Share and send to all your friends.
12. Open Conversations tab to see chat transcripts from users interacting with your chatbot

Full Video

Troubleshooting Tips

• The chatbot may take a moment to load initially
• If the chatbot doesn’t load, try opening the URL in a private/incognito browser window
• Remember that responses may contain inaccuracies (hallucinations) like ChatGPT
• Consider upgrading to a paid account for custom knowledge integration and longer conversation history