Instant Course Answers via SMS with AI Automation
Instantly resolve student course inquiries via SMS, reducing response times from hours to seconds and freeing up staff for critical tasks.
Manually answering student course inquiries via SMS is slow, resource-intensive, and prone to delays. This n8n workflow leverages an AI agent to instantly answer complex course questions from an Airtable database, significantly improving response times and student satisfaction.

Documentation
AI-Powered SMS Course Assistant
This n8n template provides an intelligent chatbot assistant capable of answering student course enquiries directly over SMS. It uses an AI agent to dynamically retrieve information from your course database, offering instant and accurate responses.
Key Features
- Automated SMS Response: Instantly reply to student questions via Twilio.
- Intelligent AI Agent: Understands natural language queries and provides accurate, sourced answers.
- Dynamic Data Retrieval: Automatically queries Airtable to find specific course details, professor lists, and department information.
- Conversation Logging: Records all inquiries and answers in Airtable for analysis and lead generation.
- Customizable Course Database: Easily adapt to any course catalog or data set stored in Airtable.
How It Works
When a student sends an SMS message, the workflow is triggered via Twilio. The message is then passed to an AI agent, powered by OpenAI and LangChain, which analyzes the query. The agent leverages multiple tools to interact with an Airtable course database: it first retrieves the database schema, then searches for relevant courses, professors, or departments based on the student's question. After formulating an accurate answer, the agent's response is logged in a call log within Airtable and finally sent back to the student via SMS.