---
title: 'Build a Free AI Chatbot in Minutes (No Coding Required)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=3vWIfCpwlEA'
video_id: '3vWIfCpwlEA'
date: 2026-06-16
duration_sec: 0
---

# Build a Free AI Chatbot in Minutes (No Coding Required)

> Source: [Build a Free AI Chatbot in Minutes (No Coding Required)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=3vWIfCpwlEA)

## Summary

This video demonstrates how to build an AI-powered customer support chatbot using Zapier with no coding required. The bot can answer questions, pull from business knowledge, and log support requests. It can be embedded on a website and integrates with existing tools to take actions like creating support tickets.

### Key Points

- **Introduction to building a chatbot** [0:00] — Kevin shows how to build an AI customer support chatbot for Kevin Cookie Company using Zapier, no coding needed.
- **Prerequisites** [0:46] — All you need is a Zapier account (free to start). Link in description.
- **Creating the chatbot** [0:57] — Click 'Create' in Zapier, go to 'Chatbots', choose 'Create from scratch' to customize fully.
- **Naming the bot** [1:24] — Name the bot 'Chip, the cookie helper'.
- **Setting instructions** [1:35] — In the Instructions tab, set greeting and directive. Objective: answer questions about Kevin Cookie Company. Must use knowledge source, not make up info.
- **Adding knowledge sources** [2:42] — In Knowledge tab, add website pages (e.g., recipes) and Google Docs (e.g., FAQ). Can crawl subpages.
- **Fallback response** [3:29] — If no answer in knowledge, show custom message: 'Sorry, I don't know.' Prevents AI from making up info.
- **Scheduling knowledge refresh** [4:47] — Set schedule to automatically refresh knowledge sources (e.g., daily, weekly) to keep bot up-to-date.
- **Adding logic for lead collection** [5:28] — In Logic tab, enable 'Collect leads' to capture name, email, phone when bot can't answer. Stores in a Zapier table.
- **Customizing theme** [7:07] — In Theme tab, set avatar, logo, embed icon, and colors. Preview shows the bot's appearance.
- **Integrations** [7:49] — Can connect to Slack, Facebook Messenger, Gmail, Zendesk, or build custom integration. Skipped in this video.
- **Choosing AI model** [8:14] — In AI Model tab, select OpenAI GPT-4.1 Mini or 4.0 Mini. Can connect own OpenAI/Anthropic account for more models. Set creativity level.
- **Testing the chatbot** [8:49] — Use preview window to test questions. Example: 'What are your store hours?' returns correct info. Unknown question triggers fallback and lead collection.
- **Sharing and embedding** [9:43] — Click 'Share' to get public link or embed code. Can embed as pop-up or inline. Copy script/iframe and paste into website builder (e.g., Google Sites).
- **Viewing conversations and analytics** [11:10] — In Zapier, view conversations to see customer interactions. Analytics track conversations, messages, links clicked, top keywords, sentiment score.

### Conclusion

With Zapier, you can quickly build a no-code AI chatbot that answers customer questions, collects leads, and integrates with your website. The bot stays updated automatically and provides analytics to improve performance.

## Transcript

Today, I'm going to show you how to build your own 
AI powered customer support chatbot using Zapier  
with absolutely no coding. I made this video 
in partnership with Zapier. We'll create a bot  
for the Kevin Cookie Company that can answer 
questions, pull from your business knowledge,  
and even log support requests automatically. 
And at the end, I’ll show you how to embed the  
chatbot directly on your website so customers 
can start using it right away. The best part?  
Zapier chatbots connect to all your existing 
tools. So instead of jumping between apps,  
your bot can actually take action, like creating 
a support ticket or sending an email. This makes  
it incredibly powerful for real businesses. I'm 
Kevin, and let's start creating our chatbot. To  
follow along, all you need is a Zapier account, 
and it's free to get started. I've included a link  
in the description and as a pinned comment. Once 
you're signed in, click create on the left-hand  
side and go down to chatbots, which is where you 
can build and customize your chatbots. You don't  
need any coding experience. Now Zapier gives me 
two ways to create a chatbot. I can have Zapier  
build a starting point automatically based on my 
website, or I can create one from scratch. For  
this video, I'll choose create from scratch 
so we can walk through each step and fully  
customize the bot. Right down here, we can give 
the bot a name. I'm going to call mine Chip,  
the cookie helper. Once you enter a name, let's 
click on create. Now that the bot's created,  
we can set up its personality and its behavior. On 
the left-hand side, I'm in the instructions tab.  
This is where you tell your bot how to greet 
people, and underneath that, how it should  
respond. For the greeting, I'll keep it simple and 
just ask, how can I help you today? Below that,  
we have the directive box. This is the main 
set of instructions for the bot. Now, overall,  
the default looks good, but I do need to customize 
a few things. Right up here in the objective,  
you are an exceptional customer support 
representative. Your objective is to answer  
questions and provide resources about, 
and you notice I need to customize this,  
so let's enter in information about the Kevin 
Cookie Company, a business that bakes and sells  
a variety of cookies. Now, the rest of this 
looks good. Right down here, you could also  
specify the style of the communication for 
your bot, and at the very bottom, we have  
other rules. This one's very important. Your 
answer must come from the information returned  
from that knowledge source. In a moment, we'll 
contribute information to the knowledge source,  
and it'll use that to answer questions. We 
don't want our bot making up information.
Once all of this looks good, down at the very 
bottom, let's click on save changes. Let's now  
add the information that the chat bot will use to 
answer customer questions. Over on the left-hand  
side, let's click on the knowledge tab. This is 
where you can connect documents, web pages, files,  
and even Zapier tables. Let's start by adding 
our first knowledge source. Right up on top,  
I'll click on this button. This opens up a 
dialog, and right over here, we can select the  
first source. I'll start with the website. I'll 
select this, and right down below, I'll type in  
the website for the Kevin Cookie Company. Down 
below, I can also crawl this link for all the  
subpages. I'll check that box, and then right over 
here, let's click on continue. It looks like it  
found a number of different subpages. Let's check 
the ones that we would like to include as part of  
the knowledge source. I’ll go with recipes, 
here we have chocolate chip, and let's also  
go with Clippy's Scrumptious Cookie. Down below, 
let's click on add. It's now ingesting all these  
different sources into its knowledge base. Next, 
we need to define what should happen if it can't  
find a response in our knowledge source. Now 
by default, it says to generate an AI response  
without knowledge sources. Now, I'd rather have 
it show a custom message, so right here, I'll  
select show a custom message, and it'll simply 
say, "Sorry, I don't know." Again, I don't want  
it making up information. In the bottom right-hand 
corner, let's click on save. There we go, we now  
have our first source. Let's try adding one more. 
In the top right-hand corner, I'll click on add  
source. This opens up that same dialogue again. 
Let's go back to the type dropdown, and this time,  
I'd like to add an FAQ file that I have stored in 
Google Docs. I'll click on this option, and you'll  
have to start by connecting your Google Docs 
account. So, over here, let's click on connect. In  
the top right-hand corner, I'll add a connection. 
Then select your Google account. Once you finish  
setting up your account, you'll see the connection 
right here. Down below, you can now select the  
file that you would like to include as part of 
the knowledge base. I’ll click on this, and here,  
I see the Kevin Cookie Company FAQ. I'll select 
this file right here, and in the bottom right-hand  
corner, let's now add the source. Right up 
above, you can see that we now have two different  
sources. Our bot's getting a lot smarter. Before 
we move on, let's look at some of the settings.  
Right up here, we have knowledge settings, and 
we looked at this earlier. This is the fallback  
response when it can't find an answer. I'm good 
with this, so over here, let's cancel. To the  
right of that, we also have schedule all. This 
allows you to schedule how often Zapier refreshes  
these knowledge sources. This is useful if you 
have content that changes over time, like let's  
say a menu or maybe new policies. You can define 
how often it checks, the day that it should run  
on, and right over here, you could also specify 
the time window. Once this is set, the bot will  
automatically stay up to date without me having 
to manually upload anything. Right over here,  
I'll click on save, and the beautiful thing is 
the knowledge will stay fresh all on its own. So,  
if I update the Google Doc, that information will 
automatically flow to my bot on the schedule that  
I specified. Let's now shift to the logic tab. 
Over here, I'll click on logic. This is where  
we can add extra actions and controls to your 
chatbot. Right up at the very top, we can collect  
contact information from users. Underneath that, 
we can add buttons that trigger a Zap. Here we  
have a Zap, and at the very bottom, we even have 
suggestions that help guide the conversation.  
If you haven't heard of a Zap before, maybe you're 
wondering what that is, it's an automated workflow  
in Zapier that connects two or more apps together. 
If you want a full walkthrough on how Zaps work  
and how to build them, I have a dedicated Zapier 
video linked right down below in the description. 
In my case, if the chatbot can't answer a 
customer's question, I want to make sure I  
collect their information so I can follow up. So, 
right up on top, let's click on collect leads. On  
this page, I'll create a new table to store 
this information. Down below, I can see all  
the different types of fields that the chatbot 
will collect if it doesn't have an answer for  
the customer. So, I have the name, the email, the 
phone, and the company. Now for a cookie business,  
I don't know if I need a customer's company, so 
over here, I could delete that field. If we click  
on add field, I can also add additional custom 
fields. However, I don't need any others. I think  
these three work well. Right here, I could define 
when to ask for this information at the beginning  
of a conversation, after a few messages, when 
certain keywords are used, but I really just  
need this when the chatbot cannot provide an 
answer, so I’ll select this option. Down below,  
everything else looks good, so let's click on 
create logic. This opens up a new tab where we  
can see the table with the three fields, the name, 
the email, and the phone. This all looks good,  
so let's jump back to the chatbot. Right up 
above, let's go back to the previous tab. The  
logic looks good, so over on the left-hand 
side, let's now move on to the theme. This  
is where we can adjust the look and feel of the 
chatbot, so you could set things like the avatar,  
the logo, the embed icon, and down below, you 
could also adjust the colors. Right up on top,  
let's choose an avatar. Click on choose image, and 
here we have the chip avatar. Let’s click on open,  
and that'll now upload him. Let's go down a little 
bit more and I also want to customize the color.  
I'll click on custom color, and let's go with 
white. I think this all looks good, so down below,  
I'll click on save changes. Over on the right-hand 
side, we can preview what it looks like. Here we  
have that nice modern and sleek white background, 
and we also see Chip the avatar. Look at that,  
he's waving at us. How cute. Over on the left-hand 
side, let's now shift into integrations. This is  
where you can connect your chatbot to services 
like Slack, Facebook Messenger, Gmail, Zendesk,  
or you could even build your own from scratch. 
These options let the bot send or receive messages  
through these different platforms. Now you could 
even build your own integration from scratch  
if you want even more advanced workflows. 
For this video, we're going to keep things  
simple and just focus on the chatbot itself.
So, I'll skip all these integrations for now.  
Over on the left-hand side, let's now shift 
into the AI model. Here you can choose what  
model powers your chatbot. Right up on top, we 
have two different options. You have OpenAI,  
GPT 4.1 Mini, or 4.0 Mini. Those are the default 
options. However, if you would like access  
to even more models, right up here, you could 
connect your OpenAI or your Anthropic account,  
and then those different models can power 
your chatbot. Down below, you can also set  
the creativity that your chatbot can take. Now I'm 
going to stick with all the defaults, and this all  
looks good. Now that everything's set up, let's 
try out the chatbot. Over on the right-hand side,  
I have the preview window. Here I could talk to it 
just like a customer would. Let's start with a few  
common questions to make sure it responds the way 
I expect it to. Let's ask something simple. Down  
below, I'll type in what are your store hours, 
and then let's send that through. Right up above,  
I can see the store hours, and everything appears 
to be accurate. This lets me check that it's  
pulling from the knowledge I added earlier. 
Now let's try something it shouldn't know. So  
down below, let's type in another question. How 
many employees work at the Kevin Cookie Company?  
We don't have that information on the website, 
and it's certainly not in the FAQ. Let's submit  
that. Since it doesn't know the answer, right 
up on top, it says, "Sorry, I don't know." And  
then it also asks me for information, like the 
name, email, and phone number so someone on our  
support team can follow up. Testing here is quick 
and easy. Now that the chatbot's ready, let's try  
adding it to a website. In the top right-hand 
corner, let's click on the button that says,  
"Share," and we have a few different options. 
You can invite other people to work with you on  
this chatbot. Now, I don't need any assistance, 
so over here, let's click on Public Link. Here  
you can get a public link that you can share with 
others, and that'll bring them to Zapier, where  
they can then interact directly with the chatbot.
Right up on top, we can see what this experience  
looks like. And if we go back, you can also 
embed it directly on your website, and you have  
two different options. You can place it on your 
website as a pop-up, and here we see that option,  
or you can place it in line onto your website. 
Now I'd like to place it in line on the site,  
so I'll click on this option, and down below you 
can get a script, or you can copy an iframe. I'll  
go with a script right here, and let's copy the 
embed code. Now go to your website builder. I'm  
using Google Sites, but this works with WordPress, 
Wix, Squarespace, and many others. Now right over  
on the right-hand side in the Insert menu, I'll 
insert embed code, and let's go with embed code,  
and here I can paste in the code, click on Next, 
and let's insert that onto the page. Over here,  
let's center it. So, it's right here in 
the middle of the page under Support,  
and there I can see the chat bot appear on the 
page. In the top right-hand corner, I'll now  
click on Publish, and let's see what it looks 
like live on the site. I'm now on the website,  
and here I see Chip the Cookie Helper. Let's jump 
down to the bottom, and let's ask a question.  
Where are you located? And then let's submit 
that. Perfect. Look at that. 123 Sweet Street,  
Cookieville, USA. Back within Zapier, I can 
view all conversations. This is where I can  
see how customers and people are interacting 
with the chat bot that we just built. Over on  
the left-hand side under the Review category, 
let's click on Conversations. Here I can check  
what customers are asking. We can check for any 
issues, and we can also make improvements based  
on those interactions. For example, here I asked 
where the store is located, and the bot responded  
with the correct address from the knowledge base. 
Once you start having more and more conversations,  
you can also check how it's performing over time. 
On the left-hand side, let's click into Analytics.  
Here you can track the number of conversations, 
messages, the number of links that were clicked,  
and as more people use the bot, this page will 
fill in with trends. Here we have top keywords,  
the sentiment score, and you have additional 
data. This helps you understand what customers  
are asking and how well the bot's responding. 
And just like that, we now have a fully working  
customer support chat bot for the Kevin Cookie 
Company. That was really easy. If you want  
to learn more about building Zaps or connecting 
this chat bot to other apps, I have a full Zapier  
tutorial linked in the description. Thanks for 
watching, and I hope to see you in the next one.