Using AI chat
Using AI
The AI chat panel is your assistant for everything in formbase — create forms, refine fields, translate content, analyze submissions, and manage your workspace through conversation.
Getting started
Click the floating AI button in the bottom-right corner of formbase. On desktop it opens a docked panel. On mobile it slides up as a drawer. The panel stays open while you work.
AI chat is available everywhere: your workspace, the form editor, the submissions page, and the translation editor. Tools and suggested prompts change based on the page you’re on. You need a signed-in account — AI chat is off while you are trying formbase as a guest.
- 1
Open or create a form
Open an existing form, or ask AI to create one for you.
- 2
Click the AI button
Look for the floating button in the bottom-right corner.
- 3
Describe what you need
One sentence is enough. Add detail for better results.
- 4
Review and refine
AI builds fields directly into your form. Edit inline or keep chatting.
Think out loud
Vague prompts work too. Try “Help me create a form” and AI will ask follow-up questions until it has what it needs.
What you can do
Create and edit forms
Describe what you need and AI builds the fields, pages, validation, and logic directly into your form. AI sees your form’s current state, so follow-ups are context-aware. For prompt-writing tips and examples, see AI form generation.
Generate from files
Attach an image, PDF, or screenshot to your message and AI turns it into a structured form. Great for converting paper forms, competitor screenshots, or wireframes. See AI form generation for supported formats and limits.
Analyze submissions
On the submissions page, AI reads your response data and answers questions in plain English. Suggested prompts appear automatically:
Give me the headline — key metrics at a glance
Review recent submissions — scan the latest responses
Find trends and outliers — patterns in your data
Explain performance — why metrics look the way they do
Spot drop-off risks — where respondents abandon the form
Recommend next steps — actionable improvements
Compare segments — device, date, or share link performance
Compare another form — cross-form analysis
Translate
In the translation editor, AI offers context-aware quick actions: translate all missing entries, refresh outdated ones, polish existing translations, or spot-check for issues. You can translate into several languages at once. See translating form content for the full workflow.
Manage your workspace
AI handles workspace tasks too: create forms, organize folders, publish or unpublish forms, send and track requests, and set up share links — all through conversation.
Teach AI with skills
Skills are reusable instructions and domain knowledge you give AI — a specific role, industry terminology, or writing style. Attach them to a message from the brain icon in the chat toolbar. Pro feature. See AI skills.
Tool approval
Some actions need your approval before AI runs them: publishing or unpublishing a form, deleting a form or a folder, changing a share link, canceling a request, and deleting a language from a form’s translations. You’ll see the proposed action with Approve and Deny buttons. Nothing changes until you confirm.
Choosing a model
formbase runs AI chat on two Claude models. Pick one from the model button in the chat input toolbar — it shows the current model and opens a short list when you click it. The choice applies to the current conversation. New conversations start on the default.
| Model | Best for | Relative cost |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 (default) | Building forms — generating and editing fields, restructuring pages, and logic. Fast and economical. | Lowest |
| Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Analytics and complex thinking — submission analysis, trends, nuanced reasoning, and dense PDFs. | 3× Haiku |
Build with Haiku, analyze with Sonnet
Haiku is the right choice for building forms — it handles generation and edits well. Switch to Sonnet for submission analytics and tasks that need deeper reasoning. Sonnet is more capable but costs exactly three times as much per token — see AI credits & usage.
AI settings
Click the gear icon in the AI chat header to open AI settings, which slide in as a drawer from the right. These control how AI generates forms and are per-user — each team member tunes their own preferences. Changes apply to all future conversations.
AI always replies in your dashboard language — the interface language you pick from the language switcher in formbase’s sidebar. To get a one-off result in another language, just ask in your message (for example, “reply in French”).
| Setting | Options | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Form Layout | Let AI decide · Single page · Multi-page wizard | Let AI decide |
| Label Tone | Formal ("Date of Birth") · Conversational ("When were you born?") | Formal |
| Field Verbosity | Minimal · Balanced · Rich (adds help text, descriptions, placeholders) | Balanced |
| AI Clarification Style | Ask questions first · Generate immediately and explain | Ask questions first |
Starting over
New chat in the panel header clears the conversation and starts fresh — useful when AI has drifted off course or you move to an unrelated task. It asks you to confirm first, and the cleared history cannot be recovered. Minimize hides the panel without losing the conversation.
Credits
AI chat uses credits from your balance. The bar above the message box shows how many you have left, and turns red when you fall to 10 credits or fewer. At 0 credits, AI chat stops until you add funds. See AI credits & usage for pricing, packages, and how to add funds.