Answer course questions by text without manual work. When someone sends an SMS, an AI assistant checks your Airtable course data and replies with clear, helpful info. Great for admissions, student recruitment, and training teams that want fast answers and a clean record of each conversation.

Incoming messages arrive through a Twilio trigger. A set step collects the text and passes it to an agent powered by OpenAI with short term memory. The agent chooses tools to read your Airtable schema, list professors and departments, and build its own filter by formula to search classes. It learns the structure first, then runs precise searches so answers match the source of truth. The reply and the original question are saved in a Call Log table, then a Twilio node sends the answer back to the sender.

Connect a Twilio number, an Airtable base with up to date course fields, and an OpenAI key. Expect response time to drop from hours to minutes, with fewer handoffs and zero copy paste mistakes. Schools, bootcamps, and training firms can also adapt the same pattern to inventory, schedules, or service FAQs. You can review the log to see trends by topic and follow up on warm leads.

• Twilio trigger receives inbound SMS messages and starts the flow.
• Set step extracts the message text and keeps a simple session id.
• OpenAI chat model with memory keeps short context for better answers.
• Agent selects Airtable tools and builds filter by formula searches on its own.
• Airtable schema reader helps the agent understand fields before searching.
• Professor and department listings guide the agent to valid values.
• Airtable create action records question and answer in a Call Log table.
• Twilio send step returns the final answer to the same phone number.

• Reduce manual replies from 2 hours daily to 10 minutes
• Handle 5 times more SMS questions at once
• Improve data quality by logging 100 percent of interactions
• Connect Twilio, OpenAI, and Airtable in one flow
• Cut copy paste errors with direct database lookups
• Turn every chat into a lead record for follow up

1. Import the template into n8n: Create a new workflow in n8n > Click the three dots menu > Select 'Import from File' > Choose the downloaded JSON file.
2. You'll need accounts with Twilio, Airtable and OpenAI. See the Tools Required section above for links to create accounts with these services.
3. In the n8n credentials manager, create a Twilio credential. Double click the Twilio Trigger or Send SMS node, choose Create new credential, then follow the on screen steps using your Twilio Account SID and Auth Token.
4. In your Twilio console, buy or select a phone number. In the number settings, set the Messaging webhook for when a message comes in to the Twilio Trigger webhook URL shown in n8n, then save.
5. In Airtable, prepare a base with a Courses table and a Call Log table. Include fields for Instructor, Department, and any other course fields you need.
6. In the n8n credentials manager, create an Airtable Personal Access Token credential. Generate a token in Airtable with read and write access to your base, then paste it into n8n.
7. Open each Airtable node and select your Airtable credential. Confirm the Base and Table values match your Airtable. In the Call Log node, map the From, Question, and Answer fields to columns in your table.
8. In the n8n credentials manager, create an OpenAI credential. Get your API key from your OpenAI account and add it to n8n. In the Model node, pick the model you plan to use.
9. Open the Course Assistant Agent node. Review the system message and keep the guidance to read the schema before searching so the agent returns accurate results.
10. Click Execute once on the Twilio Trigger to register the webhook. Send a test SMS to your Twilio number and watch the execution to confirm tool calls and Airtable writes.
11. Check Airtable for a new Call Log record and confirm you received an SMS reply. If not, verify the Twilio webhook URL, OpenAI usage limits, and Airtable token permissions.
12. When tests pass, set the workflow to Active in n8n Cloud so it listens for messages at all times.