How to Use Make.com to Automate Your Business with AI (Singapore Guide 2026)

Make.com (formerly called Integromat) is one of the most accessible automation tools available for small businesses. It connects your apps together and lets you add AI steps so tasks happen automatically – no code required.

This guide gets you from zero to your first working AI automation in one session.

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How to Use Make.com to Automate Your Business with AI (Singapore Guide 2026)

What Make.com Is and How It Works

Make.com is a visual automation builder. You build “scenarios” – a sequence of steps where apps talk to each other and AI processes information along the way.

A scenario looks like a flow chart:

Trigger → Step 1 → Step 2 → Step 3 → Result

Example scenario:

New order on Shopee → Format order details → Claude AI writes personalised thank-you message → Send via WhatsApp to customer

You connect each step visually by linking the output of one module to the input of the next. No code.

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Make.com vs n8n vs Zapier

|–|———|—–|——–|

| Visual builder | Yes (very visual) | Yes | Yes |

Make.com is the best starting point for most Singapore small business owners who want real automation without the technical overhead of n8n.

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Step 1: Create Your Make.com Account

Go to **make.com**
Click **Get started free** or **Sign up**
Sign up with your email address or Google account
Verify your email
You are now on the **Free plan** which includes:

1,000 operations per month
2 active scenarios
All integrations available

Understanding operations: Each step in a scenario uses one operation. A scenario that runs once and has 4 steps uses 4 operations. 1,000 operations per month is roughly enough for one moderately active automation.

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Step 2: Understand the Make.com Interface

When you log in, you will see:

**Scenarios:** Your automations. Each one is a visual flow.
**Templates:** Pre-built scenarios you can install and customise
**Connections:** Your linked apps (Gmail, Shopify, etc.)
**Data Stores:** Small databases you can use inside scenarios

Start by clicking Templates to browse pre-built automations for inspiration before you build your own.

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Step 3: Connect Your First Apps

Before building a scenario, connect the apps you want to use.

Click **Connections** in the left sidebar
Click **Add connection**
Search for the app you want (Gmail, Shopify, WhatsApp, Notion, etc.)
Follow the prompts to authenticate – usually just “Sign in with Google” or paste an API key

Apps to connect for a typical Singapore small business:

Gmail or Outlook
Google Sheets (for data storage)
Google Drive
WhatsApp Business (via WATI or Twilio)
Shopify or WooCommerce (if you have an e-commerce store)
OpenAI or Anthropic (for AI processing)

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Step 4: Connect an AI Model

To add AI to your automations, connect either OpenAI or Anthropic:

For OpenAI (ChatGPT API):

Go to **platform.openai.com** and get your API key
In Make.com Connections, search for **OpenAI**
Paste your API key and save

For Anthropic (Claude):

Go to **console.anthropic.com** and get your API key
In Make.com Connections, search for **Anthropic Claude**
Paste your API key and save

Make sure you have added billing details on whichever platform you use. Costs for typical business automations run USD $5 to $20 per month.

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Step 5: Build Your First Scenario

Let us build a practical scenario: New Gmail email → AI summarises it → Saves summary to Google Sheets.

This is useful if you receive many emails and want a daily log of what came in with AI summaries.

Create the Scenario

Click **Scenarios** in the sidebar
Click **Create a new scenario**
You see a blank canvas with a large **+** icon

Add the Trigger: Gmail Watch Emails

Click the **+** icon
Search for **Gmail**
Select **Watch Emails** (this triggers the scenario when a new email arrives)
Select your Gmail connection
Configure:

**Folder:** INBOX
**Criteria:** All emails (or set a filter like “from:client@email.com” if you want only specific emails)
**Maximum number of results:** 5 (how many emails to process per run)

Click **OK**

Add the AI Step: Summarise with Claude

Click the **+** button after Gmail to add the next module
Search for **Anthropic Claude**
Select **Create a Message Completion**
Configure:

**Model:** claude-haiku-4-5 (fast and cheap for summaries)
**Messages:**
Role: User
Content (use the text editor to build the prompt):


     Summarise this email in 2 to 3 bullet points. 
     Be concise. Flag if it requires urgent action.
     
     From: [click the Gmail module in the panel and select "From Name" and "From Email"]
     Subject: [select "Subject" from Gmail]
     Body: [select "Text" from Gmail - this is the email body]

To insert Gmail fields into the prompt: click where you want to insert, then click the Gmail bubble that appears to pick the right data field
Click **OK**

Add the Output: Save to Google Sheets

Click **+** after the Claude module
Search for **Google Sheets**
Select **Add a Row**
Select your Google Sheets connection
Set up the spreadsheet:

**Spreadsheet:** Select or create one called “Email Summary Log”
**Sheet:** Sheet 1
**Row values:** Map each column:
Column A: Date (use the built-in `{{now}}` function)
Column B: Email From (map from Gmail module)
Column C: Subject (map from Gmail)
Column D: AI Summary (map from Claude module – select the response text)

Click **OK**

Test the Scenario

Click **Run once** (the blue button at the bottom left)
Watch each module light up as it processes
Check your Google Sheet – you should see new rows with email summaries

If it works: click the On/Off toggle at the bottom to activate it. Make.com will now run this scenario automatically every 15 minutes (or at whatever interval you set).

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Step 6: Set the Schedule

By default, Make.com runs triggered scenarios when it polls for new data. The polling interval depends on your plan:

Free plan: every 15 minutes
Core plan: every 5 minutes
Pro plan and above: instant/real-time triggers

To set a custom schedule:

Click the trigger module (Gmail in our example)
Click the small clock icon that appears
Set your preferred interval

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5 More Ready-to-Build Scenarios for Singapore Businesses

Scenario 2: New Shopify Order → AI Thank-You → WhatsApp

**Shopify: Watch New Orders** (trigger)
**Anthropic Claude: Create Message** (prompt: “Write a warm, friendly order confirmation WhatsApp message for a Singapore customer. Customer name: [Name]. Product: [Product]. Order number: [Order ID]. Include estimated delivery of 3 to 5 business days.”)
**WATI or Twilio: Send WhatsApp Message** (send the AI-written message to the customer’s phone number from the order)

Scenario 3: Weekly Content Calendar Generator

**Schedule Trigger** (every Monday 7am)
**Anthropic Claude: Create Message** (“Generate a 5-post Instagram content calendar for this week for a Singapore [type of business]. Include caption ideas and best posting times.”)
**Gmail: Send Email** (send the content calendar to yourself)

Scenario 4: New Google Form Response → AI Analysis → Slack

**Google Forms: Watch Responses** (for customer feedback forms)
**Anthropic Claude: Create Message** (“Analyse this customer feedback. Identify sentiment (positive/neutral/negative), main issue or compliment, and suggest one action to take: [paste form response fields]”)
**Slack: Create Message** (post the analysis to your team’s Slack channel)

Scenario 5: Competitor Monitoring

**RSS Feed: Watch New Items** (monitor a competitor’s blog or news feed)
**Anthropic Claude: Create Message** (“Summarise this article in 3 bullet points and identify any implications for a Singapore AI tools business: [article content]”)
**Notion: Create Page** (save the summary to your competitor tracking database)

Scenario 6: Invoice to WhatsApp Reminder

**Google Sheets: Watch New Rows** (when a new unpaid invoice row is added)
**Anthropic Claude: Create Message** (“Write a professional, polite payment reminder WhatsApp message. Amount: [amount]. Due date: [date]. Company: [company name].”)
**WhatsApp: Send Message** (send to client number from the spreadsheet)

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Common Make.com Mistakes to Avoid

Setting too many operations in one scenario run

If your scenario processes 100 emails in one run, that is 100 trigger operations plus 100 AI operations plus 100 Google Sheets operations = 300 operations. Watch your limits on the free plan.

Not mapping fields correctly

When you see `[object Object]` in your output instead of real data, you mapped the wrong field. Click on the module output to inspect what data is actually available.

Forgetting to activate after testing

Scenarios only run automatically when the toggle is On. Many beginners test successfully then forget to activate.

Running AI on every email including spam

Add a filter step after your email trigger to only process emails that are not from mailing lists or contain specific keywords. This saves operations and reduces noise.

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Getting More From Make.com

Make.com has a free academy at make.com/en/academy with video walkthroughs. Their community forum at community.make.com is also active and helpful for troubleshooting specific scenarios.

For Singapore-specific AI automation guides and templates, the AgentSetupSG playbook series covers practical setups built for local businesses.

Explore AgentSetupSG Playbooks and Tools