Posted by techstack_mike | 2 days ago

Hey everyone, I've been hearing a lot about n8n for automating AI workflows but honestly I'm a bit lost on where to even start. I run a small content agency and we're drowning in repetitive tasks - mostly content research, data extraction, and client reporting. Has anyone actually gotten real value out of n8n with AI integrations? I'm comfortable with APIs but the visual workflow thing is new to me. Would love to hear if it's worth the learning curve or if I should just stick with Zapier.

Reply by sarah_automates | 1 day ago

Mike, I was in your exact position about 6 months ago and n8n has honestly been a game changer for our team. The initial setup is definitely steeper than Zapier but once you get the hang of nodes and expressions it's way more powerful. I built a workflow that takes client briefs, sends them to GPT-4 for initial research, then dumps everything into Airtable with sentiment analysis - saves us like 10 hours a week. The self-hosted option is also clutch if you're dealing with sensitive client data. Start with their template library, there's some good AI workflow examples there that you can just clone and modify.

Reply by DevOpsJay | 1 day ago

One thing nobody mentions enough is that n8n can get expensive real quick if you're not careful with API calls, especially with AI models. I burned through like $200 in OpenAI credits in a week because I didn't set up proper error handling and my workflow was stuck in a loop lol. Make sure you use the "Stop and Error" triggers and set execution limits. Also the HTTP Request node is your best friend - you can connect to literally any AI service that has an API, not just the built-in integrations. I'm running Claude, Perplexity, and some custom ML models all in the same workflows now.

Reply by techstack_mike | 23 hours ago

Thanks for the responses! Sarah that Airtable workflow sounds exactly like what I need - do you use the AI Agent node or just basic HTTP requests to OpenAI? And Jay, really appreciate the heads up about API costs, definitely don't want to blow our budget on a runaway workflow haha. I'm gonna spin up the self-hosted version this weekend and start experimenting. Did either of you find the documentation helpful or did you mostly learn from YouTube/community forums?

Reply by sarah_automates | 18 hours ago

I actually use a mix - the OpenAI node for simpler stuff because it's easier to set up, but HTTP requests when I need more control over parameters or when I'm chaining multiple AI calls together. The documentation is okay but honestly the n8n community forum and their Discord are where the real gold is. People share actual workflow JSONs you can import which is super helpful. Also pro tip: use the Sticky Note node liberally to document what each part of your workflow does, because you WILL forget in like 2 weeks trust me lol.