AI Proposal Automation System with n8n, OpenAI GPT, Google Docs, and Airtable
Introduction & What This Automation Does
Creating proposals manually can quickly become repetitive and time-consuming, especially if you regularly prepare proposals for clients, projects, or partnerships. To solve this problem, I built a Proposal Automation System using n8n, Jotform, Google Docs, Google Drive, Airtable, and OpenAI GPT.
This system automatically generates a complete professional proposal based on structured user input. A user simply fills out a form, and the automation handles everything else: generating proposal content with AI, creating a formatted document, converting it into a PDF, storing the files in Google Drive, and saving all related data inside Airtable.
All generated documents, including the Google Docs proposal and the final PDF, are automatically organized and stored in Google Drive. At the same time, Airtable acts as the central database where every proposal record is stored, including user inputs, generated proposal content, document links, and the final PDF.
For proposal input, this system uses Jotform as the front-facing form where users enter the information required to generate a proposal. Once the form is submitted, the entire automation runs automatically without requiring any manual steps.
This automation is extremely useful for businesses, freelancers, or agencies that frequently create proposals and want to eliminate repetitive work while ensuring consistent, professional proposal documents every time.
If you want to build this automation yourself, you can download the complete n8n workflow JSON from the link below and import it directly into your n8n instance.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14qXw-8yLYDOKEhBLlXtHoMJrXI4G57xZ?usp=drive_link
You can view and copy the Airtable base used in this project using the public link below. This base contains the same Product table structure and fields used in the automation, so you can easily duplicate it and use it with the n8n workflow without needing to recreate the database schema manually. Simply open the link, copy the base to your Airtable workspace, and you will have the exact structure required to run this automation.
https://airtable.com/app5664nhfEFhTGT9/shr0Fx6RlTIzV3FEz
Quick Demo
You can watch the full quick demo of this automation system below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNOONpmPRMw
Technologies Used and Prerequisites
This project combines several tools to create a fully automated proposal generation workflow.
| Technology | Purpose |
|---|---|
| n8n | Workflow automation engine that connects all services together |
| Jotform | Collects proposal input data from users |
| OpenAI GPT | Generates structured proposal content using AI |
| Google Docs | Used as the proposal template and document generator |
| Google Drive | Stores generated documents and PDFs |
| Airtable | Central database for proposal records and file storage |
Prerequisites before using or replicating this project:
An n8n instance (cloud or self-hosted)
A Jotform account with an accessible form
Google Drive and Google Docs access
An OpenAI API key
An Airtable base to store proposal records
A Google Docs template with placeholders for proposal content
Workflow Explanation
The automation begins with a Jotform Trigger node. Every time the connected proposal form is submitted, this trigger starts the entire workflow. The trigger is configured with the correct Jotform credentials and listens specifically for submissions from the proposal form.
To make the system easy to replicate and understand, the Jotform itself contains structured fields that capture all information needed to generate a proposal. These fields typically include the proposal title, description, tone, and other relevant details that guide the AI when generating the proposal content.
Once the form submission is received, the workflow moves to the Proposal Generator LLM Chain, which is the core of the automation. This node uses OpenAI to generate the proposal content based on the information provided by the user. The AI prompt is carefully designed so the output follows a strict JSON structure.
Using a structured output parser, the workflow ensures that the AI response always follows the same format. This consistency is important because the generated data will later be inserted directly into a document template.
The AI model used in this project is GPT-4.1 Mini, although other models can also be used depending on your requirements.
After the proposal content is generated, the workflow proceeds to the Google Drive node, which copies a pre-built Google Docs proposal template. This template contains placeholders wrapped in double curly brackets. These placeholders act as markers that will later be replaced with the generated proposal content.
The copied template is saved inside a dedicated Proposal Automation folder, and the new document is automatically renamed using the proposal title submitted in the form.
Once the template is copied, the workflow moves to the Google Docs update step. Here, the placeholders inside the document are replaced with the generated proposal data. Multiple find-and-replace operations are executed to populate the proposal title, summary, scope, benefits, and other sections with AI-generated content.
After the document has been fully populated, the workflow converts the Google Docs document into a PDF file using Google’s document conversion functionality.
The generated PDF is then uploaded into the Proposal Automation folder in Google Drive. All project-related files remain organized within this folder, including templates, generated documents, and final PDFs.
Before the PDF can be stored in Airtable, its file permissions must be updated. The workflow sets the file permissions so the PDF becomes accessible to anyone with the link. This step is necessary because Airtable requires publicly accessible URLs for file attachments.
Next, a Set node prepares the file metadata in the exact JSON format required by Airtable. This includes the file URL and file name so Airtable can store the PDF properly inside an attachment field.
Finally, the workflow creates a new record in the Airtable Proposal table. This record contains all relevant information, including the original user input from Jotform, the AI-generated proposal content, the Google Docs document link, and the final PDF file.
Summary
This Proposal Automation System demonstrates how multiple tools can be combined to create a powerful AI-driven workflow that eliminates repetitive manual work.
A simple form submission triggers the entire process: AI generates the proposal content, a document template is populated automatically, a PDF version is created, and all files are stored in Google Drive while the full proposal record is saved in Airtable.
By automating proposal generation in this way, businesses and freelancers can significantly reduce the time spent creating documents while maintaining a consistent and professional proposal format.
This project is a great example of how workflow automation and AI can work together to streamline real-world business processes.
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next project.
