Unveiling the Gems: Key Takeaways from Daretable 2023 Part 1

Introduction:

Attending Daretable 2023 was such a privilege for us here at Claribase.  As avid Airtable users and enthusiasts, attending this event was an incredible experience that left us feeling inspired, informed, and eager to share our key takeaways with you. Daretable is an Airtable conference like no other, organized and attended by Airtable leaders, enthusiasts, and experts. It serves as a platform for like-minded individuals to gather, learn, and celebrate the power of Airtable in transforming organizations. In 2023, this conference held a special significance as it took place right at the heart of innovation, Airtable’s headquarters in San Francisco. This exclusive setting provided attendees with a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the heart of Airtable’s operations and gain valuable insights directly from the source. To kick off the event Airtable took the stage to unveil their key investment areas and roadmap, providing a glimpse into the future advancements and features that will shape the Airtable ecosystem. In part one of our blog series on Daretable, we aim to share the insights we gained regarding Airtable’s future road map.  In part two of our blog series on Daretable “Unveiling the Gems: Key Takeaways from Daretable 2023 Part 2”, we dive into the game-changing strategies, cutting-edge tools, and insightful conversations that left a lasting impact.

Airtables Roadmap

As Airtable looks towards the future, they are committed to meeting the evolving needs of their customers. To achieve this, they have identified four crucial investment areas that are driving their roadmap and shaping the future of Airtable. With a primary focus on providing the most convenient way to deploy business process apps, Airtable aims to continue to empowering organizations of all types and sizes.  Disclaimer: the following information regarding Airtables roadmap are gathered by Claribase from attending Daretable 2023. Airtable has not committed to any timelines, and the details around these features are subject to change.   

1. Apps by Airtable

Airtable’s vision has always been to provide teams with the tools they need to build custom solutions that work best for their organization. A focus on collaboration around data has been at the core of Airtable’s product since day one and continues to drive their decisions today. Apps by Airtable is simply the next step in this journey, with the goal of allowing these teams to build true enterprise-grade solutions.  Apps by Airtable are pre-packaged solutions that help teams quickly build the apps they need to power their workflows. These solutions come with the base architecture, automations and interfaces needed to get teams off the ground, and are built from best practices and learnings for hundreds of existing workflows.  Airtable has started with 10 apps built to meet the needs of marketing and product teams. However, over the next year, Airtable is working towards expanding this to serve HR, IT, Sales teams and more.  That being said, Airtable’s vision extends far beyond pre-built apps. Their goal is to create a seamless app-building experience within the platform, allowing users to build completely customizable apps without the help of a developer. This app-building experience is planned to include:

Interface Improvements

These improvements include new and improved interface layouts with the following features. 

• Collapsable Side Panel
• Dropdown filters
• Visualization switcher
• Tab filters 
• Further customization: custom colors, logo and branding 
• Exporting to PDF

Another game changer coming to interfaces is mobile functionality! Expected to start rolling out in late 2023 on IOS with Android as a fast follow.  

Improved Notifications

Notifications in Airtable are getting revamped! With the ability to set up notifications directly in the interface designer, these notifications with be more timely, relevant and immediately actionable at the location where they appear. This eliminated the need to redirect users back to Airtable and ensure that they can take immediate action right where they receive the notification. 

Sandbox Mode

With sandbox mode, users will have the ability to make changes to their Airtable ecosystem in a new environment, test those changes and push them out to the live instance safely. Say goodbye to the days of potentially disrupting the users who rely on their Airtable for critical work. This is a feature that Claribase is are super excited to leverage once it becomes available! Learn more about Apps by Airtable. 

2. Integrated AI

AI is a huge focus for many companies, and Airtable is no different. Not only are they embracing AI in their future, but they plan to put it directly in your hands. Making AI accessible for everyone with within an organization to not only effectively use these models in their daily workflows, but to have the power to determine how they implement it to transform their work. AI will be embedded directly into Airtable allowing users to enhance steps within their workflows. Take the customer feedback cycle for example, with Airtables embedded AI, feedback is automatically parsed and categorized based on sentiment, product area, and/or any other categorization a team may need. You can then close the feedback loop with the customer by getting AI to draft a response, and make tweaks to content and tone, before reviewing and polishing it yourself, sending it directly to the customer with a click of a button.  Learn more about Airtable’s AI implementation. If you are interested in exploring the current beta sign up ASAP to get on the waitlist.

3. Data Integrity 

For tools that are built in Airtable to be truly powerful, it is crucial that they are built on shared, trusted and accurate data. Airtable is continuing to expand on this with: 

Verified Data

As the name suggests, this feature lets you verify key pieces of your company’s data and makes these data sets easily accessible across the organization. This feature allows the team to trust the accuracy of the data they are using every day. There will be a verified data library accessible in the admin panel which is easy to govern and manage. Learn more about Verified Data. 

Two-Way Sync

Two-way sync was introduced in late 2022, but improvements are continuing to roll out. One of significant importance is that two-way syncing now happens in real-time. Airtable is also focused on improving the experience of syncing with external data sources in a secure ad controlled manner.  Learn more about Two-Way Sync.

4. Scale

Airtable recognizes that it has improvements to make when it comes to enabling organizations to manage and govern Airtable in the way it needs. They are improving this experience in the following ways. 

Customer Component Library

Airtable is tackling the need for organizations to guide teams’ workflows with consistency and accuracy by introducing the customer component library. This library lets organizations create reusable building blocks unique to their specific needs to be deployed across the organization’s Airtable ecosystem. These components include: 

• Standardized Fields
• Standard Formulas
• Pre-configured Base and Table Schemas
• Standard Reports

Data Protection and Compliance

Data protection and compliance are crucial for many organizations across the globe. These improvements include encryption key management, near-real time audit logs, and improved data loss prevention. Airtable is also in the process of gaining further compliance certifications such as FINRA, HIPAA and FedRAMP.  .