AI form generation vs manual form creation [timed tests]

Do not index

Hide CTA

Hide cover

Before ChatGPT stormed onto the scene, it was hard to imagine form builders getting any easier to use. Between drag-and-drop question types, massive template libraries, and third-party integrations, it usually took longer to come up with questions than it did to arrange them on a page.

But then the AI floodgates opened up, with promises that AI could write the questions for you. And it mostly delivers on that promise. You give ChatGPT, Bard, whatever, a prompt along the lines of “Suggest form fields for video interview consent and release form,” and after a few seconds, it’s all there for you to copy. Or, with an AI form builder, that same prompt will take the output and automatically translate it into a draft form, picking field types that correspond to individual questions.

*Creating a ready-to-publish form from an AI prompt*

Play your cards right, and going the AI route is twice as fast as creating a form from scratch in a drag-and-drop builder. Does that mean you'll never “manually” create a form again? Not exactly. Like most generative AI features, AI-created forms are extraordinary for certain use cases and just OK for others.

But when you stop to think about it, “just OK” outputs can turn out to be immensely useful when building forms. Think that AI responses are too generic or straightforward? Sometimes you need that in a form. Feel like its outputs are weird or unexpected? That might be just the inspiration you need to think outside of the box and publish a form that generates more engagement.

The thing is, even when it ends up taking the same amount of time as writing all of the questions yourself, AI assistance usually feels faster for the same reason that working on a project alongside a colleague feels faster than working alone. You get an outsider’s perspective and a helping hand with annoying data entry.

Let’s take an honest look at how long it takes to create a form with AI vs creating one manually.

Building a form with pre-written questions: AI vs manual creation

There are several scenarios when you might need to create a form based on a list of pre-written questions. Maybe you want to connect a form to an existing Airtable database, or you’re currently using an outdated HTML form and want it to do more, or your team drafted questions in a shared doc. Whatever the case, you want the quickest way to publish existing questions and start collecting submissions.

Creating your first form in Typeform, Jotform, Google Forms, or Fillout takes less than 10 minutes if everything is written in advance. At least, that was our experience when asking someone with little to no experience using any of those apps to time themselves turning 20 pre-written questions (with four input types and some conditional logic) into a published form.

Their first Typeform took 10 minutes and 36 seconds (the longest of the bunch), and their second was a full four minutes faster. And that was the trend across all four apps. The second run-through for all of them was six and a half minutes, give or take 15 seconds. All of the apps were strikingly similar in terms of user-friendliness.

The same test (converting 20 pre-written questions into a published form) with Fillout’s AI form builder was just over 3 minutes, with more than half of that time spent either watching questions get added line by line, or manually adding conditional logic and small tweaks.

*Asking Fillout’s AI form build to add specific questions*

So using AI isn’t just faster—it’s also a lot less tedious. Instead of copying and pasting 20 questions one by one, you dump the whole bunch in a prompt, go refill your coffee, and come back to a form that’s 99% done.

Tl;dr - Saving yourself three and a half minutes isn’t mind-blowing, but that’s not the only benefit. There’s less mindless jumping back and forth between two windows, and as an added bonus, AI automatically fixes typos in your reference questions. If you already have a set of questions you want to drop into a published form, the AI route wins, full stop.

But how does AI stack up when you don’t have any questions prepared before creating your form?

Using AI to come up with questions vs writing them yourself

Imagine you need to create a form and have no idea what questions to ask. Until recently, you probably would have turned to Google for reference information, asked colleagues for suggestions, and skimmed through lists of form templates. Now, however, you can ask an AI tool to come up with a list of questions based on a brief description of your form. It’s hard to test and compare these two approaches (since you’d be comparing turnaround time and quality of output), but we tried our best.

To get results we were confident in, we needed multiple people to time themselves trying both approaches, with each person experimenting with their own form topic. We had them pick a topic and then time themselves putting together a form manually (including research). After that, they created a form on the same topic using Fillout’s AI tool, doing their best to ignore or forget what was included in the first form (not very scientific, but it didn’t seem to significantly influence outcomes as the two finished forms were usually quite different).

The first person created a form inviting freelance writers to apply for a one-time project. After some research and brainstorming, they ended up with a 10-question form, published 7 minutes and 13 seconds after starting. They followed that up with an AI prompt to “Create a form inviting freelance writers to apply for a one-time project. It should collect their contact information, writing experience, and include a creative writing prompt that asks for a short and original response to a random technology topic.”

*The AI suggestion for “a creative writing prompt on a random tech topic”*

Four minutes and 19 seconds later, including time for minor tweaks and improvements, they had a template-worthy 10-question form (complete with a creative writing prompt around brain-computer interfaces).

The next person had a side project running a popular blog for children’s book reviews. They manually created a form for authors and parents to request reviews for specific books (13 minutes, 41 seconds) and then cycled through a few AI prompts before getting something usable (10 minutes, 28 seconds). AI was faster and suggested some fields they hadn’t thought of (like a slider field for the book’s page count), but only after a few rejected outputs.

Last was a registration and reservation form for a co-working space: 10 minutes and 28 seconds for manual creation vs 9 minutes 49 seconds with AI. There were some hiccups with the latter because the form was supposed to do double duty as new member signup and a hot desk reservation form (for existing members). That could have been avoided with a longer, more detailed prompt, but you run the risk of working harder to explain the context than writing the questions yourself.

Tl;dr - While this use case is more of a toss-up than the previous one, starting with an AI prompt still tends to be the better option if you know how to make the most of it. For example, you could take a hybrid approach by clearing out obvious and predictable fields with AI (e.g., “Collect name, email, job title, company, and company website”) and adding the rest manually. Or, creating a prompt for a fully fleshed-out form and cutting anything you don’t like, getting you halfway to publication.

One of the biggest benefits here is getting a list of questions that aren’t limited to your expertise and past experiences. Worst case scenario, the questions aren’t worth using and you click ‘Reject’ to delete all of the last generation. No harm, no foul.

Of course, with a few prompt tips and tricks, you can avoid most subpar AI outputs.

How to create a form from an AI prompt

Fillout was one of the first drag-and-drop builders to integrate AI into the form-creation process (and then qui ckly removed it). After completely redesigning the AI experience, it’s back and included in the free plan.

Start by creating a free Fillout.com account and logging in. Click ‘+ New form’ in the upper right corner of the screen and choose ‘Blank form.’ Pick your theme from the left-hand pane and click ‘+ Create form.’ Give it a name and select ‘Continue.’

To get AI to generate your form question, click the sparkle icon next to the ‘Search fields’ textbox (or press ’Ctrl + K’). Then, choose either ‘One question’ or ‘Multiple questions’ and simply write a prompt that tells the AI what you want it to create. When the prompt is ready, click the ‘Add question’ button.

For example, if your prompt is “annual revenue,” Fillout AI will add a currency field and the question “What is your annual revenue?” Or, you could enter “favorite color dropdown,” and AI will write the question and populate the dropdown list with six color options.

For most use cases, however, a prompt that includes the form type, tone, and target audience in the Multiple Questions tab yields the best results. Something like “customer satisfaction survey with a friendly tone for people who just ordered from my beauty products eCommerce shop.”

Alternatively, you could list specific questions and answer choices. Your prompt could include “Which of the following do you hope to achieve? Checklist: Revenue growth, Brand recognition, Website Traffic” to skip the process of adding the question, then copying choice options one by one. Paste several questions and answer options into the ‘Multiple questions’ tab (there’s a 1,000-character limit), and you can transpose an existing form in no time (a great way to digitize paper forms).

AI can’t do everything, though. For one, design options based on AI prompts aren’t an option yet (they’re coming soon). And, currently, you cannot toggle the required field setting with a prompt. Likewise, the AI generator can’t add conditional logic, validation patterns, or design features. So if a prompt output doesn’t produce the desired results, click the ‘Reject’ button to remove it from your draft form.

Once you get the hang of it, creating a form from an AI prompt tends to be twice as fast as creating a form manually.

Another tool in the Fillout toolbox

The AI form builder feature is about augmenting and enhancing user experiences, not minimizing them. With a bit of experimentation, you can use it to spend less time copying and pasting and more time collecting signups, sales, and other submissions. Create a Fillout account, play around with AI-generated forms, create some without AI, and send your highs and lows to @filloutcom.