Leveraging AI Tools with CommCare
AI tools are rapidly evolving and can complement your CommCare workflows in useful ways. These are not built-in CommCare features, but helpful, user-driven ideas that can be explored independently.
AI for Form Building and App Summaries
AI tools can assist in designing forms and understanding existing applications.
What AI can help with:
Draft skip logic, validation rules, and constraints from plain language.
Suggest clear, consistent variable names.
Generate XLSForms with the survey, choices, and settings sheets from plain descriptions.
Summarize CommCare app structures from app summary exports.
Example use cases:
You want to build a CommCare form quickly to get started.
Upload the existing questions or prompt the AI tool and ask it to convert the content to an XLSForm format. Then use the ODK toolkit to convert it to XForm and load it into CommCare.
You need to create a calculation in a form but are not sure of the current calculations in the form.
Download the XForm from CommCare, upload it to the AI tool and ask it to explain the existing form calculations in detail.
You are joining an existing CommCare project and need to understand an app built by others.
Download the high-level app summary, upload it to an AI tool, and prompt it to explain the structure of the app.
AI for Data Analysis
AI can help summarize, clean, and visualize CommCare data exports.
What AI can help with:
Summarize CSV exports for insights or trends.
Suggest suitable graphs or dashboards.
Write SQL, Python, or R code for analytics tools.
Identify inconsistencies and normalize data.
Example use cases:
You want a quick summary of your CommCare case data export.
Provide de-identified data sets to the AI tool for analysing and providing high level summaries and more granular details.
You want to visualize CommCare data in Power BI or Superset.
Provide a sample of de-identified data to the AI tool and describe your goals. The tool can suggest visuals and write queries to support them.
You want to pull CommCare data directly into Google Sheets.
Advanced: Use AI to generate a Google Apps Script that calls CommCare’s API and formats the result in Sheets. This requires technical knowledge of CommCare APIs and basic coding.
You want to save time writing SQL queries for your CommCare data in your SQL DB.
Advanced: Create an AI Agent via tools like n8n and others to query your CommCare data from a DB or excel in natural language. This requires knowledge of platforms like n8n and basic coding.
AI for Training and Messaging
AI can support the creation of training content and outreach messaging.
What AI can help with:
Draft job aids, FAQs, or training guides.
Generate SMS or IVR messages and localize them for different audiences.
Translate and adapt content for different literacy levels.
Example use cases:
You are preparing to launch a CommCare app and need a training guide.
Upload the app summary to an AI tool and ask it to draft a training guide. Use follow-up prompts to refine the structure and tone.
You are designing behavior change messages and want multiple versions.
Describe the message goal and audience to the AI tool and request multiple variants for different tones or languages.