nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Share: How Is Everyone Using AI with Vanilla Communities?

marygreencnyinfor

I joined the AI Study group call with @Nicole and @MariusCiortea yesterday (future events here https://success.vanillaforums.com/search?domain=event&query=study%20group&scope=site&source=community) )

Marius introduced the group to MCPs and we talked about how people are using AI with their Vanilla communities.

I wanted to share how I'm using it, in case it sparks some ideas for you.

Custom HTML Widgets: super easy, I tell Claude what I need, share my colors, branding guidelines, and the links or copy I need and it delivers the exact code I need for Vanilla. (I also mention I'm creating a Vanilla Community Custom HTML Widget, so it will look for the information on how to do this).
Assign Badges: Claude taught me to turn on terminal, access the vanilla api and create and run scripts to give all of our employees a badge.
Send Private Messages to new users: Claude helped me set up a script to run when I want to send the newest members a welcome message. This went through terminal as well.
Researching Vanilla documentation: I tell Claude (or any AI LLM) what I'd like to do in Vanilla and it helps me find ways to create a solution for what I'm trying to do.
1. Group Directory search: Right now I'm using this approach to build a group search for the new group directory page.
Widget Builder: We have access to the widget builder so I turned our new Resources sidebar widget into a global widget by asking Claude to code it for the Widget Builder. Now, instead of copy/pasting the same code over and over, I select Custom Widget and choose this sidebar widget from the list.
Compare member lists for badging & invites: I've downloaded my members list and compared it to the list of badges and cross referenced it with our new Ambassadors list to see who is badged but hasn't joined (for outreach opportunities).
Browser Automation: I sometimes use Claude in browser to:
1. help me makes lists of members (such as the badged members that have no export option),
2. answer questions,
3. figure out what CSS I need to change, etc.

Finally, I'm looking forward to this event with Marius, https://success.vanillaforums.com/events/163-how-ai-is-changing-the-way-community-teams-work to learn how we can use future MCPs for our communities.

How are you using AI with your Vanilla community?

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

MarcSanJose

Wow, that is a long, varied list and gives me some great ideas to pass onto my other Vanilla customers.
Kudos Mary!

MariusCiortea

That was a good study group and you know a lot more than you let others believe. The use cases in AI are almost endless. The more you learn about what you can do with AI, the more use cases get uncovered.

danielstrom

I kind of use everything you tell up there, too.

We are having a sophisticated research community, so I do a lot of content creation on top.

Taking open access publications with a certain standarized prompt to always keep the exact format of key takeaways, image + description and a table of parameters to tweak our product (which is base of the work). I define metatag with it.

The main goal is to use this as best practice sharing advices for the use of our product.

With this way we keep track of 2 publications per day coming up with our product where the crowd can not follow the real world anymore.

Personally I would see hige potential in even more hyperpersonalized digests and as mentioned - welcome messages. I now still send them kind of manually personalized by some texts I predefined tailored to specific job roles (profile fields). Is there a way to automize?

BenL

Thanks for sharing! The AI study group runs at 2am in my time zone, so I haven't been able to join any sessions so far :)

I'm currently setting up a new forum, so I've mostly been using Claude to help comb through the Vanilla documentation. Using it for Terminal scripts is a great idea, and something I'd like to explore in more detail.

Kirstie Macfarlane

Hey @danielstrom - thanks for your question.

While it's currently possible to set up an automation rule to send an email to new users (with the trigger set to X days since registration), you cannot filter by profile field. The same email goes out to everyone, without the ability to customize it by user.

This could be a good product idea though if you would like to submit it!

JasonHill

I currently use AI to produce updates for our leadership team on what has been happening on the community in the past week. I expect the MCP to improve it.

We also use it to make sure there are no gaps or errors in the content we produce before publishing.

We’re also thinking about AI generated trends information on the home page for all visitors to the site. We think there is value in "Since you were last here" summaries or "What’s been happening in the past week?"

Jason

BenL

I'd love to see some kind of AI summary widget for the homepage - e.g. updated weekly, providing some context around the links

Hey there! Want to contribute to this conversation?

You are currently in a limited view of the community, but there's so much more to discover! Need some support? Have a question to ask? Want to open a ticket? Please sign in to the community to participate!

Quick Links

Upcoming Events

AI Study Group for Customer Marketers - Vibe Coding
Join our AI Study Group for Customer Marketers. At each session we'll discuss what group members are experimenting with and learning, how we're using AI in our Customer Marketing efforts, and help one another problem solve. The group meets monthly, and is open to any community professionals interested in the topic of AI.…
AI Study Group for Community Managers
Join our AI Study Group for Community Managers. At each session we'll discuss what group members are experimenting with and learning, how we're using AI in our communities, and help one another problem solve. The group meets monthly, and is open to any community professionals interested in the topic of AI. Hosted by our…
🤖 HLV Connect: AI Powered Custom Theming 🎨
Hey Vanilla friends - we've got another great webinar coming up for you! Discover how AI can accelerate and simplify custom theming - whether you’re just getting started or ready to experiment with advanced workflows. In this session, we’ll begin with a practical introduction to using AI tools like ChatGPT to design and…
Rethinking Customer Success + Community for the AI-Native Org
A Fireside Chat with Emma Lo, Owner of CS in Focus, and Marius Ciortea, Chief Community Officer at Higher Logic Community managers and CSMs have always worked the same customer relationships from different angles. The signals that best predict retention and expansion sit across both views, in patterns neither team has…