Lotics vs Airtable
Airtable gives you a database to build and maintain yourself. Lotics builds and operates a finished app per desk, where AI drafts your documents and checks the numbers. Here's how the two differ for document-heavy operations.
| Feature | Lotics | Airtable |
|---|---|---|
| Core purpose | Finished AI apps we build and operate, one per desk | General-purpose collaborative database |
| Document processing | AI extracts data from PDFs, invoices, B/Ls, fills templates | No built-in document processing |
| AI's role | Does the desk's manual work: reads incoming documents, drafts outgoing ones, checks the numbers | AI field type for text generation |
| Workflow triggers | Record changes, emails, schedules, webhooks, buttons, forms | Record changes, button clicks, form submissions |
| Email integration | Gmail/Outlook triggers start workflows from incoming emails | Send emails via automation, no incoming trigger |
| Document generation | PDF form fill, HTML-to-PDF, Excel generation from templates | No built-in document generation |
| Target users | Operations teams processing documents and coordinating work | Any team needing a flexible database |
| Setup | We build and operate the finished app; you never touch a builder | Manual setup with templates available |
| Pricing | From $20/month for one process, setup included, scales by scope | Free tier, then from $20/user/month |
Database and views
Airtable is a build-it-yourself database. You get flexible tables with custom field types and a mature interface — gallery, kanban, calendar, and timeline views — and you or an admin set it up and maintain it. Lotics is a different kind of thing: we don't hand you a builder, we build a finished app for each desk and operate it for you. Underneath it are tables, computed fields (formulas, rollups, lookups that persist at write time), and real-time record linking across tables — but you never configure any of it.
If you want a database to organize information and you have someone to build and maintain it, Airtable's view variety is a real advantage. If you want the finished app for a desk — built around your documents and rules, and run for you — that's what Lotics delivers.
Document processing
This is the biggest difference. Airtable stores file attachments but does not process them. Lotics uses AI to extract data from incoming documents (invoices, bills of lading, purchase orders, customs declarations) and cross-check values across related records. It also generates outgoing documents: filling PDF forms, rendering HTML templates to PDF, and producing Excel reports from record data.
If your operations involve receiving, processing, and producing documents daily, Lotics handles this end-to-end. In Airtable, you would need external tools or custom scripts.
Workflow automation
Airtable automations trigger on record events, button clicks, and form submissions. They can send emails, update records, and call webhooks. Lotics workflows support the same triggers plus incoming emails (Gmail/Outlook), recurring schedules, and webhooks. Lotics workflow steps include conditionals, loops, branching, and wait/resume, closer to a process orchestration engine.
For simple automations like "when status changes, send a notification," both work well. For multi-step processes like "when an invoice email arrives, extract line items, create records, cross-check against purchase orders, flag discrepancies, and notify the finance team," Lotics handles this as a single workflow.
AI capabilities
Airtable's AI generates and summarizes text inside a field — a useful suggestion in a cell, but it doesn't configure the base or do the operational work; a person still builds and runs everything. That is the core difference between the two. Lotics is built the other way around: the platform is designed so AI is the primary configurer, and inside the finished app AI does the desk's manual work — it reads the documents that arrive, drafts the ones that go out, and checks the numbers match. The team reviews before anything goes out.
And you never touch a builder. Where Airtable's AI hands a suggestion to whoever is building the base, Lotics ships and operates the app for you — the setup that takes an admin days is done, and AI runs the daily work inside it.
Which should you choose?
Airtable is a strong choice for teams that need a flexible, general-purpose database with a polished interface and a broad ecosystem of integrations, and who have someone to build and maintain it. Lotics is for operations teams that would rather be handed the finished app for a desk — built around their documents, fields, and rules, and operated for them — where AI drafts the paperwork and checks the numbers and the team reviews before anything goes out. If your work is mostly organizing information, Airtable fits well. If your work is processing documents and coordinating a desk day to day, that's what Lotics is built and run for.
