Can AI design my database tables?
Base by Zaweba's Design a table turns a plain description into a table design you preview, field by field, before Base checks and creates it.
It can, once you have connected your own AI account. In Base by Zaweba, Design a table takes a description in plain words, such as "a table of club members with name, address, joining date and membership type", and turns it into a table design. You see every field before anything is made, and Create table runs Base's own design checks first.
So the AI drafts and you decide, which is the right way round for something as lasting as a table.
Describing what you want
Write the description as you'd explain it to a colleague. Say what one record is (one member, one order, one book) and list the things you want to keep about it. Mention anything special: that an email must be unique, that a price can't be negative, that membership type is one of a few choices, that it links to another table.
The AI turns this into fields with types from Base's set: text, long text, whole number, decimal, currency, date, date and time, yes/no, lookup, image and file attachment.
Reviewing the design
Read each field. Is the type right? Money should be currency rather than decimal or text, and a date of birth should be a date. Are the names clear? Is anything missing that you know you'll need, or present that you never will?
Create table then runs Base's own design checks before making the table, the same ones that apply when you design by hand. If you'd like to adjust things afterwards, open the table in the table designer as usual.
Suggesting rules for a table
A second option, Suggest rules, looks at the open table and proposes validation rules and input masks: a range for a number, a UK postcode mask, a rule that a date isn't in the future. Apply rules lists each suggestion with a tick box and a reason, so you choose which to keep.
Base still refuses any rule that the existing records already break, just as it would if you typed the rule yourself.
Undoing a change
AI changes are previewed before they happen, and AI > Undo reverses them for the rest of the session. That makes it easy to try a design, look at it in the datasheet, and back out if it isn't right.
What the AI can see
Only the database design is sent to your AI provider, plus the table you're working on: table and field names, types, rules, relationships, and the names of queries, forms and scripts. No records are sent unless you tick Include sample rows, which sends the first three of each table and starts off every time.
You can use any of the supported accounts, from Claude, OpenAI or Gemini to a local model such as Ollama that never leaves your PC, or copy and paste with a chat website. The AI menu stays greyed out until one is connected.
Templates are the other quick start
If your database is a common type, a template may be quicker than designing from a description. Base comes with Contacts, Inventory, Invoices and Customers, a Book and Collection catalogue and a Simple CRM, each with tables, relationships, forms, queries and reports already made.
Either way, it pays to understand the result. Open the relationships diagram, look at how the tables link, and make sure it matches how your club or business works. AI in Base by Zaweba saves typing; the decisions are still yours.
