How to Automate Strategic Analysis with thinking.do and Zapier

Strategic analysis is the bedrock of smart business decisions. Whether you're evaluating a new market, assessing a competitor's move, or drafting a project plan, this deep thinking is critical. It's also incredibly time-consuming, requires specialized expertise, and is difficult to scale across an organization.

What if you could automate it?

Imagine an AI that doesn't just parrot information but performs complex reasoning. Now, what if you could connect that AI brain to the thousands of apps you already use every day?

That's the power couple we're talking about today: thinking.do, a Reasoning as a Service API, and Zapier, the leading no-code integration platform. By connecting the strategic power of thinking.do with the operational power of Zapier, you can build incredibly powerful workflows that automate complex analysis and deliver actionable insights directly where you need them.

This guide will show you how to build your first "cognitive automation" workflow, no coding required.

What is thinking.do? The Brains of the Operation

Before we build, let's have a quick refresher. thinking.do isn't just another language model. It's an AI-powered reasoning and problem-solving API built on an agentic workflow.

What does that mean? Unlike a standard LLM that provides a single, direct response, thinking.do acts as an AI agent. When you give it a complex problem—like "Analyze current market trends in renewable energy and formulate a three-point strategic plan"—it can:

1. Deconstruct: Autonomously break the problem into smaller, logical sub-tasks.
2. Execute: Tackle each sub-task in a structured way.
3. Synthesize: Combine the results into a single, comprehensive, and well-reasoned solution.

This approach provides a depth of analysis perfect for the strategic challenges businesses face daily. It's true cognitive automation delivered through a simple API.

Why Combine thinking.do with Zapier?

If thinking.do is the brain, Zapier is the central nervous system. Zapier connects over 6,000 apps, allowing you to create automated workflows (called "Zaps") that move information and trigger actions between them.

When you combine them, you unlock no-code superpowers:

• Democratize Strategy: Enable marketing, sales, and operations teams to perform sophisticated analysis without needing a data scientist.
• Trigger Analysis from Anywhere: Automatically run an analysis whenever something happens in another app—a new lead in a CRM, a new row in a spreadsheet, or a new message in Slack.
• Deliver Insights Instantly: Send the completed analysis directly to your project management tool, communication platform, or database.

Possible Use Cases:

• Sales: A new high-value company is added to HubSpot. Trigger thinking.do to create a strategic outreach plan based on their industry and size, then add it as a note to the contact record.
• Marketing: A competitor is mentioned in a Google Alert. Automatically trigger thinking.do to analyze their recent activity and summarize the potential impact, then post it in a #competitive-intel Slack channel.
• Product: A new feature idea is added to a Notion database. Trigger thinking.do to draft a mini-business case, including potential user benefits and risks, and update the Notion entry.

Step-by-Step: Automate Market Analysis with a Zap

Let's build a practical workflow. We'll create a Zap that triggers whenever a new business idea is added to a Google Sheet. thinking.do will perform a strategic analysis, and the result will be posted to a Slack channel for the team to review.

What you'll need:

• A thinking.do account and your API key.
• A Zapier account (a free plan works for this).
• A Google and Slack account.

Step 1: The Trigger — A New Idea in Google Sheets

1. In your Google Drive, create a new Google Sheet. Name it "New Business Ideas" and create three columns: Idea, Target Market, and Analysis.
2. In Zapier, click "Create Zap".
3. For the Trigger, search for and select Google Sheets.
4. Choose the event "New Spreadsheet Row" and click Continue.
5. Connect your Google Account and select the "New Business Ideas" spreadsheet and the specific worksheet.
6. Test your trigger to make sure Zapier can find a row of data. Add a sample idea like "AI-powered landscaping service" to your sheet if it's empty.

(Imagine a screenshot of the Zapier UI for setting up a Google Sheets trigger here.)

Step 2: The Core Action — Reasoning with thinking.do

This is where the magic happens. Since thinking.do is a powerful API, we'll use Zapier's built-in Webhooks tool to connect to it.

1. Click the + to add a new step. Search for and select "Webhooks by Zapier".

2. For the Event, choose "POST". This method is used to send data to an API.

3. Now, configure the Action. This is the most crucial part:

   • URL: This is the thinking.do API endpoint.

     https://api.thinking.do/v1/agent/thinking/run
     

   • Payload Type: Set this to Json.

   • Data: Here, we'll build the prompt for our AI agent. We'll map data from our Google Sheet directly into the prompt.

     • In the first field on the left, type prompt. In the field on the right, write your instructions and insert the data from Step 1. It should look like this:

       Analyze the following business concept. Provide a concise SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and a three-point go-to-market strategy. Business Idea: [Insert "Idea" field from Google Sheets]. Target Market: [Insert "Target Market" field from Google Sheets].

     • Add another row. On the left, type complexity. On the right, type expert.
     • Add a final row. On the left, type output_format. On the right, type markdown_list.

   • Headers: We need to provide our API key to authorize the request.

     • In the "Headers" section, type Authorization in the first box.
     • In the second box, type Bearer YOUR_API_KEY, replacing YOUR_API_KEY with your actual key from thinking.do.
     • Add another header. In the first box, type Content-Type. In the second, type application/json.

4. Click Continue and Test this step. Zapier will send the request to thinking.do, and you should see a successful response containing the AI-generated analysis in the result field.

(Imagine a screenshot of the Zapier Webhook POST configuration with the fields filled out.)

Step 3: The Final Action — Send Results to Slack

Now that we have our analysis, let's send it where the team can see it.

1. Click the + to add a final step. Search for and select Slack.
2. Choose the event "Send Channel Message" and connect your Slack account.
3. Customize the message:
   • Channel: Select the Slack channel where you want to post the analysis (e.g., #new-ideas).
   • Message Text: Craft a message using data from both previous steps. Click on the text box to insert fields.

     🚀 New Strategic Analysis for: [Insert "Idea" from Step 1]

     ---

     [Insert "Result" from Step 2 (Webhooks)]

4. Test the step. You should see a perfectly formatted message appear in your Slack channel!

Step 4: Name and Publish Your Zap!

Give your Zap a descriptive name, like "Google Sheets Ideas -> thinking.do Analysis -> Slack," and turn it on. Congratulations, you've just automated strategic analysis!

Go Beyond the Basics

This is just the beginning. You can enhance your workflows by:

• Controlling Quality: Adjust the complexity or depth parameters in your webhook to fine-tune the output for different needs.
• Ensuring Transparency: thinking.do can provide its "chain of thought." You could add another step to your Zap to log this detailed reasoning process back into the "Analysis" column of your Google Sheet for full auditability.
• Solving Other Problems: Use the same pattern to automate legal document review, summarize customer feedback, or even get suggestions for refactoring code.

By combining thinking.do's reasoning engine with Zapier's connectivity, you move beyond simple task automation and into the world of cognitive automation. You can scale your team's expertise, make smarter decisions faster, and free up valuable time for what matters most: building the future.

Ready to build your own Cognitive Automation Engine? Sign up for your thinking.do API key and start automating your most complex workflows today.