Effortlessly create the perfect shift pattern for your team. With Soon's AI-powered Shift Plan Generator, you can transform simple text into a weekly shift plan in seconds, ensuring your business has the shift coverage it needs — tailored to your operations. Whether you're onboarding as a new user or an experienced user looking to generate schedules from scratch quickly, this feature offers both flexibility and ease of use.
Before you start
Available on All Plans: The Shift Plan Generator feature is accessible across all Soon plans.
Permissions: Only admins with Can Edit access to a schedule board can generate schedules using AI.
What is the Shift Plan Generator?
The Shift Plan Generator in Soon is a powerful tool that allows you to easily create an optimized shift pattern by simply describing the schedule you need in your own words. Using AI, it transforms your description of schedule requirements into a complete and tailored weekly shift structure in just a few seconds. You can specify details such as shifts, roles, required seats, unpaid breaks, and even location.
Why Use the Shift Plan Generator?
Here are a few reasons why this tool could be useful for you:
Create a schedule without prior experience: Simply describe your needs, and the AI will generate a tailored shift plan with no expertise required.
Speed up template creation: Save time by generating a schedule in seconds instead of manually configuring each shift/event.
Test different schedule setups: Easily experiment with various shift plans to find what works best.
Get inspired with examples: Use predefined examples to generate schedules and explore different approaches to scheduling quickly.
Steps to Generate a Shift Plan
1. Access the Shift Plan Generator
The Shift Plan Generator will automatically appear in the bottom-right corner of the schedule board if the week has no events scheduled and no custom week templates have been added. If this doesn’t apply, open your schedule board, click the Week Templates button located at the bottom-right of the screen, and then select the Generate Template option from the header of the week templates modal.
2. Describe Your Schedule
Input your desired schedule in any language you're comfortable with. The AI will interpret your input and generate a schedule to match. You can also toggle Fun Mode on or off if you prefer a playful schedule with emojis and light-hearted names, or leave it off for a more professional tone.
Examples:
"Generate a 24/7 on-call schedule for a 25-person IT support team. Team members can self-schedule into shifts. Ensure there is 1 manager per shift, with a maximum of 3 shifts per day."
"Create a weekly shift schedule for a coffee shop open 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM, 7 days a week, with 30 staff members."
Tip: You can use the preset buttons like Add morning shift or Try example to quickly test example prompts for inspiration. These examples can be easily modified to suit your needs.
3. Generate the Shift Plan
Once you've finalized your input, click the Generate Template button. The system will create a shift/event pattern based on the details you provided. If no input is provided, the button will remain disabled.
Note: Depending on the input, larger or more complex schedules may take slightly longer to generate.
4. Review and Apply
After the schedule is generated, you'll see a summary of the template. From here, you can:
Apply the template directly.
Click Back to return to the original input and make adjustments without needing to retype your entire prompt.
Get Your Schedule Up and Running in Just 5 Minutes
Once your schedule is generated, follow these quick steps:
Apply the template.
Auto-fill empty seats with available staff.
Publish the schedule once you're satisfied with the setup.
AI considerations and best practices
The Shift Plan Generator is powered by OpenAI’s advanced language model. While we prioritize accuracy, keep in mind that AI-generated results may vary. We also take your privacy and security seriously — your data is protected and handled with the utmost care.
Accuracy
AI-powered tools generate results by processing large datasets and patterns, but accuracy can vary. Due to the limitations of AI, there may be inaccuracies or omissions. Treat the information as a helpful guide, not a substitute for expert advice or thorough research.
Your responsibilities
When using AI features in Soon, you're responsible for following OpenAI’s usage policies. Always verify the AI-generated output before making decisions, especially for critical matters.
Data Privacy
We do not share sensitive information about you or your team. Data processed by OpenAI is used only for generating results and is not used for model training. All data remains within Soon's controlled environment and is securely stored.