Zapier made its name by letting non-technical people connect apps together. A Zap is an automated workflow: something happens in one app (a trigger), and Zapier performs actions in others automatically. Because it supports so many applications and exposes a huge number of triggers and actions, it acts as a universal glue layer between the tools a business already uses, and templates make it quick to start from a working pattern rather than a blank canvas.
More recently the platform has repositioned itself around AI orchestration. Zapier MCP lets assistants such as Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor reach the same app network through a secure connection, so an AI can fetch context and take action without you sharing passwords or API keys. The Agents and Chatbots products build custom AI assistants for specific tasks, and Next Gen Zaps add self-healing behaviour, with an AI manager agent that detects failures and repairs workflows automatically. Zapier describes its approach as "fluid determinism": use deterministic steps where behaviour repeats, and add AI or agentic reasoning only where judgment is needed, which keeps token costs and unpredictability down.
Governance is a big part of the enterprise pitch. Administrators can define what teams and agents are allowed to access, audit every agent action and workflow run in one place, and disable automation with a single click. With compliance credentials including SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3, GDPR and CCPA, Zapier is positioned as the place where AI pilots become governed, production-grade systems rather than disconnected experiments.