Airtable’s Gainsight-Powered Community and Academy Boost Retention and Adoption

Airtable, an AI-native, no-code platform enabling teams to build custom apps, was faced with a fragmented customer experience that made it difficult for customers to succeed. Using Gainsight CC and Skilljar, they unified their community programs into a single intuitive hub and integrated it with their educational content. Now, they have created a customer experience that not only scales, but sticks—with quantifiable correlation between engagement and renewal health.

The flexibility and versatility of Airtable’s incredible app-building platform is both its greatest strength and its biggest challenge. With more than 500,000 customers and an ever-increasing number of use cases, their customer experience could become fragmented. Niche communities and educational modules had proliferated to service their diverse customer base. And it had become difficult for users to know where to go when they wanted to learn about the product or find support.

As Kevin Dunn, Airtable’s Director of Digital Programs, puts it, “If I just dumped a bucket of LEGOs on your desk and told you to build a castle, you’d be like, okay. There’s nothing else to help me?”

Adding to the challenge was the necessity of tackling it with a lean team. They needed a solution that could allow them to scale their efforts without overextending their limited resources.

Dunn explained, “We each have two dedicated program managers, very much generalist roles. Because we’re such a lean team and have to be really thoughtful and strategic about the resources we have at our disposal.”

They needed a customer community that could deliver timely responses to unanswered questions and foster stronger collaboration among users. From an educational perspective, users needed structured learning paths, a place to connect with peers, and real insight into what success looked like. Airtable also needed a way to show the impact of these efforts on product usage and retention, something not possible without the right data.

Using Gainsight’s community and education products, Airtable created a truly unified customer experience where users could learn and collaborate in one place.

Using Gainsight CC, they revitalized the Airtable Community, which connects users in an interactive, peer-driven environment. The space encourages user-led problem solving, showcases creative use cases through the Builders Board, and brings like-minded users together through industry or role-specific groups. They even introduced an MVP program to spotlight and celebrate power users.

“We’re about two months into our deployed, redesigned, relaunched community on the Gainsight community product,” Dunn shared.

The consolidated community gave Airtable’s team a unified view of all community activity. Managing content, tracking engagement, and keeping user experiences consistent became easier and more efficient.

To close the loop on unanswered questions, Airtable linked the community platform directly to their internal help channels. If a post hasn’t been addressed within 24 hours, it’s automatically turned into a ticket, keeping things moving and ensuring users get the answers they need. That built-in workflow helped the team stay responsive without adding overhead.

Using Skilljar, Airtable launched Airtable Academy, which offers on-demand training, specialized learning paths, and certifications designed for specific user needs. The Academy empowered Airtable to track engagement metrics like course completions, tie educational accomplishments to product adoption, and personalize learning for their audiences.

Reflecting on the launch, Dunn said, “Skilljar is the perfect balance between out-of-the-box readiness and customizable configuration. Its implementation team was world-class and made our launch seamless.”

By combining structured education with community engagement, Airtable created a high-impact, human-centered experience that translated into measurable results. Since the launch of their new academy and community, they have seen more than a 15% increase in customer retention and above a 20% increase in product usage when a customer engages with these programs.

Dunn noted, “We see people become more successful and passionate when they’re solving problems and inspiring others in the community.”

Members can now self-serve through peer answers or event content. And thanks to the auto-escalation feature, support is faster and more reliable.

“We also built an integration with our support team, so any unanswered question automatically triggers a support case—which is great for ensuring nobody’s left hanging,” said Dunn.

Gainsight’s platform also helps them do more with less. With just two program managers per function, Airtable is running a high-touch, high-impact program without getting stretched too thin.

And thanks to Gainsight’s analytics, Airtable can now track the full journey—from course completion to community involvement to product adoption. Dunn explains this data-driven focus: “We wanted to show quantifiably and definitively that there’s a correlation or causation between customer education, successful adoption, and ultimately retention.”

Airtable is just getting started. Next, they’re looking at bringing more teams onto the platform and experimenting with new content formats. The goal is to drive broader internal collaboration and encourage more employees to contribute to the community.

The team is also planning to further layer in AI and collaborative features across both their Academy and Community platforms, moving closer to a single, powerful learning and engagement hub. And they’re planning even tighter links between Academy and Community, like deeper user group experiences and smoother transitions from courses to forums.

The Gainsight CustomerOS remains the backbone of their strategy, helping Airtable scale education and engagement without losing the human touch.