How to Add AI to Your Rails App (in 5 Minutes)

🤯 300% More AI in Your Rails App? Yes, Please.

AI is everywhere, and now Lightning Rails makes it ridiculously easy to integrate OpenAI’s API (or even DeepSeek if you’re feeling adventurous).

I got tired of manually setting up AI-powered features in every Rails project, so I figured:
Why not bake it into Lightning Rails?

Now, with just a few tweaks, you can have ChatGPT analyze products, generate insights, or help automate user workflows inside your app. Let’s get you set up in 5 minutes or less. 🛠️

🚀 Step 1: Get Your OpenAI API Key

First, head over to OpenAI’s dashboard and sign in (or sign up).

• Navigate to API Keys.

• Click Generate New Key and copy it somewhere safe (you won’t see it again).

That’s it. Step 1 complete. ✅

💎 Step 2: Install the OpenAI Ruby Gem

We need a simple gem to talk to OpenAI’s API.

In your Gemfile, add:

gem "ruby-openai" 

Then run:

bundle install

Boom. You’re now AI-enabled. 💡

🔐 Step 3: Securely Store Your API Key

Throw this inside your .env file (or set it up with Rails credentials if you’re fancy):

OPENAI_ACCESS_TOKEN=sk-...MIQ4 

If you don’t have dotenv installed yet, add it to your Gemfile and run bundle install:

gem "dotenv-rails" 

Done? Good. Now let’s get to the fun part. 🎉

🛠️ Step 4: Build an AI-Powered Service

We’ll create a simple service object to handle AI requests.

Inside app/services/open_ai_api.rb, add this:

# app/services/open_ai_api.rb 
class OpenAiApi
  def initialize
    @client = OpenAI::Client.new(access_token:       ENV["OPENAI_ACCESS_TOKEN"])
  end

  def analyze_product(product)
    chatgpt_response = @client.chat(parameters: {
      model: "gpt-4o-mini",
      messages: [
        { role: "system", content: "You are a product analyst expert..." },
        { role: "user", content: "Here is a product to analyze: #{product}..." }
      ]
    })

    chatgpt_response["choices"][0]["message"]["content"]
  end
end 

This little piece of code turns ChatGPT into your product analyst—it can break down product features, suggest improvements, and even analyze market potential. 📊

💡 Bonus tip: Copy and adapt this prompt to your needs, it was published on twitter by Greg Brockman, the current president of Open AI

🎯 Step 5: Use AI Inside Your Rails Controllers

Now let’s wire this up inside a controller:

class ProductsController < ApplicationController
  def analyze
    @product = params[:product]
    openai_service = OpenAiApi.new
    @analysis = openai_service.analyze_product(@product)
  end
end 

And don’t forget to add a route in config/routes.rb:

post "/analyze_product", to: "products#analyze" 

That’s it! Your Rails app can now think. 🧠

🔥 What’s Next? AI + Lightning Rails = Magic

With AI in your Lightning Rails app, the possibilities are endless:

✅ Automate content generation
 ✅ Enhance user experiences with smart recommendations
 ✅ Analyze user feedback & products instantly
 ✅ Improve internal workflows with AI-driven automation

Want to see it in action? Try it out today and let me know what cool AI features you build with Lightning Rails. 🚀

👉 Check out the Docs

Happy coding! 🦾💡

PS: I gave a huge discount to the Lifetime membership to celebrate the Rails 8 update (50% off). If you were on the fence about getting Lightning Rails, now is your chance.