Airffic Shift
AI shift scheduling — plain-language rules to a monthly roster
What eats the time in rostering is not filling in the grid. It is searching for a combination that satisfies every rule at once. That is the part to hand to AI.
Why hand-built rosters take so long
Five people, each available on different days. At least two on weekends. No more than five days in a row. One night duty a day. The rules fit on a few lines; finding a month that satisfies all of them is genuinely hard for a person.
And every fix breaks something else. Move A to Monday and B is on six days straight. That chain of re-dos is where the hours go. Filling the grid itself is quick.
How Airffic Shift does it
- 01Enter staff and their working patternsOne line each: "Mon–Fri on, weekends off", "Tue–Fri on, Mon and weekends off".
- 02Write the rulesIn plain language: "no more than five consecutive days", "at least two people on Saturdays and Sundays", "one night duty per day".
- 03GenerateA month's roster appears in tens of seconds, colour-coded by shift type with weekends marked.
Five things to check when choosing a tool
| What to look at | Why it matters | |
|---|---|---|
| How rules are entered | Plain sentences, or a settings screen of options | Where rules change month to month, sentences are faster |
| Which constraints it honours | Consecutive-day limits, headcount by weekday, unique duties, requested days off | One unhonoured rule means fixing by hand after all |
| How editable the result is | Can you edit cells; can you change a rule and regenerate | The output is a draft. People decide the last mile |
| What else it does | Time clocks, payroll, a staff app | Some workplaces need these; many do not |
| Price and how fast you can start | Free to try, or a sales call first | For small teams, "usable today" is the deciding factor |
Where Airffic Shift fits — and where it does not
On the list above, Airffic Shift is strong on how rules are entered and how fast you can start: rules are sentences, everything runs in the browser, and it is free.
It does not do time clocks, payroll or a staff-facing app. Its job ends at the roster. If your team already lives in a workforce-management suite and you want rostering inside it, that suite’s own scheduler is probably the better fit.
It is for the team that builds its roster in a spreadsheet and finds the combination search is the painful part.
Questions people ask
What changes when AI builds the roster?
The trial-and-error goes away. By hand, "if I move A to Monday, B ends up on six days straight" is a loop you run in your head for hours. With patterns and rules written down first, the whole month comes out in one pass that already respects them.
How do I specify rules?
In sentences. "One night duty per day, the day before a day off." "Max five consecutive days." "At least two on weekends." No syntax to learn.
How long does it take?
Tens of seconds from pressing Generate, depending on headcount and how many rules there are.
Do I have to use the result as is?
No. It is a draft. Add or remove staff, edit patterns, rewrite rules and regenerate, or edit cells by hand. The judgement calls that are hard to write down stay with you.
What kind of workplace is it for?
Any where the required headcount varies by weekday and people's availability differs — retail, care, clinics, restaurants, field crews. Special duties and named roles are supported.
Is it free?
Generating a roster requires sign-in, but the feature itself is free. Entering staff, rules and the month works without signing in.
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