How to Get First Name in monday.com Without Using AI Credits

If you use monday.com for CRM, marketing, or email automation, having a separate First Name field makes it easier to personalize emails.

For example:

Hi John,

Instead of:

Hi John Smith,

monday.com has an AI feature that can extract the first name from a full name. However, using AI consumes AI credits.

For a simple task like extracting the first word of a name, you can avoid using AI altogether.

Use a Formula Column Instead

Create a Formula column next to your Contact Name (Full Name) column.

Name the Formula column:

First Name

Then use the following formula:

UPPER(LEFT({Contact Name}, 1)) & LOWER(RIGHT({Contact Name}, LEN({Contact Name}) - 1))

Replace {Contact Name} with the actual name of your full-name column.

Example

Contact Name	First Name
JOHN SMITH	John
jane doe	Jane
MICHAEL BROWN	Michael

The formula automatically formats the first word with a capital first letter and lowercase remaining letters.

Why Use a Formula Instead of AI?

Using a Formula column is a better option when you only need to extract a first name because it:

• Doesn't use AI credits
• Works even when your AI credits are exhausted
• Automatically updates when the contact name changes
• Is faster for simple text processing
• Works well with marketing and email automations

Important Limitation

The formula captures the first word of the contact's name.

John Smith → John
Sarah Jane Smith → Sarah

This works best when your contact names follow the standard First Name + Last Name format.

Bottom Line

You don't need AI credits for every simple data-processing task in monday.com. If you only need to extract the first word from a contact's full name, a Formula column is a simple, reliable, and cost-efficient alternative.