I just built my first actual AI agent this week.
But first... what the heck is an AI agent anyway?
Think of it like this: instead of you manually doing a task over and over (like in my case, reading 15 Substack articles and listening to 5 podcasts each week), you build a digital worker that handles the entire process for you... and then lets you know what you need to know.
It's not just automation—it's intelligent automation.
The AI can read, analyze, make decisions, and even adapt based on what it finds. It's like having a really smart assistant who never sleeps and doesn't need coffee breaks (doesn't give you sh!t, either). It just needs your input once in a while.
Here's what happened...
In trying to learn and stay up-to-speed, I've been drowning in my own content curation habits for months.
Bookmarking articles. Screenshotting Twitter threads. Saving YouTube videos to "Watch Later" (aka the digital graveyard).
Even with the OneTab browser extension, my browser has looked like a digital hoarder's paradise for months. Pure chaos that only I can decipher... when I'm in the mood.
But here's the thing: I'm building a business around building with AI, right? I'm constantly sharing tools and workflows with my audience.
Yet I was still manually sifting through content like some kind of caveman.
The irony was not lost on me.
So I decided to eat my own dog food.
(ummm you get the point)
I built an AI agent that actually reads all these Substack posts for me and lets me know what's up.
Not just summarizes it (because most AI summaries are garbage). But processes it, finds patterns I'd miss, and delivers the insights that matter.
Here's what this thing does behind the scenes:
Every night while I'm sleeping, it:
- Scans my curated Substack feeds
- Extracts key insights from each post
- Synthesizes everything into a personalized brief
- Identifies connections between ideas that I'd never spot
- Sends it all to me as a Telegram message before I wake up
It gives me back hours that I can spend actually building instead of just consuming.
But here's the real breakthrough...
This isn't just solving my problem—it's becoming part of my business model.
I'm documenting the entire build process. Sharing the templates. Teaching others how to create their own versions.
One agent becomes content for my audience. Content becomes trust, trust becomes relationships. Relationships become revenue.
It's this beautiful cycle where solving my own problems directly feeds into helping others solve theirs.
The meta-game is everything.
I'm not just building AI agents in isolation. I'm building them as part of a larger ecosystem where each tool I create serves multiple purposes:
- Solves a real problem in my workflow
- Provides content for my audience
- Demonstrates the possibilities of AI
- Creates templates others can use
- Builds my reputation as someone who actually ships
Every agent is both a business tool and a business asset.
This is what sustainable AI entrepreneurship looks like.
(and honestly, I think this is for everyone trying to build something online)
You're not just consuming tools or chasing the latest shiny object.
You're building systems that compound. Each solution creates value on multiple levels.
The automation saves you time. The documentation attracts an audience. The audience becomes customers for your next solution. Sha-bam.
Want to see how I built it?
This probably isn't for all of you, but here you go nonetheless:
Anyway. So that's what I've been working on.
There's also an interesting post I recently published to Substack about the new dawn of creator + AI businesses. We live in interesting times.
So how about you? What problem in your workflow could become your next business opportunity?
More experiments coming soon...
Jordan
