Day 29 – AI Agents And Automated Workflows – 30 Day AI Challenge 2024

Welcome to the 2024 Edition of the #30DayAIChallenge. This year, we’ll be focusing on making Generative AI more accessible for all. So follow along and give each challenge a try yourself, plus share your own thoughts and experiments with a community of like-minded learners and tinkerers!*

With the four themed weeks behind us, today we’ll explore an area that most AI-focused companies and developers are doubling down on next…the creation of AI tools and “AI Agents” that can perform complex, multi-step tasks and projects. This feels like the natural next step in AI evolution, shifting from chatbots that provide information to agents that actively solve problems.

A recent, high-profile example is Devin, claimed to be “the first AI Software Engineer”. Watch the announcement:

Devin’s ability to plan, write, test, and deploy code highlights the potential of this technology. Beyond custom GPT creations, a mushrooming number of startups are exploring multi-step AI agent capabilities. Projects like Auto-GPT, capable of performing useful chores on your computer, and vimGPT, which combines AI with visual skills for web browsing, demonstrate the range of actions these agents can take. Even Google is in the game with SIMA, an agent that has mastered over 600 complex tasks in video games.

Today’s Challenge: AI Agents And Automated Workflows

The inevitable integration of AI agents and automation tools into workflows represents a leap towards efficiency and innovation. With the increasing reliance on technology, the applications of AI agents in various sectors, including HR, project management, customer service, and more, are reshaping how businesses operate. This challenge invites us to explore the emerging use cases of AI agents and leverage automation tools like Zapier.com, Make.com, and Ifttt.com to create smarter workflows.

Approach for Beginners

Beginners can start by familiarizing themselves with the concept of AI agents—software designed to perform tasks autonomously or with minimal human intervention. A good starting point is to explore simple automation tools such as IFTTT (If This Then That), which allows you to create conditional statements (applets) that automate tasks between different apps. For example, you could set up an applet that saves attachments from emails to a Dropbox folder automatically. Other tools include Zapier and Make.

When experimenting with these tools, beginners should focus on identifying repetitive tasks in their daily workflow that can be automated. Start small, perhaps by automating social media posts or syncing calendars across different platforms. This will give you a sense of the potential of these technologies without getting overwhelmed.

Practical Challenges For Beginners

1. Content Repurposing Magic

• Challenge: You create a blog post but manually promoting it on social channels is time-consuming.
• AI-powered Automation:
  • Trigger: New blog post published in WordPress (or your chosen platform).
  • Action 1: Use a tool like Jasper or Copy.AI to generate multiple social media post variations tailored for different platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.).
  • Action 2: Feed those posts into a scheduling tool like Buffer or Hootsuite to spread them out over the week.

2. AI-Enhanced Customer Service

• Challenge: Responding to basic customer queries takes up your support team’s time.
• AI-Powered Automation:
  • Trigger: New email in support inbox.
  • Action 1: Use an AI tool (ask your helpdesk provider what they integrate with) to analyze the email’s sentiment and topic.
  • Action 2 (if simple query): Have ChatGPT or a similar tool draft a suitable response, insert it into your helpdesk platform for a human agent to quickly review and send.
  • Action 2 (if complex query): Route the email to the appropriate human agent.

3. Get Creative with Lead Generation

• Challenge: Nurturing leads from social comments can be difficult to track.
• AI-Powered Automation:
  • Trigger: New comment on your specific Facebook or Instagram post.
  • Action 1: Use an AI sentiment analysis tool (like MonkeyLearn) to determine if the comment is positive.
  • Action 2 (if positive): Add the commenter’s details to your email marketing list (such as MailChimp) or your CRM.

4. Smart Research Assistant

• Challenge: Gathering information for a project requires sifting through numerous sources.
• AI-Powered Automation:
  • Trigger: You highlight a text snippet or bookmark a webpage.
  • Action 1: An AI summarization tool (there are several, search for “summarize with AI”) creates a concise summary of the text.
  • Action 2: The summary is added to your notes app (Evernote, Notion, etc.) or a dedicated project board like Trello.

Advanced Strategies

For those more advanced, delve into integrating multiple automation and AI tools to create complex workflows. Consider exploring platforms like Zapier or Make.com, which offer more nuanced control and the ability to connect a wide array of services and applications. An advanced project could involve setting up an AI agent that monitors social media mentions, analyses sentiment, and automatically generates responses or alerts the relevant team.

Advanced users should also consider the ethical implications and potential for data breaches. Ensure that all automated workflows are secure and that sensitive data is handled appropriately. Experimenting with custom AI agents for specific business needs, such as a chatbot that handles customer inquiries or an AI that automates inventory management, can significantly enhance efficiency and accuracy.

Practical Challenges For More Advanced Users

1. Personalized News or Research Digest

• Challenge: Staying informed on specific topics means scouring multiple platforms and dealing with information overload.
• Advanced AI Workflow:
  • Trigger: A daily scheduled time of your choosing.
  • Action 1: Use an RSS feed aggregator like Feedly to pull in the latest articles from sources you define (news sites, industry blogs, research journals, etc.).
  • Action 2: An AI tool (you might need something capable of custom API calls) analyzes the articles, filtering for keywords or topics.
  • Action 3: Have an AI summarization tool condense the relevant articles.
  • Action 4: Deliver the final digest as a well-formatted email or add it to your preferred note-taking app.

2. AI-Driven Competitor Monitoring

• Challenge: Manually tracking competitor’s social media, product updates, or press mentions is inefficient.
• Advanced AI Workflow:
  • Trigger: New web mention of your competitor (use tools like Google Alerts, Mention, or Brand24).
  • Action 1: AI sentiment analysis tool determines if the mention is positive, neutral, or negative.
  • Action 2 (if negative): Route the message to your support or PR team for evaluation.
  • Action 2 (if neutral/positive): Use an AI summarizer to get the gist of the mention.
  • Action 3: Add the competitor mention with summary and sentiment rating to a spreadsheet or a dedicated competitor tracking tool.

3. Smart Document Drafting

• Challenge: Creating standard contracts, proposals, or reports has a lot of repetitive boilerplate content.
• Advanced AI Workflow:
  • Trigger: A new form entry on your website or a specific command in your project management tool.
  • Action 1: Essential details from that trigger (client name, project scope, etc.) are extracted.
  • Action 2: An AI language model like GPT-4 is used to generate the first draft, with relevant information pulled from your document templates.
  • Action 3: The draft is deposited into your preferred document software (Google Docs, etc.) for human review and refinement.

Future Possibilities & Considerations

As we dive into the world of AI Agents, AI helpers and other AI-automated systems, it’s easy to see they’re changing the game. They help with our daily tasks and make businesses run smoother, making our work life a lot less complicated and way smarter. As these tech wonders keep getting better, we’re going to discover even more amazing ways to use AI, completely changing how we work and achieve our goals.

Looking ahead (and especially as we get to AGI), AI might get so smart that it can figure out what a business needs and do those jobs by itself. This could mean less micromanaging for us, freeing up our time to get creative and think big. But as AI keeps evolving, we’ve got to make sure we’re thinking about the big picture – like making sure it’s all done ethically, keeping our information safe, and not significantly hurting the labour market. It’s important to help people learn new skills or improve their current ones, so everyone can benefit from what AI and automation bring to the table.

With AI capabilities growing every day, it’s going to open doors to new opportunities for businesses and people alike. But to make this future as bright as possible, we need to ensure technology and our creativity work together in a way that’s fair, safe, and includes everyone.

If you give any of these tools or challenges a try, leave a comment and share your experience! If you’re using other platforms to post, please tag your Facebook, Twitter / X or LinkedIn post with #30DayAIChallenge so others can find it too.

Till tomorrow…

*Please note: Participation in the 30 Day AI Challenge is at your own discretion and responsibility. Always ensure that no sensitive personal information, confidential, or proprietary company data is shared. Adhere to all applicable local laws and company policies. Enjoy exploring AI responsibly!