Real things people got AI agents to do

Turn supplier invoice emails into a spreadsheet, with the sums checked before anything is saved

A consultant who builds workflows for small UK businesses shared a free n8n template. It only watches one Gmail label for supplier invoices, has an AI model read each PDF into fixed fields like supplier, dates, net, VAT and total, then checks the math in plain code: net plus VAT has to match the total and the line items have to add up. Invoices that pass go into a Google Sheet, and anything that fails lands on an Exceptions tab with the reason, so a person takes a look. She notes it can't read scanned invoices and doesn't catch duplicates yet.

Heads up: Facebook Marketplace may be blocking agents

The poster had Grok Bot watching Facebook Marketplace for deals. He says that since October 16 every search in the agent's browser returns no listings, even after logging in again, while his phone shows them fine. He says others report the same, and Facebook hadn't commented when he posted.

Get roadside help abroad when you don't speak the language

The poster's car broke down on the Autobahn in Germany. Nobody nearby spoke English and the insurance hotline was in German. He asked Grok Bot to handle it, it found the right form and filled it in with his details, and help arrived about an hour later.

Practise a new language with lessons built from your own week

The poster set up a Portuguese tutor in OpenClaw that writes exercises around their real life. Their padel plans turned into a grammar lesson, and a pile of paperwork turned into pronoun practice. The point is to practise the things they will actually need to say.

A flight refund got stuck with the booking service behind the agent

The poster says Meta Muse cancelled their Southwest flight, but the refund never showed up. Muse told them the money was with Duffel, the flight booking service it works with, and the poster says they could find no way to contact Duffel. When they posted, they still didn't know who was responsible for paying them back.

Keep your sales board up to date from one-line messages

The poster runs Hermes Agent every day as a helper called Jarvis. They send it a one-line note about a client, and it records the date and the next step on a shared sales board. It also writes client emails, but only sends each one after the poster approves it. Logins, two-factor codes and CAPTCHAs stay with the poster.

Trace where your phone number leaked and ask to be taken off the lists

Asked to do something about spam calls, Grok Bot worked out roughly when the poster's number was first used, tracked down the lists it had most likely leaked from, mostly insurance quote sites, and drafted a removal request to each one.

Change the email on your bank accounts and let the agent fill in the forms

The poster wanted a new email address on their bank accounts, so they asked their Gemini Spark agent to write and send the request. The bank replied with a form to fill in. Spark pulled the details from the poster's Google Drive and filled in two forms, one for each account, so all that was left was to sign and send them.

Get signed up for the right events during a packed conference week

The poster had their ChatGPT Work and Claude Cowork agents go through the SF and LA Tech Week events and register them for the ones that fit, based on what the agents already knew about them. It was a quick, happy post, so it doesn't say how many events they got or how good the picks were.

Control your TV by chatting with an agent that never leaves your home network

The poster runs n8n on his own machine and built an agent he chats with to control his Roku TV. The TV is never opened up to the internet, and the agent sends its commands over his home network. He says it works, but he first tried n8n's new Agents tab, which is still a preview, and found it slow to call the TV controls. His fix is to use the AI Agent step inside a normal workflow instead.

An agent booked a blood test and made up the date of birth

The poster spent a couple of weeks letting Muse use his email, calendar and credit card. When it booked a blood test for him, it told him it didn't know his date of birth, so it had made one up. He wrote up the whole experience in a longer post.

Ask an AI questions in Telegram by typing or sending a voice note, and get a short reply in seconds

A Make Community member wanted quick AI answers without leaving Telegram, so he built a Make scenario behind a Telegram bot. Each new message goes through a router: typed text goes straight to the AI step, while a voice note is first fetched from Telegram in two steps (get the file path, then download the audio) and turned into text. Both end up in the same AI step, with a short system prompt so replies stay easy to read on a phone, and the answer goes back to the same chat. He says it has run since August, handles around 50 messages a day, and replies within a few seconds. His tips: the two-step voice download is easy to miss, and filters on the router made it much easier to debug.

Get 3 articles a day from your read-later pile

After Instapaper opened its API, the poster set up a small scheduled job for his Hermes agent. Every afternoon it sends him three random articles from his saved list, with a button to archive all of them.

Gather the documents for a complicated tax filing and fill in a draft

The poster had a tax filing with overseas reporting, the kind that usually means paying a specialist. He says Grok Bot found the documents it needed in his email and bank accounts, worked out the requirements and filled in the forms. He reviewed everything and submitted it himself, and estimates it saved him over $1,000.

Get your old dentist to send your records to the new one

The day before his first visit to a new dentist, the poster asked Grok Bot by voice to find his old dentist in his email and ask them to send his records over. It found the new office's email online and sent the request, and the records were there in time, so he skipped repeat exams. He also uses it to chase overdue invoices.

Make a small playable game from one idea

The poster gave Manus 2.0 a single idea: an open-world game where music is your weapon. He says it built the 3D world, characters, combat, music and sound effects, then tested and published the game, which you can play from his post.

Turn the air conditioning on with one tap, the way you like it

The poster connected his Hermes agent to Home Assistant, which controls his air conditioner, and added a shortcut to his iPhone's Control Center. One tap asks Hermes to switch the AC on or off using his saved preferences.

Drop photos in a folder and get a priced Marketplace ad to approve

The poster set up a routine: he puts photos of things he wants to sell into a Google Drive folder, Grok Bot checks what they usually sell for, and it posts the ad to Facebook Marketplace once he approves it. He says he has sold 5 items this way.

He reports 5 items sold. He doesn't share prices, and we have not verified the sales.

Swap a budgeting app for a spreadsheet and an agent

The poster dropped his finance tracking app. He keeps a Google Sheet and uses a Gemini Spark skill: he tells it what he spent, it logs it, and it answers questions about his spending. He says the same idea works for workouts or anything else you track.

Price out a big parts order across several stores

Ordering a full engine rebuild kit for his truck, the poster had Grok Bot put the parts into carts at several stores to compare the final prices. He says it found the best combination and saved about $300 on a $1,400 order.

Sell old stuff on Facebook Marketplace without answering every message

The poster gave Grok Bot two photos of an item from his camera roll. He says it wrote the listing, looked up the dimensions and extra photos, and followed up with about 15 interested people until one bought it. His only job was sending the buyer his address.

He says the sale made him $50. We have not verified this.

Get money back when the price drops right after you buy

Two weeks after buying a Pixel phone, the poster saw a $250 promo on the same model. He had Muse contact Google Store support about it, and says he got $270 back without doing much himself. He doesn't share the steps, so treat it as one person's result.

One person's agent-run online store got a first sale, after paid ads

The poster set up a group of Grok Bot agents to research a product, design packaging, build a Shopify store and draft Meta ads, approving each step himself. He says the first sale came within 24 hours of going live. He was also paying for ads at $50 a day and several other tools, so one sale says little about profit.

He reports a first sale. He doesn't share revenue or costs beyond the $50 a day ad test, and we have not verified any of it.

Turn a long voice ramble into a week of social posts

On long walks, the poster talks into Telegram for 30 to 40 minutes. His OpenClaw agent sorts his thoughts and turns them into a week of carousels, graphics and threads, ready in his scheduling tool. The ideas are still his; the agent does the sorting and drafting.

Have an agent phone businesses with a simple question

A small business marketer tested Genspark's calling feature, which phones businesses listed on Google Maps and sends back a transcript and summary. A call asking a church about its young adults group went well. A dinner booking for 10 stalled when the host asked what time, and the reservation was never finished.

Draft rental property tax forms from your own files

The poster asked Claude Cowork to prepare a draft Schedule E, the US tax form for rental income, from his income and expense files. His key instruction was to show the plan first and ask for approval before touching the final forms.

Let an agent field your coworkers' quick questions

The poster's OpenClaw work agent answers routine messages from coworkers, like where a document lives or how far along a project is, using his work tools. Everything else goes into a ranked list he works through, so he isn't pulled away by every ping.

Plan the week's meals for a family of six

The poster built a meal prep helper on OpenClaw for his wife, who uses it every day to plan food for three adults and three kids. He has since made an improved version on Grok Bot and shared it.

A first flight search ran for 16 hours and picked a poor option

The first time the poster tried Manus, she asked it to find flights. It worked for 16 hours and came back with what she calls probably the most expensive option, with a 9-hour layover.

Check each supplier invoice against its purchase order, line by line, before anyone approves it

A poster in the Make Community built a scenario that picks up supplier invoices from Gmail, saves the PDF to Google Drive and reads the text with Google's OCR. Plain text rules pull out the invoice number and the purchase order number, and Make finds the matching order in a Drive folder. A Make AI Agent then compares the two line by line and marks each line as a match, a match with different wording, a mismatch or missing, with an overall status of approved, discrepancy found or escalated. The result and the agent's reasoning go into a Google Sheet. He tested it on three invoices: one matched despite different wording, one was flagged for a wrong quantity, and one was escalated because a line had no match.

Set up a new printer, after one agent got stuck

The poster bought his first printer and wanted an agent to set it up. After 24 hours of permission and configuration problems with OpenClaw, he switched to Hermes and says he was further along within 15 minutes. He still plans to give OpenClaw another go.

Let an agent run a freelancer's inbox, but ask first on anything with a price

A freelancer let Grok Bot work in his inbox, calendar and website editor for 24 hours. He says it fixed a client's site, booked a kickoff call and chased an overdue invoice until it was paid. His one rule was that anything involving a price or a contract had to come to him first, and it stopped to ask before sending a retainer proposal.

He says the overdue invoice got paid and a client signed. We have not verified either.

Draw up plans for a built-in bookshelf

For the last part of an office makeover, the poster had his Hermes agent draw blueprints for a built-in library wall with a spot for his 3D printer. He started building the shelves from the plans the same day.

Clean up a slow Windows laptop

The poster had ChatGPT Work go through his Surface Pro and remove things he didn't need, and says it now runs much faster. He doesn't say what was removed, so be careful with anything that deletes files or programs.

A small home screen that shows the family calendar and runs the music

The poster's OpenClaw agent drives a small display at home that shows the family's calendars. It also sets music on their Sonos speakers to match and controls their Home Assistant smart home when asked.

Sort out a rental car damage claim across three companies

The poster gave Muse a real rental car incident to resolve with the rental company, his car insurer and his credit card company. Over several days it emailed everyone, gathered the paperwork and filed claims. Its one mistake was trying to file the card claim on the wrong website, which he caught in time. He mentions he works at Google.

A small, honest win: $12 back from a price match

The poster asked Meta Muse to get a price match on something he had bought a week earlier, and says it got him $12 back. He points out he didn't save thousands like some posts claim, which is a useful reality check.

He says he got $12 back. We have not verified this.

Confirm client appointments two days ahead, with a weather check

A real estate photographer set up Grok Bot to check his calendar every morning for shoots two days away. It looks up the client, checks the forecast and emails a confirmation, and if rain looks likely it offers to reschedule instead. He shares his setup as a template in the post.

An inbox helper sent an email it was only supposed to draft

The poster used a Claude Cowork inbox skill to archive mail and draft replies every hour. It sent one email without asking. No harm was done, but he disconnected Gmail and his other connections straight away.

Have an agent ask your internet provider for a lower bill

The poster says Grok Bot negotiated with his internet provider and cut his bill by $28 a month without him doing anything. He doesn't say how it contacted the provider or what plan he ended up on.

He says he saves $28 a month. We have not verified this.

Compare products across open tabs and spot a fake sale

A reviewer asked Comet to compare four mattresses open in three store tabs, listing price, trial length and firmness. It did it in about 90 seconds and noticed one 'sale' price was higher than the store's own 30-day average. The same review warns that web pages can trick AI browsers, so watch it closely near payments.

Two agents tracked the same Japan trip and came back $1,000 apart

The poster had Grok Bot and Muse watch the same Japan flight itinerary. Muse's price was more than $1,000 higher, and when he asked why, it said it had searched Duffel, a flight booking service, instead of Google Flights. A good reason to ask any agent where it looked.

Find the repair person you used last time, buried in your email

The poster's air conditioning broke and he couldn't find the contact for the technician who had serviced it before. Muse searched his Gmail, found the company, saved the contact to his phone and texted them. He had an appointment for noon the same day.

Cancel subscriptions without getting talked into staying

The poster says Meta Muse cancelled 3 subscriptions for him in one day. What he liked most: when an agent cancels, there's no retention offer to talk you out of it, something he says has worked on him many times.

He doesn't give a dollar amount.

Go over your projects by voice while you clean the kitchen

While tidying up at night, the poster talked to ChatGPT Work by voice. It quizzed him on open items in his project notes, checked his email and Slack when he needed context, sent questions to teammates, and in the morning sent him his five most important tasks. He still checks emails with attachments himself before they go out.

Find a local maker for a small job and set it all up

The poster asked Muse to find a nearby, reliable embroiderer willing to take a small batch. Muse found one, emailed him, agreed on the job and sent the files. When the poster dropped the items off, the embroiderer said he was basically retired and asked how they had found him.

Grab an earlier DMV appointment while you get on with your day

The poster had a DMV appointment months away. They asked Muse to check several offices every 30 minutes and book any earlier opening, and it found and booked a slot for the same day. They also had it add more than 40 events from a sports season to their calendar.