r/automation

I’ve been experimenting with the current state of generative AI for content creation, and I wanted to share a full case study of what I was able to accomplish without any traditional design or video editing skills.

For this experiment, I gave myself one rule: the idea and the script direction had to be mine, but everything else had to be generated by AI.

Here’s the breakdown of the process:

Channel & Branding: All the channel art, logos, and thumbnails were created using AI image generators.

Video Assets: Every visual element, stock-like clip, and graphical asset in the videos was sourced or generated through AI tools.

Voiceover & Audio: The narration and any sound design were produced using AI voice synthesis.

Content Scripts: While I provided the core ideas and structure, I used AI for research, expansion, and script polishing.

The result is the AI Ideas channel, which is now live. You can see the outcome for yourself here:

youtubedotcom/channel/UCw-rUEbLzjwDVsc833q0uiw

I’m sharing this not to promote the channel itself, but to spark a discussion on the current capabilities of these tools. The workflow is fascinating and a bit surreal. What used to take a team of specialists can now be executed by one person with a clear vision and the right prompts.

A few questions for the community:

What's the most impressive AI-generated content you've seen recently?

Where do you see the biggest bottleneck in this type of workflow?

Does the "human touch" become more important or less important when the production is so automated?

I’m happy to answer any questions about the specific tools used in the process. It’s an exciting time to be a creator, and the pace of change is incredible.

I have no experience in automation I am trying to automate a repetitive daily task that requires moving data across multiple tabs in Google Chrome.

like opening a local file from windows download folder copying questions from there opening ChatGPT pasting the question copying the answer and over writing existing text in canva. EDIT: Each page is different and different questions like fill in the blanks, MCQS, true/false

Something that saved me after a scheduled job wrote garbage to prod: Neon (managed Postgres) does point-in-time restore by branching from any past timestamp, and Time Travel Assist lets you query the db as it was right before you commit to it. So instead of restoring a nightly dump you just branch at 2 min before the bad write and diff.

I am trying to build a cloud automation for making short tutorial videos... mainly with real screenshots, real screen recordings. Not those generic AI generated clips.

The main problem I was trying to solve was pretty simple.

If I use Claude Code to do generate a video, it can do pretty well. But my computer still has to be running, the browser has to be open, terminal etc. I wanted to move this whole thing to the cloud.

So I started building this with n8n and Claude connectors.

For screenshots I have been using Firecrawl and Browserless. Firecrawl is doing a pretty good job for taking screenshots from websites for every action. Even on some websites where you have Cloudflare in front of them, it can still work which I found pretty useful.

I have Heygen Hyperframes but it does work in cloud, the avatar video, the screenshots and hyperframes motion graphics never clipped together.

Also, another part comes when I need to interact with a website... for example, login and then take screenshots of something inside the website.

Firecrawl can do this with its interact mode, but it can burn through credits pretty quickly. So for a tutorial video workflow, the cost can become a problem.

And then there is another thing I am not completely comfortable with sharing my credentials on cloud-based browser.

If I need to log in to a website through a cloud browser, I have to think about where those credentials are going and how safe it really is.

I do not really want to give my personal login credentials to some cloud browser just so my automation can take a few screenshots.

So the automation itself is working pretty nicely... the main thing I am still trying to figure out is the best way to handle authenticated browser sessions in the cloud without making the whole thing expensive or risky.

Running 6-8 client accounts on Meta and TikTok. Currently using Voidmob dedicated mobile proxies with TCP/IP fingerprint set to iOS and dedicated carrier DNS instead of Cloudfare. Each client get's their own dedicated IP per account with custom proxy fingerprints.

Network lager looks clean at the moment, but I'm trying to decide if adding as antidetect browser on top is actually necessary, or if Chrome profiles with isolated cookies are enough when the proxy layer is sorted.

A few questions for those managinv multiple client profiles with real survival data:

Do Meta/TikTok actively cross-check low level network signals (like TCP/IP stack OS) against the browser's User-Agent and JS environment?

Does running desktop Chrome through a mobile-configured proxy create fingerprint anomalies that trigger bans?

Is canvas/WebGL spoofing from antidetect browsers still weighted heavily by anti-bot algorithms today, or is cookie isolation + clean IP enough?

Currently looking at a few antidetect browser options, trying to figure out if it's actually worth it.

Thanks!

Looking for a no-code chatbot that can answer from my own site/FAQs, not just give generic AI replies.

Ideally it should work on website chat, WhatsApp, and Instagram, with human handoff when needed. Budget is around $50/mo.

not looking to build anything custom. Any suggestions ?

I’ve built a tool that lets users create AI automations with a single prompt instead of manually building workflows.

A lot of people use tools like n8n and Make, but even with templates, workflows can still become technical and often require debugging and fixing errors.
Our target users are agency owners, freelancers, and people building automations for clients.

If you were in my position, where would you look for paying customers? is organic content is the way or instagram dms?

A pattern thats been working for me instead of a nightly reverse-ETL script copying aggregates from the warehouse into the app db: Lakebase synced tables keep a Postgres table continuously in sync with a source Delta table, so the app reads fresh computed values with no cron to babysit. Am I missing something else out there?

I build AI automations for small businesses, things like chatbots, follow up systems, scraping data, cleaning up workflows, whatever is eating up their time or costing them money. I'm solid on the technical side but honestly not great at finding clients or pitching them.

Looking for someone who's good at talking to small business owners and can spot where they're bleeding time or money. If you bring me the client and close the deal, I'll handle everything on the build side and we split it.

Doesn't matter if you've done this exact thing before, if you're good with people and can sell, that's really the main thing I need.

If this sounds like something you'd want to do, and we can figure out the split and get moving.

For example, I just saw that my friend has setup an automation that after every client meeting, Zooms AI Summary, is auto routed to Gamma. Gamma then generates the final PPT for him and client on what we discuss in summary and the next steps and is auto sent to both. Clients seem to love it cause it feels like he put so much effort to make personal presentation for them after every call LOL.

So curious, Redditors, What is the most impressive automation you have come across this year?

Hi,

I am a newbie exploring automation (like n8n, Make, Zapier) as a potential side hustle.

So my question is for automation agency owners.

I want to start as a freelancer, then one day build up to an agency.

I read contract developer communities, and a lot of them say Get a job; clients run out; I did something else.

So I want to know if running an agency is any different?

Will I run out of clients if the market is weak?

I basically want to know how sustainable this model is, from experienced agency owners: if they had to shut down the agency, why?

Obviously, nothing is future-proof, as any entrepreneur would know (never put your eggs in one basket). I plan to build multiple SaaS products and invest in a diverse portfolio.

Hey guys. Hope you all are doing greatt. Im stuck on my chrome automation project. I hope someone can help me w this.

How can i deal with google captchas without being signed in?

How have people been wiring database branching into their preview-deploy automation?

I've been putting per-preview databases into CI and Neon's been handy for it, the Vercel integration spins up an isolated database branch for every preview deploy so each PR tests against its own copy of the data, then tears the branch down on merge. If so, how are you seeding test data into each fresh branch?

Next Monday is where this reporting setup gets awkward. The current version can take a couple of marketplace exports and produce a comparison. It works once the date range and calculation rules have been explained.

A week later, new files arrive. I may remember how I treated refunds this time, but I don’t want the report to depend on my memory. Reading through an old conversation before every update would replace spreadsheet maintenance with prompt maintenance.

I tried the task in Accio Work, which accepted both uploaded reports and produced a workable result after I supplied the formulas. That seems fine for investigating an occasional question.

I’m less confident about using the same approach for a report that people expect every Monday. At that point, I’d want the agreed calculation to stay fixed instead of being interpreted again with each upload.

How are people locking down a chat-based report once the first version works?

Substack doesnt have an API. I have done an automation to post articles on my website. Last step is to post a Note on Substack.

A note is like a tweet. I want the automation to just open New Note, paste the text and submit it.