I hate agents.

I hated AI agents. Until this:

Open LinkedIn for a second and someone will sell you an “agent” that answers emails, updates your CRM, books meetings, washes the dishes, drops your kids off at school…

But what the fuck is an agent?

No one knows:

I personally hated the word “agent” until now.

That’s why, even though I have over 800,000 people reading my newsletter on How to AI, I never mention “agents”.

But today, this insanity stops.

You & I both will know what an agent is, and we will build our first one together.

I’ll assume the word “agent” makes you think of James Bond, so we really start from zero.

Our first agent will do something that takes too much of your time: keeping track of AI news (only the one you care about). A simple, safe & useful agent.

For the pros, I added a last section called “How pros use agents” at the end.

Two things before we start:

1. Save this guide. Block 10 min this week to create your first agent.

2. Send it to anyone who is scared by the word “agent”. I am also scared btw.

PS: This newsletter grows from your shares. And I keep hitting 1,000+ shares! It’s my weekly north star. Sharing is free & helps me stay laser focused on mastering AI.

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1. Chatbot or Agent?

You’ve been using AI chatbots your whole life: you ask, it answers.

But an AI agent is doing a task, start to finish:

A chatbot answers. An agent does.

And it’s important to understand the difference.

Because AI agents are getting cheaper than… humans.

And agents get cheaper & cheaper. 3x cheaper every year.

It’s a scary image, I know.

But until very recently, I couldn’t care less about agents.

Too clunky to build, too much work to maintain them.

I still think most companies should focus on AI adoption instead of trying to build agents. That’s why my consulting firm - GPC - trains employees before building any agents.

Send me a message if your company has over 100 employees in the US, especially in the manufacturing industry.

And yet, I kept trying to make agents. Easy, useful ones, connected to my apps.

Like technically, when I use Claude Code or Cowork, they are agents.

My Claude Code is “running tasks” = with agents.

My Claude Cowork also makes little agents to do tasks.

But you’re still using it as a chatbot. You ask. It answers.

These were my only “agents”. Until I tried this one:

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2. The easiest way to build a good agent.

I will stop you right there.

I am not paid to write about this company. They just have a good, useful tool to make agents. Especially for us, people who don’t code (or don’t want to).

It’s called Grok Bot, a tool made by xAI*.

*SpaceX bought xAI, the AI company of X, which makes Grok models.

And it looks like this. This is an agent scouting for talent.

On the left: You see my “bots,” or call them agents.

In the middle: When it finishes work, it updates you here. You can also interrupt it anytime to give a new task, or how you feel about its execution.

On the right: You see the agent computer (yes, it has its own computer) and its routine (how often should it perform a task, or many tasks?).

Before I show you exactly how to access it & install it (just go to x.ai/bot if you’re in a hurry), here’s an example of an agent I built:

Daily use cases of solid AI workflows, connected to Linkedin.

To connect your apps to Grok Bot:

Go to Plugins.

You can connect any apps (I think 200+ apps!!).

These are mine so far. Apify and Gmail are my favorites.

How to install Grok Bot:

1. Go to x.ai/bot.

2. You must have a Cursor Ultra/Teams or Grok Heavy X account.

3. The least expensive is Cursor Teams ($40/mo).

Once done, we can create our first agent together.

I think it’s much simpler for you if I explain with screenshots:

Step 1: Click on the + at the top left.

Step 2: Answer the questions. I prefer the bottom open form. Be very clear on the goal of the agent.

My exact prompt: “Daily digest of AI news in my industry (or very close to it).”

Step 3: It will keep asking you questions, like how often.

Step 4: Define what you want more precisely.

My exact prompt:

“What I care about, as a daily digest:
- the top 3 news of AI by joint virality (The Rundown, Google News, what pops on Reddit, cross-check them)
- the top 3 news in the creator economy
- the top 3 news in the consulting business
- read ruben.substack.com and update me on a recent "how to" guide”

That’s what you get, until you say you want it differently.

Here I asked to send it to me via Gmail instead.

Now this was one agent. A simple one, useful, fast to make.

But here’s my recipe to create an advanced agent (it’s a copy & paste prompt):