The Fastest Way to Learn AI is to Use It to Solve Your Own Problems

How I automated hours of manual work by using AI to solve my problems (plus 5 inspiring examples from other AI builders)

Dear subscribers,

Everyone wants to become AI native, but most people are approaching it wrong.

You can only get so far by consuming AI content. Instead:

The fastest way to become AI native is to use AI to solve your own problems.

That means learning to:

1. Understand when you have a problem

2. Identify the solution with AI as your thought partner

3. Execute on the simplest solution possible

Once you start solving problems with AI, you'll gain the confidence to tackle bigger challenges and build AI apps that you’d never thought possible.

Let me walk you through two examples of using AI to solve my problems, plus five other AI apps that people in my community have built.

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This post is brought to you by…Attio

Attio is the first AI-native CRM that eliminates busywork:

1. Connect your email to build your CRM in minutes with all your information.

2. Highlight key notes, summaries, and moments that matter using AI call intelligence and templates so you can stay focused on the conversations.

3. Let AI handle tasks like qualifying new leads, spotting opportunities when customers get funding, and alerting on potential churn signals.

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Example: Automating coupon distribution with AI

I built an AI workflow to automatically distribute coupon codes to students

1. Understand problem

I spent a lot of time securing free coupons from Bolt, Replit, and Cursor for students of my AI course. But handing out coupons manually would take forever.

2. Identify solution

I wanted to automate this process. Here's the prompt I gave AI to explore my options:

I have coupon codes for Bolt, Replit, and Cursor and emails for students of my AI course.

i want to build a simple app for students to get coupon codes with their email. What's the easiest way to do this?

AI suggested a Google Forms and Apps Script solution that seemed worth exploring:

I then asked AI to walk me through the steps. Here's part of its response:

3. Execute

I followed AI's steps and copied the Apps Script code it gave me. The moment of truth came when I ran a test using my email and…it didn't work.

I had to spend an hour debugging the script with AI to get it to work:

The point is that you have to persist through failure. I didn’t give up and now this AI workflow saves me hours every time I teach the course.

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Example: Building a member directory from Slack

1. Understand problem

When members join my AI community, they share their favorite AI tip in a Slack channel. But these tips were getting buried in message threads. I wanted to build a Notion directory to help members find these tips and connect with each other.

2. Identify solution

I created a project and asked AI to explore my options:

I have a Slack community with an #intros channel. Here is an example of some intros that new members have posted (screenshot).

I want to:
1. Add all existing intros to a Notion member directory, including name, location, AI tip, social, fun fact
2. Whenever someone posts a new intro I want to add it automatically

What's the simplest way to build this?

AI suggested breaking this task into two steps: First, parse existing intros into a CSV and then set up automation for new intros.

3. Execute

I followed AI's steps to write a script to parse the existing intros. Again, it didn’t work on the first try. I had to get it to remove duplicates and more through trial and error.

Next, I asked AI to explore options to automate adding new Slack intros to the directory. It recommended using Make:

The point is to have the awareness to recognize a problem and the curiosity and persistence to work with AI to solve it yourself.

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5 more examples of builders shipping AI solutions to solve their own problems

Colin’s referrer tracker tool

One advantage of having an AI community (upgrade to paid to get access) is that I now have an inside look at how other builders are using AI to solve their problems 🙂

Below are 5 examples that stand out, including a referrer tracker, AI meal planner, newsletter summarizer, choose your own adventure kids app, and AI PM Slack agent:

1. Referral tracker: Colin built a tool to let his course students generate referral links and get rewards for signing up others. He vibe coded it with Replit and walks through how you can do it too in this video: