Life admin

The AI turns my screenshots and emails into calendar events

He uses AI to turn screenshots and emails into calendar events. He also uses it to find email receipts and tickets when he needs them.

Found the original speaking-engagement email despite a misspelled contact name; returned location,

Before a speaking engagement, Ulanoff couldn't recall where he was talking or where to park. He asked the AI to find the original note from his contact, misspelling the contact's name.

Instinct emailed the consulate and got my passport renewal appointment set up

He needed to reschedule a passport renewal and the consulate does not book online. Instinct emailed the consulate from his account, the consulate called him the next day to arrange the appointment, and Instinct put the emailed confirmation on his calendar and checked it for clashes.

The AI cleaned up my Gmail inbox of 12,000 emails

Mufti Hassan had the AI clean up his full Gmail inbox. The chapter title gives the size of the job: 12,000 emails.

Le Monde testers let Instinct scan a year of a neglected Gmail inbox

Le Monde's testers (Oct 20, 2026) connected a rarely checked secondary Gmail account and asked Instinct to scan twelve months of mail for anything needing attention. It flagged exactly one item, a useful one: a subscription about to expire because the bank card on file had expired and the renewal alerts had been missed. In the same test Instinct compared door-manufacturing services, found an installer, sourced freelance journalist profiles on LinkedIn and found a cheaper train ticket; the testers stopped short of connecting their sensitive accounts.

Replace our emigration lawyers with an evidentiary portfolio

Three family members, three nationalities, one move to Brazil. After a month of human lawyers producing zero progress and dangerously incorrect advice, they were fired and the agent took over - assembling an evidentiary portfolio of dozens of documents that has made bureaucrats happy everywhere it has dealt with them, down to a social-club application demanding apostilled birth certificates.

Build my weekly to-do list from my team's messages and email

Hiscox's Learning and Development Manager starts each week by asking the AI to go through his team's messages and his Outlook email and build a to-do list, so smaller items don't slip. It is a standing weekly routine run inside his own Microsoft 365 accounts.

Scheduled a daily AI-news podcast delivered via RSS feed to a podcast

The AI cut an unread Gmail backlog from 65,000+ to 700

The author reports the AI reduced his unread Gmail from more than 65,000 messages to about 700.

I updated a client's email triage so it forwards mail to her customers

He updated an old email triage workflow for a client this weekend. Jev now runs alongside GPT-4o mini, which still controls which emails get forwarded to her customers.

The AI called my library to ask if it has outlets

He needed to know if a library near him had outlets. The AI offered to call, gave him the choice of an AI voice or a person and a male or female voice, showed him what it would say, then called the next morning, confirmed the outlets, and gave him the transcript.

Has AI message him every day at 7 AM with a consolidated

Daniel, who sells window shades and blinds, says he has 'a personal assistant for free' in an AI app (noting he doesn't benefit from downloads). Based on his prompt, AI messages him daily at 7 AM with a simple briefing compiled from emails, Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and reminders; he held up a printed example showing timed tasks like submitting orders, texting contacts, and appointments.

Added an event to his calendar

He runs his dad's work orders and meeting scheduling out of his dad's inbox

The same Cowork setup checks his father's email for work orders and schedules his father's meetings automatically. He turned off data sharing with AI for this, so the mail is not saved anywhere else.

An LLM cracked a city permit API and pulled out thousands of records

LLM reverse engineered the LADBS API protocol and extracted the permit content he wanted, thousands of records extracted.

Had the AI navigate a labyrinthine childcare-booking platform: after manual login it booked

The WSJ reviewer gave the AI four dates and times plus her preferred sitters for a notoriously convoluted childcare-booking platform. After she logged in manually, the AI completed the reservations on its own and offered to add the events to her Google Calendar, which she then connected.

Arranged a free replacement parcel for a broken IKEA cupboard door

Kndarp sent the AI a photo of a broken IKEA cupboard door with its article number. The AI searched his emails for the original order number, reached out to customer support on chat, and arranged a replacement parcel arriving next week at no cost — 'No £ spent.'

Testing the AI as an email sorter, it buried the warning that his keys had leaked

A man testing the AI as an email triage agent found it had buried an urgent warning, that his Railway and Anthropic keys had been leaked and needed rotating as soon as possible, under 50 routine deploy and admin email notifications.

Fix my foundation's broken donation payments and split the portal into four funds

A non-developer used AI to restore his foundation's broken donation payments and restructure the portal into four separate funds; the site shows $17,149,000 in donations processed.

I closed my inbox. The AI interrupted me only three times.

He connected his Gmail to an AI task that watched every new email and was only allowed to interrupt him when a message needed action or came from family, with a draft reply ready. All afternoon it alerted him three times, for a bank message, a family email he answered from its draft, and a ticket itinerary change he needed to act on.