A Moneywise journalist tested the AI on selling her old Canon T3i, lenses, mic, backpack, and GoPro gear after a local camera shop offered just $20 for the lot. The AI found exact-match eBay sold comps ($220-$225), located a Foto Care cash-buy event in NYC, and wrote a negotiation brief with opening, target, and walk-away prices to counter lowball offers.
Eric's Dot tracks a phone trade-in that shipped weeks ago and still has not credited, submitted the itemization for a reimbursement claim stuck in review, and keeps standing watches, including a comedian's New York dates and an artist's rumored return, reporting back when something lands.
The AI pursued a refund for a defective product by claiming on the extended warranty attached to the user's Amex card, rather than the retailer's return window.
A Dutch man brought his own AI assistant, Eva, running on the AI, into a live call with his provider Ziggo. Eva had compared a rival offer against his contract, and spoke during the call when he asked her a question. Inside 30 minutes he had a renewed 24 month contract that cuts his total bill by 1,250 euros.
The AI makes his listings for eBay and Facebook Marketplace and researches what similar items sold for. He approves the price before anything goes live and sends the photos himself, which he says keeps the listings honest.
A value investor had the AI recreate the spreadsheet he built by hand last year covering every warrant on the NYSE and Nasdaq. The AI looked up strike prices and redemption prices, wrote short company descriptions, and added Google Finance formulas for live prices. It took about 30 minutes of the AI time and 10 minutes of his.
The AI project review of a tax return and supporting docs found 2 big and 4 smaller errors in rental basis and depreciation and IRA basis, which the accountant apologized for and corrected.
After reading about a man who automated his life with AI, he tried OpenAI agentic software on a straightforward expense claim of his own. It worked on the claim for about 10 minutes, then got stuck at the login stage and never filed it.
This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
A screen recording shows a user asking the AI to review three months of bank statements across three connected accounts and say where the money goes. The AI reported $4,320/month average spending against $4,850 income, dining up 35% to $410/month, and three subscriptions totalling $47/month unused for 90 days, offering to cancel them.
He told the AI to request anything it could get sent to him for free, with no limits set. So far a fabric sample and a lot of state travel guides have arrived, and he is a bit worried about how much more is coming.
Steve Morseman gave the AI his ISP account info and asked it to cut the bill or improve service. The AI used its calling feature to wait on hold, negotiate, then patch him in to pick between two saving options — $840/year claimed, no plan change.
A young woman in Los Angeles upgrading her home electronics lab used AI's 'Chef' agent to find a soldering station under $200 on Marketplace, compare five specific models, have the agent message sellers directly, and negotiate the price down $50 before she picked up the Hakko FX-888D, unboxed and assembled it on camera.
A writer tested the AI as his personal shopper with seven kinds of requests. Three worked: it found a Batman omnibus for $74.99 against a $125 list price, the cheapest PS5 DualSense at Walmart for $67.61, and a used PS4 game on eBay for $54.99. Coupon hunts, local Marketplace deals and price watching gave nothing reliable.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
Cole Bennett's agent 'Milo' sent a Monday morning summary, suggested a date night, curated Italian options from his saved reels (Rosetta & Vine, Savoca & Sons, Marchetti's), booked Savoca & Sons at 7pm via OpenTable under his name, then offered to order white roses and had Moon's Flower Shop deliver a $238 bouquet the same day via AMEX authorization.
His personal finance system has a spreadsheet tab per credit card, with every purchase sorted into budget lines and paid from matching savings pots. Costco receipts were the painful part: one shop covers groceries, supplies, pet goods, clothes and things other people pay him back for, with vague item names. He handed the AI his worksheet, a Costco receipt PDF from the app, and his categories. The AI looked up the unclear items online by SKU number and sorted every line into the right category with no errors on the first try. He says it will save him over an hour every week.
Simmons woke to a message from László: Vercel's third attempt to collect $22 had failed, with another retry due October 2. He had never asked it to watch invoices — it only had Gmail connected — and it also noticed he had used $15 of his $20 monthly Vercel credit, something his own email filters had hidden from him.
Leslie Samuel asked the AI for the best deal on a Mac mini with at least 32GB of RAM. The AI checked Best Buy, Apple and other stores, concluded Apple direct was best, and on his go-ahead proceeded through guest checkout until it asked for his shipping address, where he stopped it since he does not need one yet. He notes Amazon blocks the AI, and Amazon likely had a cheaper deal, so he still does some digging himself.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
In 'A Month with AI', the MBI Deep Dives author writes that the AI filled out forms with five auto insurance carriers from his details and showed him quotes; switching at the same coverage saved $1,530 per year. He then set the AI to repeat the shop every five months, ahead of each six-month renewal, indefinitely.
A man fought USAA for over a month over the right deductible for roofing damage. The AI read his insurance documents and helped him keep a running argument, and he won and saved $1,838.30.