Everyone’s talking about AI agents. They’ll change the internet forever, reshape every industry, create trillion dollar opportunities.

But the reality is AI agents have been here for years. We just didn’t call them that.

Spotify Discover Weekly is your music curator agent. It learns your taste, finds new tracks, and builds personalized playlists. 50M weekly listeners trust it more than human recommendations.

Netflix’s recommendation engine is your entertainment agent. 80% of what people watch comes directly from its suggestions. That’s $15B in annual revenue driven by an “agent” we never called an agent.

TikTok’s FYP is your dopamine agent. Average watch time: 95 minutes per day. It knows what you want before you do. You lose track of time it's so dialed.

Hey, even spell check is kinda like your spellcheck agent. Okay, you probably get the idea.

But these are "dumb agents". They match patterns. They can’t think. They can’t adapt.

Either way, these agents are loved because they nail four things:

1. Single clear action
2. Instant feedback
3. Bounded decisions
4. Zero friction

But now with LLMs, We’re moving from agents to smart agents.

Smart agents can actually think:

• understand what you mean
• learn from mistakes
• explain decisions
• handle new situations

The playbook for building smart agents is simple:

1. Start with one action that matters
2. Add LLM understanding
3. Build tight feedback loops
4. Learn from every interaction
5. Expand slowly

The more I think about how to build agents people will actually use, the more I realize it's about focusing on making humans better at what they already do.

FYI - CrewAI is the leading AI agent builder. You can also use something like Lindy or build your ai workforce with Mindstudio. No need to cobble together Langchain, Pinecone, and custom orchestration.

A few random ideas for you of the types of agents you could build:

For boutique real estate photography (got the idea because we're selling my place in Miami):

• Scout agent analyzes listing data and suggests optimal photo sequences
• Editing agent handles HDR merging and color correction
• Staging agent generates virtual furniture overlays
• Quality agent ensures MLS compliance
• Portfolio agent maintains realtor's unique visual style
• They learn which shots convert best per neighborhood

For architecture permit applications (got this idea because renovating our new place in Miami):

• Code agent reviews against local building regulations
• Drawing agent flags non-compliant measurements
• Historical agent checks preservation requirements
• Timeline agent manages submission deadlines
• Risk agent predicts approval probability
• They learn from every approved/rejected permit

When building agents, I look for high-value repetitive tasks + clear success metrics + rich data feedback loops.

Happy building.

#1

Bryan Johnson /dd @bryan_johnson Friends, I’m telling you, make sleep your number one priority and everything in your life will improve. 9:9 AM • Nov 12, 2024 3468 Retweets 39471 Likes Read 766 replies

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I totally agree. Used to have a ton of difficulty sleeping well. What worked for me was blackout blinds, go to sleep around same time every night, don't work on stuff that will get my brain going after 730p and Beam Dream powder (I drink it at 830p every night).

#2

Troy Osinoff 🕺 @yo Best part of December is calling all of your bad trades “tax loss harvesting” to feel smart 11:52 AM • Dec 5, 2024 10 Retweets 80 Likes Read 1 replies

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Reminder!

#3

Tim Forkin @timforkindotcom I cannot stress this enough If you are going to work for other people they have to be cool People you would hang out with anyway Otherwise there's no point No amount of money is worth working for people who aren't cool 6:51 PM • Dec 4, 2024 0 Retweets 12 Likes Read 2 replies

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I agree. Work with cool people.

#4

anu @anuatluru go your own way 12:9 AM • Dec 3, 2024 908 Retweets 5512 Likes Read 26 replies

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Do you and good things will happen.

New Startup Ideas Podcast (SIP) episodes🧃 I had an SEO genius give us a few ideas to generate more organic traffic Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube ​ ​ This was a really well-loved episode. A tutorial on how to use AI using tools like Zapier to Appify to build high traffic startups. It's 1h30 but I think you'll learn a lot. YouTube, Spotify, Apple ​

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Thank you for reading Greg's Letter. I hope you it got your creative juices flowing. You can forward this email to a friend that might benefit.

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Until next week.

Be well,

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