😎 The Lazy Guide to Building AI Agents That Work for You!

Introduction

AI agents are everywhere now—automating work, generating content, and saving time. Some people think building AI agents is complicated, that it takes years of coding skills to pull off. But that’s just not true.

Last week, I built an AI agent in a few hours that automatically handles YouTube comments. It sorts through messages, filters out spam, highlights important ones, and even generates replies. It’s simple, but it works. And if I can do it, so can you.

This isn’t about learning to code from scratch. It’s about knowing where to start, how to break things down, and using the right tools to build AI agents that actually solve problems.

So, here’s how it works:
Step 1: Find the right idea.
Step 2: Build the agent (no advanced coding required).
Step 3: Sell it—because what’s the point of automation if it doesn’t pay off?

It’s not about overcomplicating things. Just a clear process that works. If you’ve ever thought about building AI agents but didn’t know where to begin, this is the only guide you need.

Step 1: Finding an AI Agent Idea

You don’t just wake up one day and build AI agents without knowing what you’re building. Ideas don’t fall from the sky—they come from looking at what’s already happening around you.

The easiest way? Start with workflows. People repeat the same tasks every day—writing emails, responding to comments, scheduling posts, analyzing data. AI thrives on repetition. If a task happens over and over again, there’s a way to automate it.

Take YouTubers, for example. Their daily workflow is a cycle:

• Topic research → AI can suggest trending ideas.

• Scripting → AI can draft scripts based on past content.

• Editing → AI can recommend cuts and generate captions.

• Publishing → AI can schedule posts at the best time.

• Engagement → AI can respond to comments automatically.

Every step is an opportunity to build AI agents that do the work for them. That’s what matters—building agents that actually help someone, not just creating something for the sake of it.

1. Look at What You Already Do

Instead of chasing random ideas, look at your own daily workflow. What do you do every single day that’s annoying, repetitive, or time-consuming? That’s where an AI agent can fit in.

That’s how I built an AI extension for Twitter and LinkedIn. I was tired of spending hours responding to posts, so I built an agent that generates replies based on my past tweets and comments. A few clicks, and it’s done. No thinking, no wasted time.

It wasn’t revolutionary, but it solved a real problem. And that’s the point.

2. See What’s Already Out There

If you’re stuck, go see what other people have already built.

• FuturePedia: A list of AI agents across different industries. You can browse, find gaps, and improve existing ideas.

  

• Agent.AI: Built by HubSpot’s co-founder, with 800+ AI agent ideas.

  

You don’t have to invent something from scratch. Just find a gap, improve an idea, or make it easier to use. The smartest AI agents aren’t necessarily the most complex—they’re just the most useful.

The hardest part isn’t building AI agents. It’s knowing what to build. And now you do.

Step 2: Building an AI Agent

People hear “build AI agents” and assume it’s some complicated, highly technical process. But that’s not true. AI itself can do a lot of the work—you just need to know how to guide it.

I built a YouTube comment-handling AI agent in a few hours, and no, I didn’t sit there writing endless lines of code. I told AI what I wanted, broke the process into steps, and let it generate the bulk of the script. The hardest part? Making sure I understood what was happening, so I wasn’t just blindly running code I didn’t get.

That’s how you build AI agents. Not by trying to become the next AI engineer overnight, but by being clear about what you want, testing each part, and making sure it works before moving on.

1. A Simple AI Agent: YouTube Video Summarizer

Let’s say you want to build an AI agent that summarizes YouTube videos. Here’s how you’d do it:

1. Extract the transcript using SearchAPI.

2. Summarize it using OpenAI’s GPT-4.

3. Display the results—bullet points, a short paragraph, whatever you want.

That’s the core idea. No need to overcomplicate things. Start with the basics. Once it works, then you can add more—different summary styles, keyword extraction, timestamps. But first, get a simple version running.

2. How to Make AI Actually Work for You

1. Understand what you’re building: Before you ask AI to generate code, make sure you can explain (to yourself, at least) exactly what the AI agent should do. Don’t just say, “Summarize videos.” Break it down. First, get the transcript. Then, process it. Then, format the output. When you’re clear on each step, it’s easier to troubleshoot.

2. Build in small steps: Don’t try to generate everything at once. First, test whether you can pull the transcript. Once that works, move on to the summary. Then, tweak the formatting. One step at a time.

3. Read every AI-generated output before running it: Yes, AI can write code, but it’s not perfect. Sometimes it makes mistakes. Sometimes it adds unnecessary things. If you don’t read and understand what’s happening, you’ll waste time fixing avoidable errors.

4. Ask AI to explain the code: If you don’t understand something, don’t ignore it. Ask AI to explain it in plain language. The more you learn, the better you’ll get at tweaking and improving your AI agent later.

   

3. Live Example: Generating Code with AI

• Tool: VS Code with AINE extension.

  

Process:

1. AI asks clarifying questions before generating code.

2. AI writes a Python script to extract and summarize a YouTube transcript.

I want to create a python script that transforms YouTube videos into bullet point summaries.

Step 1: to extract the YouTube video transcript with the following API: import requests

url = "https://www.searchapi.io/api/v1/search" params = { "engine": "youtube", "q": "Fortnite", "api_key": "x8ekGM1CqwYsEYAcoPu17Ezv" }

response = requests.get(url, params=params) print(response.text)
Example response: 
{
  "search_metadata": {
    "id": "search_kQzy2PnvoBkZC7A83Yx0EK15",
    "status": "Success",
    "created_at": "2023-05-09T08:47:55Z",
    "processed_at": "2023-05-09T08:47:55Z",
    "request_time_taken": 1.97,
    "parsing_time_taken": 0.05,
    "total_time_taken": 2.01,
    "request_url": "https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Fortnite",
    "html_url": "https://www.searchapi.io/api/v1/searches/search_kQzy2PnvoBkZC7A83Yx0EK15.html",
    "json_url": "https://www.searchapi.io/api/v1/searches/search_kQzy2PnvoBkZC7A83Yx0EK15"
  },
  "search_parameters": {
    "engine": "youtube",
    "q": "Fortnite"
  },
  "search_information":{
    "total_results": 251993762
  },
  "ads": [
    {
      "position": 1,
      "id": "u3jp4wsPQXM",
      "title": "Best Zombie Mobile Game is on PC now.",
      "link": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3jp4wsPQXM",
      "description": "How long can you last in this zombie world?",
      "website": "https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?...",
      "channel": {
        "id": "UCSqc6ppsKEfSe_ivghzfozA",
        "title": "SOS",
        "link": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSqc6ppsKEfSe_ivghzfozA"
      },
      "length": "0:30",
      "extensions": ["Ad"],
      "thumbnail": "https://i2.ytimg.com/vi/u3jp4wsPQXM/0.jpg"
    }
  ],
  "videos": [
    {
      "position": 2,
      "id": "H4p6WAjiq60",
      "title": "The *FORCE* ONLY Challenge in Fortnite!",
      "link": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4p6WAjiq60",
      "description": "Fortnite Star Wars FORCE ONLY Chapter 4, Season 2 gameplay with Typical Gamer! SUBSCRIBE & CLICK THE BELL! Merch: ...",
      "views": "65,220 views",
      "extracted_views": 65220,
      "live": false,
      "channel": {
        "id": "UCqVCSWnuOSPm26orvNDTuWQ",
        "title": "TG Plays",
        "link": "https://www.youtube.com/@TGplays",
        "verified": "Verified",
        "thumbnail": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/ytc/AGIKgqNylx0sO2pv22NDr2m5bOiGSsuaDBfw8l_gJFmdjg=s68-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj"
      },
      "length": "20:08",
      "published_time": "4 hours ago",
      "extensions": ["New"],
      "thumbnail": {
        "static": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/H4p6WAjiq60/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEcCOgCEMoBSFXyq4qpAw4IARUAAIhCGAFwAcABBg==&rs=AOn4CLBhFqjSpc_swUk7evNZW2duyibpRw",
        "rich": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/H4p6WAjiq60/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEcCNAFEJQDSFXyq4qpAw4IARUAAIhCGAFwAcABBg==&rs=AOn4CLDsW8XfTdvm6H7_PZ2K78xzbz4d9g"
      }
    },
    ...
  ],
  "sections": [
    {
      "section_title": "Popular today",
      "position": 8,
      "items": [
        {
          "position": 1,
          "id": "D4zFFCv40gw",
          "title": "Fortnite Kids think Fortnite created Everything",
          "link": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4zFFCv40gw",
          "description": "Use Creator Code HEW #hewmoran #comedy #gaming click these links for cool things • Discord - https://discord.gg/hewmoran ...",
          "views": "11,000,253 views",
          "extracted_views": 11000253,
          "live": false,
          "channel": {
            "id": "UC59Ied2j88dZUw7PzJa2-YA",
            "title": "Hew Moran",
            "link": "https://www.youtube.com/@HewMoran",
            "verified": "Verified",
            "thumbnail": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/_W4q2lYQtRI-ioPsRD9VnChQBSv1WRiN5zFSnSJh2qAM3NUFOP-Od4_2fTPfaDbxzFWnYxJ0FWI=s68-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj"
          },
          "length": "0:24",
          "published_time": "6 days ago",
          "extensions": ["New", "4K"],
          "thumbnail": {
            "static": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/D4zFFCv40gw/hq720_2.jpg?sqp=-oaymwE2COgCEMoBSFXyq4qpAygIARUAAIhCGABwAcABBvABAfgBtgiAAoAPigIMCAAQARhcIFcoZTAP&rs=AOn4CLBcWNXYucSAZAZN95tLM_Z2T5Nz9g",
            "rich": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/D4zFFCv40gw/hq720_2.jpg?sqp=-oaymwE2CNAFEJQDSFXyq4qpAygIARUAAIhCGABwAcABBvABAfgBtgiAAoAPigIMCAAQARhcIFcoZTAP&rs=AOn4CLA7ZVJU6BUrNY3W33LPrWdzn5udxA"
          }
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "section_name": "Shorts",
      "position": 11,
      "items": [
        {
          "position": 1,
          "id": "ES4bcJuMKng",
          "title": "SUS EMOTES IN FORTNITE 😳",
          "link": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ES4bcJuMKng",
          "duration": " 56 seconds ",
          "views": "8.8M views",
          "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ES4bcJuMKng/oar2.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEaCJUDENAFSFXyq4qpAwwIARUAAIhCcAHAAQY=&rs=AOn4CLBGLoDCjJTJox_6Pi9kLQL33JDM0A"
        },
        ...
      ]
    },
    ...
  ],
  "company": {
    "id": "UCXzGWycANrrfyBmzX6JMsvQ",
    "title": "Fortnite",
    "subtitle": "Video game • Released: 2017",
    "link": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXzGWycANrrfyBmzX6JMsvQ",
    "highligted_video": {
      "id": "U82Olpfh45A",
      "title": "Find the Force - the Ultimate Star Wars Experience in Fortnite",
      "subtitle": "Epic Games • 7K views • 22 hours ago",
      "link": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U82Olpfh45A",
      "length": "0:34"
    },
    "videos": [
      {
        "id": "LH0K7NkhcfM",
        "title": "Fortnite Champion Series 2023 | Major 2 | Surge Week | N. America",
        "link": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH0K7NkhcfM&pp=ygUIRm9ydG5pdGU%3D",
        "length": "3:22:45",
        "channel": {
          "id": "UClG8odDC8TS6Zpqk9CGVQiQ",
          "title": "Fortnite",
          "link": "https://www.youtube.com/@fortnite"
        },
        "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LH0K7NkhcfM/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEcCOgCEMoBSFXyq4qpAw4IARUAAIhCGAFwAcABBg==&rs=AOn4CLDD7O1y5wbGf6SWaLxBxO_D2dkbgQ"
      },
      ...
    ]
  },
  "pagination": {
    "next_page_token": "SBSCAQstMk9wWVg3RGoyZ4IBC2pNU3BCUnBzdW44ggELR0FfT3c3dFJnR2OCAQtJOTVTazBQcHJ2UYIBC2FHMk1oN0FwaEZzggELaFVULXgxM3hlQnOCAQtXeE0zMHNvdWNRb4IBC290bmxVYXVoNVE0ggELOHNFZm9KXzQtWEmCAQthR0QwZlFGVTh1QYIBCzNnOVlucWJVY3BjggELTkl3Rmt4QllVQ0mCAQt5bVZnU0lxb2dNa4IBC25EcHc1U1hJMmNnggELOE5DdndvQVFJLUGCAQtSQmFCYjM0Mlh5OIIBCzR2OUQtekwydVc0ggELbVE0WllQRUN1MziCAQt3Z1FEeTZhZGd1RYIBC01OcW9SUE1YNElBsgEGCgQIHBAC6gECCAI%3D"
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}
Step 2: use OpenAI API to summarize the transcript with 'gpt-4o' model.

then print the output in the terminal.

3. The script runs—tested, working on the first try.

   

That’s it. No overthinking, no spending weeks learning Python. Just knowing how to ask the right questions and break things down.

4. Final Thoughts on Building AI Agents

It’s not about writing every line of code yourself. It’s about understanding what needs to be built and letting AI handle the heavy lifting.

• Get clear on what you want.

• Build it step by step.

• Make sure you understand how it works.

If you do that, you can build AI agents that actually do something useful—without getting lost in the technical details.

Step 3: Selling & Monetizing AI Agents

Building AI agents is one thing. Getting people to pay for them is another.

The truth? Most people don’t care how your AI works. They just want results. If an AI agent saves time, makes money, or removes an annoying task, people will pay for it. That’s the real selling point—not the tech, not the automation, just what it does for them.

There are two ways to make money from AI agents: selling them as a service or turning them into standalone tools.

1. Option 1: Sell AI Agents as a Service

The easiest way to start. Pick an automation system, package it as a service, and sell it.

I can take YouTube comment-handling AI agent—it organizes and replies to comments for creators as an example. Instead of selling it as a product, I offer it as a service. YouTube creators pay for engagement automation, not the AI itself.

This works for businesses that:

• Need AI automation but don’t want to set it up themselves.

• Want an ongoing service instead of a one-time tool.

• Value done-for-you solutions over DIY software.

Perfect for consultants, freelancers, and anyone offering AI-driven automation as a business.

2. Option 2: Turn AI Agents into Micro-SaaS Tools

If you don’t want to sell services, turn AI agents into tools people can buy.

Take YouTube Digest, an AI tool that summarizes videos. Instead of selling summaries manually, it’s a self-serve tool—people enter a link, and AI does the rest. Same with Promoter Kit, an AI-powered marketing tool.

This works if you want to:

• Sell AI tools at scale.

• Let users do everything themselves.

• Charge a subscription instead of one-time fees.

Micro-SaaS tools are harder to set up but more scalable than services.

3. How to Sell AI Agents (Without Running Ads)

People don’t buy AI agents just because they exist. You have to put them in front of the right people.

1. Social Listening – Go where people already talk about automation.

   • Reddit, Quora, X, LinkedIn.

   • Find conversations about AI and automation.

   • Join discussions and mention your tool naturally.

2. Cold Outreach – Message businesses directly.

   • Find companies that struggle with manual work.

   • Email or DM them with a solution, not just a sales pitch.

3. Content Marketing – Build an audience.

   • Share AI automation tips on Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium, YouTube.

   • Show behind-the-scenes of building AI agents.

   • Teach first, sell later. People buy from those they trust.

4. Before You Sell, Build More AI Agents

Your first AI agent might not be your best one. That’s normal.

Before charging money, build multiple AI agents. Test different use cases, get feedback, and figure out what people actually want.

5. Final Thoughts on Selling AI Agents

Most people overthink this. They build something, sit around, and wonder why nobody is buying.

The reality? Selling is about solving a problem, not just having a product.

• Find something people need.

• Package it as a service or a tool.

• Put it in front of the right audience.

That’s it. That’s how you make money with AI.

Bonus: Scaling AI Agent Businesses

Some people build AI agents and stop there. They sell a few, make some side income, and move on. Others turn them into full-scale businesses.

That’s the difference between someone making a few hundred dollars here and there and someone bringing in real revenue—without needing a team, without spending months on development.

Here’s how to scale.

1. Build AI Agents Into Micro-SaaS Without Code

People assume launching a SaaS product is complicated. It used to be. Now? You can build AI agents and turn them into Micro-SaaS tools with WordPress.

Why WordPress?

• Fast setup—You can go from idea to live product in a few hours.

• No coding required—Most things can be automated with plugins.

• Scalable—You can add more AI features as your business grows.

That’s exactly how tools like YouTube Digest and Promoter Kit work. They’re just AI agents—wrapped in a simple, user-friendly interface.

This is how you move from building AI agents for clients to selling AI agents as a product.

2. Automate Your Own Business With AI

The next step? Let AI agents run the business for you.

Here’s what AI can handle:

• Content creation—AI writes blog posts, tweets, and newsletters.

• Customer engagement—AI responds to emails, support tickets, and messages.

• Market research—AI scans trends, finds gaps, and spots opportunities.

This is where most people fall behind. They build AI agents but never think about using AI to scale their own operations. The goal isn’t just to sell AI agents. It’s to run a business where AI does the work for you.

3. Final Thoughts on Scaling AI Agents

Anyone can build AI agents. Not everyone knows how to turn them into something bigger.

Some people will keep selling AI agents one by one. Others will turn them into automated businesses that run 24/7.

The choice is yours.

Conclusion

Building AI agents is no longer a complex task reserved for experts. It’s practical, achievable, and if you’ve made it this far, you already see the possibilities.

The process is simple:

• Find an idea. Something people actually need.

• Build AI agents using tools that do the heavy lifting for you.

• Monetize and scale. Turn it into a service, a product, or a full-blown business.

Some build AI agents and stop. Others take it further—automating workflows, turning agents into Micro-SaaS, and letting AI run parts of their business.

So start small. Build AI agents that solve simple problems. Try a few ideas. Let AI assist you instead of overcomplicating things.

Because at the end of the day, this isn’t just about building AI agents. It’s about what happens when you stop waiting, start creating, and see where it takes you.

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