Sultan_AI

Nosy researcher of AI Agents | Tedx Speaker | Co-founder of @digitaltrends

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

What is an automation you actually pay for?
A lot of automation tools float around promising to save time, but I’m curious about the ones people actually find worth paying for.

For example:

Some marketers swear by email drip automations.

Devs might pay for CI/CD pipelines or error monitoring.

Ops teams sometimes invest in invoice/payment automations.

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

@femke_plantinga I am diving into RAG world, thanks for the thread

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

@AndrewBolis the best illustration i have ever seen

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

Maybe automate this and forget?

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

@Python_Dv The orchestrator was always a challenge for me.

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

@n8n_io cool

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

@Hesamation @langchain Context engineering and MCP is the new space for me.

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

Saw this on X. AI receptionist that answers calls. What do you think about?

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

@langchain Thanks Langchain. Parsing websites is what I need the most right now.

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

@Selinaliyy Google pixel has that thing that I do not like. They renew their batteries and the old ones become weaker.

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

The myth of ‘AI will solve everything’ is dangerous.
AI won’t fix bad processes.
It just make them faster.
A broken customer journey + AI = angry customers at large scale.

Before you deploy an agent, ask Yourself:

Does this solve a real problem.
or just make my dashboard look cool?

I think in today's time there is two type of people: one is who use ai to get better and become more productive. They use ai as a tool and on the other hand their are some people who ignoring it and they have fear that ai will replace them or like ai can't do anything or like ai is a garbage but I think these people soon replaced by the one who use ai to maximize his output and increase productivity.

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

@NoahEpstein_ this is a must read

[Nozz @NoahEpstein_]

Been building in the AI automation space for 1 year. Yes I'm new, but that's exactly why you should listen, the mistakes are fresh and the lessons still sting.

Made every mistake possible. Lost money, burned clients, built trash that broke. Here's what I wish someone told me when I started.

The biggest lie is that technical skills matter most. They don't. I watched developers with 10 years experience fail while a hairdresser built a $30K/month agency. The difference? She understood business problems. They understood code. I fell for this trap hard - spent months deep in n8n tutorials thinking technical knowledge would equal sales. It doesn't.

Your first 10 automations will be garbage. Accept it. Mine were 200-node monsters that broke if someone typed their name wrong. Now? Most problems need 15 nodes max. Complexity is usually incompetence disguised as sophistication.

Pricing is where everyone fucks up. Stop charging hourly. Stop charging per project. The only sustainable model is value-based with recurring. If your automation saves them $10K/month, charge $2K/month. They're still up $8K. You get predictable revenue. Or hit them with a fat upfront fee then add monthly for usage and "maintenance" - whatever keeps cash flowing.

Client acquisition is stupidly simple once you understand one thing: businesses don't buy automation. They buy outcomes. "I'll automate your invoicing" loses to "I'll get you paid 15 days faster" every time.

The tools don't matter as much as you think. I've seen people make fortunes with Zapier, n8n, Make, or just Google Sheets and Apps Script. Pick one, understand it deeply, stop tool-hopping. The best automation is the one that actually gets built.

Your first client should be yourself. Automate your own business first. It's free practice, you understand the problem deeply, and you can show real results. My customer support bot and stock tracking system for my ecom brand became my first proper build and first $6K invoice because I had real data proving it worked.

Error handling will make or break you. Every automation needs to assume users are drunk, data is wrong, and APIs will fail. Build for chaos. Your 3am self will thank you when nothing breaks.

Niches print money but not how gurus tell you. Don't pick "dentists" or "lawyers". Pick "dental practices losing patients to no-shows" or "immigration lawyers drowning in paperwork". Specific problems, not broad industries.

Maintenance isn't optional. Budget 20% of your time for keeping things running. Charge for it. Position it as insurance, not a burden. "For $500/month, you never think about this again" sells itself.

The best automations are boring. Invoice processing, lead routing, appointment booking. The stuff nobody wants to do manually. Stop trying to build AI-powered revolutionary solutions. Build things that save 2 hours a day.

Competition is irrelevant if you understand this: every business has unique stupidity. What works for one company is useless for another. There are 30 million small businesses. You need 10 clients. Do the math.

Learning resources are mostly worthless. YouTube tutorials teach you to build demos, not production systems. The only way to learn is to build real things for real businesses with real consequences.

Your imposter syndrome is justified. You don't know enough. Neither does anyone else. The difference between you and successful builders is they started anyway. Perfect knowledge doesn't exist. Good enough does.

Most valuable skill isn't technical. It's translating between business and tech. CEOs don't care about webhooks. They care about results. Learn to speak money, not modules.

The market is so big it's stupid. Every pizza shop, dentist, accountant, and lawn care company runs on manual processes. While you're reading this, someone just charged $8K to automate appointment reminders. Could've been you.

Final reality: this is the easiest time in history to build a profitable automation business. Tools are accessible, businesses are desperate, and most consultants are overpriced dinosaurs. You don't need permission, funding, or a computer science degree. You need to start.

Stop consuming, start building. Your first automation will suck. Your tenth will be decent. Your fiftieth will print money. But only if there's a first.

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

@PythonPr on point

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

@dashboardlim AI Assistant

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

@SeroneyAi I guess the first one is the best.

I have tried the second option, but it created more problems

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

Do you build automations on your agency or clients software?

I was wondering whether you guys typically build out agents and automations using your clients accounts or whether you use your own businesses accounts to create and run automations?

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

@EXM7777 many use claude now.

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

@aiwithlady Steal

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

@godofprompt @OpenAI fire tool

[Sultan_AI @Sultan_The_AI]

@_avichawla great illustration. me as a beginner in MCP can understand. thanks