I Let AI Run My Business for 7 Days

I built automations with AI agents, stepped back, and watched my online business run itself. Here’s what failed, what scaled, and what shocked me.

I’ll now write a 4–5 minute Medium-style article (roughly 900–1,200 words), optimized for both readability and storytelling, while delivering authenticity, value, and engagement. The tone will be conversational, with a strong narrative, actionable insights, and a compelling CTA at the end. Let’s begin…

Spoiler: It didn’t crash and burn… but it didn’t quite thrive either. One week ago, I made a slightly reckless decision: I stepped back from manually running my small online business and let a team of AI agents take over.

Not a member? Read the full story here using my friend link. No, this isn’t a sci-fi headline. I actually did it. As someone who’s constantly experimenting with automation, AI workflows, and solopreneur hacks, I wanted to test the limits of delegation and find out just how much actual work AI can handle without a human babysitter.

I’d read about people building “AI agents” with tools like n8n, ChatGPT, and Zapier. I had already been using AI casually for writing copy, generating social media posts, and even responding to customer emails. But this was different. This was about letting go entirely for a full 7 days. Here’s what happened.

The Setup: My Business & AI Stack I run a small content-driven business. It earns through:

Selling digital templates and prompt packs (Gumroad)
Affiliate income via blog posts
Email list monetization

I planned to automate:

Daily content output (blog and tweets)
Email list growth
Lead magnet delivery
Basic customer support
Analytics and weekly reporting

The tools I used:

OpenAI + AutoGPT/AgentGPT: Generative writing & decision-making

n8n: Workflow automation hub

Zapier: Linking email list, Gumroad, and analytics

Tidio Chatbot: AI-powered customer support

Notion: Dashboard for all outputs

Google Sheets: Weekly KPI logs

I spent a full day setting up flows and testing agents. The rules were simple: no manual interference unless something broke. They were going to create content, publish, respond, and log everything.

Day 1–2: Surprisingly Smooth

To my shock, the AI agents didn’t crash. The blog posts were generated, proofread by GPT-4 (yes, it self-edited), then published via n8n to my Substack. Tweets were pulled from blog summaries and queued in Typefully. The lead magnet automation worked: when someone signed up, they got a sequence of three onboarding emails and a downloadable PDF, all written, formatted, and delivered by the AI. The chatbot handled 8 queries. Four were about the product. One was a refund request. It even handled that correctly (though kindly, I double-checked this one). I was impressed… and a little scared.

Day 3–5: Cracks Appear

The AI agents were efficient but not thoughtful. Here’s what started to slip:

Content Repetition: Blog posts started sounding too similar. It lacked real-world nuance and storytelling.
Social Media Flatlined: Tweets had zero engagement. They were technically correct but emotionally sterile.
Email Open Rates Dropped: Subject lines written by GPT weren’t punchy enough.

Also, a weird bug led to the chatbot offering a free product that didn’t exist. One user emailed saying, “Your bot promised me a bonus guide?” Yikes. The problem wasn’t functionality; it was judgment. AI doesn’t understand your audience; it mimics patterns. Subtle things like humor, empathy, or storytelling were absent. I jumped in briefly to adjust tone prompts and added a layer of sentiment analysis, but I felt the line blurring: when do I stop watching and start rewriting?

Day 6–7: Realizations & Results

By the final two days, I had a clearer picture of what AI could handle and what it couldn’t:

Revenue: Slightly down compared to the previous week (~9% drop). Engagement: Open and click rates dropped ~15%. Time Saved: Around 12–15 hours of manual work replaced.

What I Learned

AI Agents Are Excellent at “Doing” But Not at “Deciding” They’re fast executors. They don’t think like you. Your intuition, humor, and brand voice are still irreplaceable.
Great Inputs = Great Outputs The more context you feed your agents, the better they perform. I updated prompts mid-week and saw immediate improvement.
Don’t Let AI “Talk” Unsupervised for Too Long Things like customer service or sales copy need frequent human QA. Otherwise, one awkward message can hurt trust.
Use AI as a Force Multiplier, Not a Replacement The best blend was AI doing 80% and me refining the 20% that made it great.

What I’ll Keep Doing (and What I’ll Stop) Keep:

Letting AI handle blog formatting, tagging, internal linking
Weekly analytics reporting
Drafting first-pass copy for emails, tweets

Stop:

Letting AI handle tone-sensitive support
Publishing content without human eyes
Fully automating social captions

Final Thoughts

Letting AI run my business was both empowering and unsettling. It showed me how much can be automated but also reminded me why creators still matter. AI doesn’t replace creativity. It just accelerates what you already understand. If you delegate too much, you risk diluting the soul of your work. But if you strike the right balance? It’s like cloning your best self on a caffeine drip.

Read the full article here: https://medium.com/@tudellmikado/i-let-ai-run-my-business-for-7-days-a5aff9b8396a