Getting Started with AI Assistants
How I built my own personal AI assistant that runs 24/7 and helps me stay organized.
I've always been fascinated by the idea of having a personal AI assistant—something that could help me stay organized, automate tedious tasks, and act as a second brain. After exploring various options, I decided to build my own using Claude AI and some custom integrations.
Why Build Your Own?
While there are plenty of AI assistants available (Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant), none of them offered the level of customization and control I wanted. I needed something that could:
- Run 24/7 on my own infrastructure
- Integrate with my specific tools and workflows
- Access my private data without sending it to third parties
- Be customized exactly to my needs
The Stack
Here's what I used to build this:
- Claude AI - The brain of the operation
- Node.js - Backend runtime
- Telegram/WhatsApp - Communication interface
- Docker - Containerization for security
- Raspberry Pi - Always-on hosting (optional)
Key Features
Scheduled Tasks
The assistant can run recurring tasks on a schedule. For example, I have it check specific subreddits twice daily for interesting deals and send me notifications when something good pops up.
News Digests
Every morning at 8 AM, I get a curated digest of tech and crypto news from Hacker News, Reddit, and other sources. It's filtered to show only high-signal content that I actually care about.
Note Summarization
I take a lot of notes throughout the week in Obsidian. The assistant can summarize these notes and help me turn them into blog posts or identify patterns in my thinking.
What I Learned
Building this project taught me a lot about AI integration, system design, and automation. The key insight: start simple and iterate. Don't try to build everything at once.
I started with just basic message handling and gradually added features as I identified needs. This incremental approach made the project manageable and kept me motivated.
Next Steps
I'm planning to add more integrations:
- Gmail integration for email management
- Calendar sync for scheduling
- Web scraping for competitive research
- Voice note transcription
If you're interested in building your own AI assistant, I highly recommend starting with a simple use case and expanding from there. The future of personal AI is exciting, and there's never been a better time to experiment.
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." - Alan Kay
Feel free to reach out if you have questions about the setup or want to discuss AI assistants in general!