# AI assistants can help with tasks people avoid

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/ai-assistants-can-help-with-tasks-people-avoid/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Shaan Puri](https://realalpha.app/people/shaan-puri/) · Co-host, My First Million · Sold Bebo to Twitch in 2019; co-founded the crypto newsletter Milk Road.
- Host: [Chris Williamson](https://realalpha.app/people/chris-williamson/) · Host, Modern Wisdom
- Show: Modern Wisdom
- Episode: [Crypto Scams, Dopamine Websites, Tasteful Slop & Vape Shop Energy - Rabbit Hole #6](https://realalpha.app/v/n9NhSWUrm38/), Oct 26, 2026
- Moment: 1:54:10 to 2:00:11 of the episode (6 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/ai-assistants-can-help-with-tasks-people-avoid/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/n9NhSWUrm38/?t=6850

## Quote

> “And then it comes back two minutes later. It's like, yeah, you actually owed $2,000. Would you like me to **file the claim**?”
> — [Shaan Puri](https://realalpha.app/people/shaan-puri/) at [1:55:53](https://realalpha.app/v/n9NhSWUrm38/?t=6953) · Modern Wisdom

## Takeaways

1. An assistant can search for refunds and offer to file a claim.
2. Calendar and event context can make help feel timely.
3. A nonjudgmental assistant may help with tasks people put off.

## About this segment

Shaan Puri shares examples of assistants finding money owed, handling logistics and checking in after an event. Small, low-friction acts can make the tools feel genuinely useful.

From “Crypto Scams, Dopamine Websites, Tasteful Slop & Vape Shop Energy - Rabbit Hole #6”, Oct 26, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/n9NhSWUrm38/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[1:54:18](https://realalpha.app/v/n9NhSWUrm38/?t=6858) tool ai stuff that came to my head like the uh the last couple weeks with us like muse rollout stuff like what does everybody need an agent for when when like you're running and and like building things every day and you're still running out of use cases i think i changed my mind on how useful people are finding that stuff it's not like i changed my mind but it yeah it just turned out to be true that people are finding incredible utility from this stuff i've not paid attention much to the muse stuff is it is it that a lot more people are using a facebook built agent tool that connects to your instagram or whatever else and like instantly instantly looks at your email and it's like okay you could be doing this this and this did you know you've been paying for these subscriptions this long and you could you could like cancel this thing you can enter this giveaway you can

[1:55:05](https://realalpha.app/v/n9NhSWUrm38/?t=6905) and i've got friends that are like messaging me about like this thing just did like all of these amazing things for me and my my you know my technology bias from two months ago i'll be like oh this is just like nobody's gonna find a use case for this and they just the the crocs the croc uh presentation turned out to be legit don't doubt an asian guy with a mullet dude that's the lesson but yeah i mean i've been i was a i was a pessimist on uh like how useful that would be you know one interesting thing about that i gave it to my wife and my wife's not really like an early adopter but tech you know if i tell her to download what to her the uh like not muse but instincts it's like the same thing it's like instincts like the hot like startup version of this and then facebook's trying to do it's like back when snapchat came out and facebook was

[1:55:49](https://realalpha.app/v/n9NhSWUrm38/?t=6949) trying to copy it and so i gave her access and i was like hey just use this like it's an assistant I can do anything. Watch. Just like, tell it to go ask if the state of California owes you any money. And then it comes back two minutes later. It's like, yeah, you actually owed $2,000. Would you like me to file the claim? And it'll just get a check mailed to you. And she's like, yes. So it's like, I'm just trying to show her.

[1:56:10](https://realalpha.app/v/n9NhSWUrm38/?t=6970) I'm like, watch this. And that actually works? Yeah, yeah. Everybody should do that. It's an auto prompt. You should just, that should be the onboarding. It's like, just ask this question because almost all of us are owed money in some back way. What was she owed from? It'll be like a tax date refund. it'll be like a franchise board thing it'll be you know so you have to load files in and can do no you literally just say log in with gmail and it'll just rip through or it'll just take your name and it'll go search in the databases and it'll just look up like oh yeah you can do this this is fucking insane so that's like an easy one but like you know i was like oh watch this like you keep asking me all these bullshit questions just ask this like uh hey what time is the soccer game on sunday and where is it we're gonna have time to go from there to there between it's like

[1:56:49](https://realalpha.app/v/n9NhSWUrm38/?t=7009) well yeah it has your calendar it knows exactly what the soccer game is going to tell you and then it's going to actually recommend like that morning it'll be like don't forget to pack the red jerseys because soccer today we're away you know it's like shit like that so we did our like it helped my wife plan uh my daughter's birthday party and then so i was trying to like sell her on the utility i'm like look how useful this is try this try this try this she's liking it and then uh after the birthday party she goes okay i'm blown away i go what it helped you plan it she goes no look and instinct had texted her um how was the birthday party i hope it was awesome with like a heart emoji and i was like and she's like that's amazing like so thoughtful and i was like oh shit that's gonna be a whole other dimension to this like the

[1:57:30](https://realalpha.app/v/n9NhSWUrm38/?t=7050) supportive boyfriend dna that none of us who are building this shit think about really at all but the people who do it makes a big difference to check in and be like like i have a friend who's gave it to their mother-in-law and they connected like their bank account and everything because they're like this is awesome it could do so much and they connect a bank that had zero dollars in the like checking account and um it just goes it's okay i like and it just gave her like a little pep talk it's like i don't it's okay like i that's okay no problem like you know blah blah blah and she was like i love this i really love this this is actually like what is actually like a no judgment always always there people don't people don't do hard things because you don't you have to face somebody that you don't know to talk about that's a great point yeah you're

[1:58:14](https://realalpha.app/v/n9NhSWUrm38/?t=7094) facing the things that you're ashamed of or those kinds of like bills and things i didn't do this form right it also goes to show just how low the bar is for being a good friend that's true right that something that all of us agree hallucinates and can randomly break out into Mandarin during a conversation with Piers Morgan or whatever, like there's lots of flaws in this and it's hardly like super duper and, you know, emotionally tuned in, is able to do something that emotionally lots of people feel is lacking in their life. It's like, holy fuck. Like maybe it wasn't that we need to be able to automate managing your calendar. It's just that not enough people say you've done a good job today mate and giving you a pat on the back even if it's digitally that's like yeah that's kind of sad but also i guess kind of great do you know shane mack yeah

[1:59:06](https://realalpha.app/v/n9NhSWUrm38/?t=7146) he started a company years ago he started a company years ago based on um something he did for his employees at the time which was like i think they had a great year or something he wanted to like give bonuses to everybody like what do i get them and he got everybody an assistant right So he'd get like 10 assistants and like have them like split across the staff. And it's like, it's like the best response to anything I ever, ever did for my employees.

[1:59:33](https://realalpha.app/v/n9NhSWUrm38/?t=7173) And then he ended up founding a company off that, which was, um, uh, military spouses as assistants. So it's still going to be deployed. Wife is here. Wants something to do from home, part-time military wife assistants. Yeah. It's a, it's a great, presumably as well, like squared away. I think a fucking operator, like a serious operator too. like you're not going to be in a relationship with a guy that flies fighter jets right and not be like competent at home yeah exactly yeah like it's so good like derivative military, like just military adjacent people are better than most normal humans at trying to get