The first 5 AI agents every indie hacker should build (instead of hiring)
If I were starting Jotform today, I wouldn’t hire a full-time employee first. I'd “hire” five AI agents.
Here’s exactly what I’d delegate to AI agents from Day 1, what stack I’d use, and where I’d still stay hands-on.
Agent 1: Email triage agent
Job: Automatically sort and respond to email so you only see what’s urgent and user-related.
Stack: Gmail, Zapier, OpenAI (GPT-4 API), Google Sheets (for canned replies, optional)
Setup:
Step 1: Set up my inbox to work with this system
- In Gmail, create a label called Priority
- Use Gmail filters to auto-archive obvious spam or newsletters ahead of time
Step 2: Create a Zap in Zapier (connected to Gmail)
- Trigger: New Email in Gmail
- Connect your Gmail account in Zapier
- Use a search filter like newer\_than:1d to only act on recent emails
- (Optional) Filter by inbox label or skip known promo folders
Step 3: Send the email to GPT for classification
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Action: Webhook → POST to OpenAI (or Claude, Gemini)
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Payload should include subject and body of the email
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Use a prompt like:
"You are an email triage assistant.
Read this email and return:
Type: [Customer, Bug, Sales, Spam, Other]
Urgency: [High, Medium, Low]
Suggested reply (if simple and direct)
Use this guide:
High: User can't log in, payment issue, angry complaint, urgent bug
Medium: Product question, unclear feature, request for demo
Low: Newsletter, cold pitch, FYI, low-effort sales email"
Step 4: Add logic in Zapier to route messages
- If Type = Customer or Bug AND Urgency = High → apply Priority label in Gmail
- Everything else: archive, or let it sit
- (Optional): If GPT returns a solid canned reply, match it with a message from Google Sheets and send auto-reply via Gmail
This agent ensures you only read what matters — everything else is handled or silent.
Agent 2: Support agent v0.1 (Pre-human)
Job: Responds to questions using your help docs, and forwards anything it can’t confidently handle.
Stack: Google Docs or Notion (for your FAQs), Jotform AI Agents or Chatbase, your website (for chatbot embed)
Setup:
Step 1: Write your most common support questions and answers
- In Google Docs or Notion, list 20–30 FAQs
- Keep answers short, clear, and link to help docs or relevant pages
Step 2: Build your support agent
- You can use Jotform AI Agents or Chatbase
- Upload your FAQ doc or paste content directly
- Customize tone, behavior, and fallback (e.g., collect email if it can’t answer)
Step 3: Add the agent to your site
- Copy the embed code
- Paste it into your site footer, contact page, or in-app widget
Step 4: Update weekly based on missed questions
- Review unanswered queries
- Add new content to your doc
- Retrain the agent as needed (Jotform and Chatbase both support re-training easily)
Support is one of the first things that breaks when you grow. This agent gives users instant help, while buying back your time.
Agent 3: Feedback analyzer agent
Job: Organize all the raw feedback you collect into patterns you can actually use — bugs, feature requests, confusion, and praise.
Stack: Jotform or Typeform, Zapier, Claude or OpenAI, Notion or Google Docs
Setup:
Step 1: Collect feedback from users
- Create a form titled “Got Feedback?” using Jotform or Typeform.
- Include fields like: Name (optional), feedback (open text), is this a bug or feature request? (toggle or dropdown)
- Embed it on your site, inside your app, or trigger it after cancellation.
Step 2: Create a Zap in Zapier
- Trigger: New Jotform submission
- Schedule: Every Friday, bundle all new responses
- Action: Send all responses to GPT (Claude, OpenAI, or Gemini)
- Example prompt: “Group the feedback into categories: Bug, Feature Request, Confusing UX, Praise. Summarize themes and how often each one appears.”
Step 3: Save the summary
- Append GPT’s summary to a Notion doc or Google Doc
- Optionally tag by date/week so you can track shifts over time
You now have an agent that gives you a weekly signal from raw feedback so you know what to prioritize next.
Agent 4: Cold Outreach Agent
Job: Writes short, personalized cold emails that sound human — and get responses.
Stack: Google Sheets, Zapier, GPT (OpenAI, Claude, or Gemini), Gmail or GMass
Setup:
Step 1: Build a lead list in Google Sheets
- Include: Name, Role, Company, Personalization Hook (e.g. something recent they posted or launched)
Step 2: Create a Zap in Zapier
- Trigger: New row in Google Sheets
- Action: Webhook → POST to GPT (OpenAI, Claude, or Gemini)
- Example prompt: “Write a 100-word cold email to \[Name\], a \[Role\] at \[Company\] from a solo founder offering help with \[Pain Point\]. Keep it short, specific, and friendly.”
Step 3: Send the email
- Use Zapier to connect Google Sheets to Gmail or GMass
- Set it to send one email per row — personalized from GPT’s output
- Include a delay (e.g. 1 per hour) to keep it human-scale
- Update the sheet with a “Contacted” date once sent
This agent automates the hardest part of outreach — personalization — without making it sound like a template.
Agent 5: Landing Page Insight Agent
Job: Review your landing page data weekly and surface 2–3 ways to improve conversion.
Stack: Google Analytics, Hotjar (or Microsoft Clarity), Zapier, Notion (or Google Docs), OpenAI (GPT-4 API) or Claude
Setup:
Step 1: Track behavior on your landing page
- Set up Google Analytics to track bounce rate, time on page, and exit rate
- Set up Hotjar or Clarity to record heatmaps and scroll depth
Step 2: Create a Zap in Zapier to run weekly
- Trigger: Every Friday at 10am
- Action 1: Pull metrics from Google Analytics
- Action 2: Add a link to the latest Hotjar heatmap report
- Action 3: Webhook → Send to GPT (OpenAI or Claude)
- Ask GPT to return: 2–3 specific recommendations to improve conversion, based on user behavior (scrolls, clicks, exits) and prioritized by impact and ease of implementation
Step 3: Store the recommendations
- Append GPT’s suggestions to a Notion doc or Google Doc
- Label each entry: Week, Page URL, Suggestions
- Optional: Add a column for “Tested? Yes/No”
Your landing page is your first impression. This agent gives you real data — not just guesses — on how to improve it.
What I wouldn’t delegate to AI agents (yet):
- Product design decisions: Still too nuanced. I need to feel the user’s pain myself.
- Early user interviews: Critical to hear the hesitation and emotion in their voice.
- Hiring my first human: Culture fit > efficiency. No shortcuts here.
- Writing code (early MVP): I still prefer to prototype manually.
Keep up the good work!
Love the AI agent ideas — super relevant for solo founders. Still, when it comes to clear and persuasive business writing, nothing beats human expertise. Try "Mombeing" website as I’ve found this service great for crafting proposals, emails, and landing copy that actually converts.
Hi Aytekin, this is an awesome breakdown of AI agents — super practical and actionable!
I’m building CompliAssistant, an AI-powered assistant focused on HIPAA compliance for SMB healthcare businesses. We’re automating complex compliance workflows and documentation to save teams tons of time and reduce risk.
Your idea of a Landing Page Insight Agent really resonates — data-driven improvements are game changers. Curious if you’ve experimented with AI-driven compliance or security tools in your projects? Would love to swap insights and share what’s worked for us in a highly regulated space.
Looking forward to learning more from you and the community!
Following! I’m also building something in AI, would love to exchange notes.
Thinking of building out #4 and #5 (would really help with outreach + using analytics daily, weekly, monthly, etc). I'm working on aicosts.ai which helps with tracking API costs and I think for each agent if you and/or anyone here implements them it would really help out with keeping track of costs / resource usage!
I've saw this post, I started my trial on Jotform, I upgraded and paid the annual plan due to the 50% offer. 2 hours later I started the refund request.
The pricing page is a TOTAL SCAM.
It says that paying you get Jotform brand removed. That's A HUGE LIE.
To all indie hackers out there: everyone of your user have to create a Jotform account to read their conversation history. It's not as the other 100% chat support out there. You have to create a Jotform account to see chat history.
I'm waiting for my money back. I lost time and energy with this.
Hey everyone. I am doing a short research project on how indie founders are using AI-powered creative tools to market and grow their products. If you are working on anything (apps, SaaS, games, or side projects), I would really appreciate chatting for 10 to 15 minutes about how you approach marketing, what tools you are using, and what challenges you run into. Totally casual, nothing formal. Thanks a lot in advance to anyone who is open.
Hey, love how you're thinking through this. Super practical breakdown!
I've been tackling something similar myself, especially around support automation. Full disclosure: Built a tool exactly for this called Quidget, which turns your existing docs or FAQs into a working AI assistant in under 3 mins with no manual setup.
A few big lessons I've learned along the way:
If you’re exploring setups or want to bounce around ideas for your support agent, I'm always up for a chat about what’s worked best.
Cheers again for the thoughtful breakdown—great stuff!
This post is gold. Super practical and easy to follow. The email triage and feedback analyzer setups especially made me go “why haven’t I done this already?” Definitely stealing those.
Also really liked the idea of the landing page insight agent. I’ve been noodling on something similar and ended up building a little tool called Kamili. It doesn’t use click data like Hotjar - more like a full-page audit that gives UX suggestions based on clarity and flow. Still early, but trying to make it useful for folks who want to spot issues before users even start clicking around.
If anyone tries it out, would love to hear if a Zapier integration would be useful!
Does the "Cold Outreach Agent" actually work? Does it create output good enough to not be obvious AI? Does it get responses? I've never been all that successful with cold email
Awesome post and couldn't agree more.
A forma esta em guia-los
This is one of the most actionable AI-for-indie-hackers guides I’ve read, thanks for breaking it down so clearly, Aytekin!
Your ‘5 agents before hiring’ framework nails the sweet spot between scalability and founder-led nuance. Two things stood out:
1️⃣ The ‘augmentation, not replacement’ philosophy: Automating repetitive work (email triage, support v0.1) while reserving human judgment for high-stakes areas (user interviews, product design) is exactly how solopreneurs should leverage AI. Most miss this balance.
2️⃣ Low-code stack choices: Using Zapier + GPT + Sheets demystifies AI agent-building for non-devs. The Feedback Analyzer Agent prompt is gold—I’ve already adapted it for my own user surveys.
One question: Have you noticed consistent pitfalls when training these agents? For example, the Cold Outreach Agent might occasionally generate generic replies despite personalization hooks. Do you use validation steps (e.g., human review for first 10 emails) or tweak prompts dynamically based on response rates?
P.S. The ‘What I wouldn’t delegate’ section deserves its own deep-dive. Future post, perhaps? ;)
What do you think about an AI agent creating post content for facebook and reddit?
I believe Meta just announce they will have an AI agent for doing that by the end of this year or the beginning of next. Should keep costs down and improve the scope of who is being targeted, so it is more relevant.
What do you think about an AI agent creating post content for LinkedIn?
I love this especially the landing page agent. Thank you for writing this app
This is gold. Most indie hackers think about hiring before delegating -- when these AI agents can take on real work today. Especially loved the Feedback Analyzer and Landing Page Insight agent setups—such practical use of LLMs + Zapier 🙌
Thanks so much for this. Definitely gonna give the Cold Outreach Agent a Trial!
Hey Julien, thanks for sharing this — it’s exactly the kind of grounded, real-world approach I needed to hear right now.
I'm getting ready to launch my own product (a TTS platform aimed at game devs and creators), and it's so easy to feel behind when you see others with massive followings or polished content engines. But this reminded me that clarity on the problem and a few focused conversations are more valuable than a viral thread.
Appreciate the part about leading with results and charging early — I needed that push. Curious how you decided when the product was “ready enough” to start showing to people?
Thanks again — and congrats on Linkeme.
this is a great roadmap for solopreneurs really trying to figure out how to get started with agents. thank you!