1. Create your agent

Sign up at Lindy (there's a free trial — you don't need a card to see if this fits you). You create an "agent" — think of it as hiring one employee with one job description.

2. Give it the email job first

Connect your inbox and write the job description in plain English. The prompt that works:

"Read incoming email. If it's routine (scheduling, confirmations, simple questions), draft a reply in my tone and hold it for my approval. If it needs my judgment, label it and include a one-line summary. Never send anything without my sign-off until I say otherwise."

That last sentence matters — start in approval mode, promote to autonomous later once you trust the drafts.

3. Add the calendar job

Second agent (or second skill on the first): connect your calendar, tell it your rules — "no meetings before 10, batch calls on Tuesday/Thursday, always keep Friday afternoon clear." Then forward any scheduling thread to it and stop playing email tennis.

4. Add the follow-up job

Give it your outstanding-asks list (or let it build one from sent mail). Rule: "If no reply in 3 business days, send a polite nudge. After the second nudge, put it on my needs-attention list."

5. The morning briefing

Wire the three jobs into one summary delivered before your day starts. This is the moment it stops feeling like software and starts feeling like staff.

Once the basics run, the same pattern extends anywhere: CRM updates, meeting prep dossiers, invoice chasing. Our free AI agents course walks through the full setup lesson by lesson, including the prompts that keep an agent reliable instead of overeager.

An AI butler is one ability. The full list — Jarvis's voice, Oracle's monitoring, Stark's self-building workshop — is here: 7 Superpowers You Can Actually Build With AI in 2026. If you want your Alfred to talk, pair it with an ElevenLabs voice via the Jarvis course.