Is AI automation actually a skill, or is it just a combination of other skills?

#33 · non-guru explains how he made $2.4m with AI automation

Is AI automation actually a skill, or is it just a combination of other skills?

No, I think AI automation is the concert of several skills. To be a very good automator you need strong attention to detail, which is a skill—not something you're born with. You also need good systems and process thinking. To be a good AI automation specialist you must understand business needs and problems. Many people enter this field from a technical side, deeply understanding systems and first‑principles thinking, but then they spend hours on tiny academic edge cases that businesses don’t care about. Businesses reward solving real problems, not perfect academic cases. So AI automation really is a blend of technical and business skills. I lean heavily toward the business side, which is why I make more money than many technically gifted people in my community. If you extend the idea to running an AI automation company, the owner needs some copywriting, video editing, ads, or SEO knowledge—being a jack of all trades is better than mastering just one. In short, an AI automation company’s value isn’t just in the automation itself; it’s in how the automation works with your business. You need a money‑generating process or flow first, then you add automation to speed it up. I discuss this in yesterday’s video.

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How does one even start to think like an automation developer? I can never come up with the ideas for automations on the spot.

Never say never. I've been in agencies for about 10 years — I got out of school and started a marketing agency, sent hundreds of proposals, talked to thousands of people, and basically seen the same business model pitched a thousand different ways. When you see something that many times, you start picking up on the trends. My recommendation: don't try to think like an automation developer, think like a business person in general. Every business is basically a pipeline: there's a customer, you pay some money to get that customer, your business adds value to what the customer wants (a project, knowledge, a product, whatever), and at the end you get a higher-quality thing you can charge more for. So there's a multiple on the value of the raw good versus the finished thing. That gives you three or four places to optimize right off the bat: lead gen and sales, fulfillment, and retention. Think of every business through that lens and the automation opportunities become obvious.

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Nick, I'm 18 and live in a country where small and medium‑sized businesses are far behind with AI and automation; they don't know Zapier or Make. Is it smart to build an automation agency here now to make money during the lag period and level up systems thinking before the window closes?

He says yes, it's smart to start an automation agency now to capture the lag, but you should focus on delivering strategic outcomes and consulting rather than just selling tools. You can still make money with tools, but the real value is in helping clients achieve business results. He also notes that if you're not making $10k/month yet, focus on reaching that income first, and that many traditional businesses (web design, clay pottery) still thrive, so it's not all black‑and‑white.

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What should I learn first to start with AI automations after my exams? Can you share a roadmap?

Sure. Just go to my Gumroad and download the 110-step roadmap to $25k a month with automation. It walks you through everything you need to know to get up and running with a basic AI automation agency—defining your niche, picking a business name, building five case studies, buying your main and tertiary domains, and so on. I usually have about 10 people going through it with me. Trust the man with the expensive light pole; check it out and let me know if you have any questions.

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youtube ↗AI & Automation

You said communicating with AI to solve business problems will be a highly leveraged skill, but since it's easy to learn, there will be lots of competition. What are your thoughts?

It's easy to get started with AI communication because the companies building these models intentionally make them accessible so anyone can get decent results without being a prompt engineering expert. However, the real advantage comes from skill: due to a power‑law relationship, improving your prompting ability from the 90th to the 99th percentile can roughly double the quality of the AI’s output. In other words, small gains in skill produce large gains in results. While the basics are simple, mastering AI prompting is hard, and because AI is a meta‑tool that enhances all other tools, becoming proficient at it makes you effective across many domains.

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