Edition #1: The Open Diary of an AI Marketer
My First AI Agent (And What I Learned Trying to Build One)
Hi there 👋
Welcome to the very first edition of The Open Diary of an AI Marketer — my raw, real-time notes on how AI is changing the marketing world, and how I’m learning to adapt with it.
I’m not here to act like an AI expert. I’m a marketer first. But like many of you, I’ve felt the shift—AI is becoming a co-pilot in everything from writing and design to campaign planning and analytics. And I don’t want to be left behind.
So instead of just reading about AI, I decided to build with it.
This newsletter is my open notebook. Every week, I’ll share what I’m experimenting with—tools I’m trying, prompts I’m playing with, agents I’m building, and lessons I’m learning.
What you’ll find here:
- Hands-on experiments with AI tools and agents
- Use cases specifically for marketers, freelancers, and creators
- Prompts, templates, and tips that actually work
- And the occasional failure or funny AI moment (because they’re inevitable)
Now, let’s get into what I built this week.
Why I Built an AI Agent for My Website
For a while now, I’ve been thinking:
"What if potential clients visiting my website could talk to a smart assistant instead of scrolling through static pages?"
As a freelance writer and content strategist, I get a lot of recurring questions—
What do you do? Who have you worked with? How can I work with you?
Sure, I could have just created an FAQ page. But in 2025, why not build something smarter?
So I decided to experiment with an AI chatbot—something simple that:
- Feels conversational
- Knows my background, services, and approach
- And can give visitors instant, helpful answers (even when I’m sleeping)
The real motivation?
I wanted to understand how AI agents work—not just as a user, but as someone building with them. I figured the best way to learn was to start with my own site.
My 3-Step Journey (And the Final Solution)
Asking ChatGPT for the Simplest Ideas
Before I dove in, I asked ChatGPT: “Give me the easiest ways to build my first AI agent.”
It gave me a few options perfect for beginners like me:
- Create a Custom GPT using ChatGPT (no coding required)
- Try Landbot for a no-code chatbot
- Use Chatbase to train an agent on your own data and embed it
That was enough to get me started. I didn’t want to build anything complex—just wanted to understand how AI agents work and how I could actually use one in my marketing stack.
1. Custom GPT on ChatGPT
I created a Custom GPT—basically a mini-AI trained on my portfolio info and FAQs.
I just asked ChatGPT to give me step-by-step instructions on how to build a custom GPT and created "Ask Charu"- An AI-powered chatbot to help anyone get details about me and my services.
It worked well, but there was a catch:
You can’t embed a custom GPT on your website unless you’re on the Pro plan (not just Plus). The only other way was through the OpenAI API… which felt like overkill for a first experiment.
2. Landbot (Not Quite It)
Next, I tried Landbot, a no-code chatbot builder. It was fast and visually intuitive. But there was no real AI—just rule-based flows. That’s fine for basic lead gen, but not for something that understands user queries.
So I moved on again.
3. Chatbase (Finally, It Clicked)
Then I found Chatbase—and this one worked.
It let me upload my own content (portfolio info, bio, services) and trained an AI agent to answer questions based on that data. Even better: it offers a free plan with one AI agent and an embeddable widget.
✨ It’s now live on my website—an AI-powered agent that introduces me, answers questions, and helps users explore my services in real-time.
What I Learned:
- Not all “AI chatbots” are truly AI-powered. Many are just rule-based bots with zero intelligence.
- Embedding matters more than building. It’s not enough to create something—you need to integrate it where it’s useful.
- Test in public. Don’t wait for perfect. Ship something scrappy and learn as you go.
Next week, I’ll share the prompts and training data I used to build this agent, plus how to train a chatbot to sound like you (not a robot).
Until then,
Stay curious 🚀
— Charu