The Muse and Hark apps right next to each other on my phone

I've been playing around with personal assistant apps like Muse and Hark - I've heard they can do a lot, but I wanted to see it for myself.

So I did, and now I'm hooked. They do way more than just writing.

Here are some of the most valuable use cases I've tried out (so far):

Hark canceled 5 subscriptions, saving me $872/year, and a $22 refund.
Hark paused my lawn care service ($1,163 so far this year)
I gave Hark access to my Rocket Money, where I plug in all my accounts. I ask it how much I've spent on things like Amazon or at a certain store. It highlighted overlaps in subscriptions and bills (e.g., better ways to bundle my insurance policies). I will say it wanted to negotiate down my t-mobile bill but struggled with logins, so now my account is locked for 24 hours.
Muse searched for restaurants and booked a reservation for a date night.
Muse analyzed my 7k Linkedin connections to find intros into key accounts.

Bonus use case: image generation. I needed a very specific icon that I used to pay $125 per icon to a talented designer to come up with the idea and create it in illustrator.

I tried Nano Banana, Recraft, Claude, Grok Imagine, and ChatGPT. ChatGPT did the best because it could actually produce a clean transparent PNG file. Recraft and Nano Banana were useless.

Now, part of my morning routine is I share my top 3 goals for the day and see what they come up with.

I want to get more ambitious. Here's what's next on my list:

Migrate email marketing software. I currently pay for two email service providers. I want Hark to own completely porting one of my email subscriptions over to another provider. It's not simple - there are multiple businesses, many lists, active forms and popups. So it's not a simple export import process. It's a rip and replace.
Rebuild daveschools.com
Since Muse integrates with Meta, I want to experiment with posting to IG, Facebook, and Threads
Automate sending DMs through Linkedin

There is a ton of software (and my time) that simply isn't needed anymore when an AI assistant can just do things for you.

An analogy for this paradigm shift I want you to take away from this.

Before, when an idea came to mind, you would reflexively jot it down on a to-do list. You'd make a note. Write it on the fridge. Set a reminder. Slack yourself. Schedule an email. Whatever your preferred method. For keeping track of things you want/need to do. Tasks like book a babysitter and movie tickets, audit your personal finances and cut costs, send key emails and respond to messages, post something on social, plan out a trip. You get the point. We all have a ton of stuff on our lists.

Here's the shift.

Now, instead of making a note or reminder, you text your AI assistant, who has its own computer, the logins, and the tools to complete the tasks for you. Just chat with it back and forth and in a minute it's done.

This is the crazy part.

The same amount of time it takes to simply write a to-do down, is the same time it takes to just get the actual whole thing done.

Example: going grocery shopping.

Typically, you'd write a list of items, then get in the car and drive to the store, shop, and return home, stock the pantry and fridge. Now you write the list to your AI assistant, and it orders it for you and has it delivered to your door.

Getting it all done, took about as long as writing the list down. And you were able to do something with your time, like play with your kids, exercise, read, or get work done.

That's where this is going.

Action at the speed of chat.

Get it done, but outsource it simply by texting your assistant.

PS. So all told, I saved $2,182 chatting for a few total minutes with Hark and Muse.

PSS. Yes, I used Hark to publish this blog post. I wrote it in my Apple Notes and published it from my phone.