Automating Repetitive Tasks with Small AI Scripts

Automation doesn’t have to mean building a giant system. A few small scripts can remove a surprising amount of friction from your day-to-day work.

This post focuses on practical, low-effort ways to use AI tools and APIs for boring but time-consuming tasks.

Good Candidates for Automation

Start with tasks that are:

• Repetitive
• Rule-based
• Low-risk if they fail
• Easy to test locally

Examples:

• Summarizing long documents
• Cleaning up CSV files
• Generating draft emails or changelogs
• Tagging issues based on content

A Simple Summarization Script

Here’s a basic Node.js script that sends text to an AI API and returns a summary.

import fetch from "node-fetch";

const API_KEY = process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY;

async function summarize(text) {
  const res = await fetch("https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions", {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "Authorization": `Bearer ${API_KEY}`,
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      model: "gpt-4.1-mini",
      messages: [{ role: "user", content: `Summarize this:\n\n${text}` }],
    }),
  });

  const data = await res.json();
  return data.choices[0].message.content;
}

const input = "Paste a long article or log output here...";
summarize(input).then(console.log);

This kind of script is easy to extend. You can:

• Read from files instead of hardcoded strings
• Pipe output into another tool
• Schedule it with cron

Automating File Cleanup

AI isn’t always needed. Combine basic scripts with AI when judgment or classification is involved.

A typical flow:

1. Scan a directory for files.
2. Send filenames or contents to an AI model.
3. Classify or rename based on the response.
4. Move or delete files automatically.

This works well for:

• Screenshot folders
• Download directories
• Log archives

Guardrails Matter

AI scripts can do damage if you’re not careful.

Add safety checks like:

• Dry-run mode
• Confirmation prompts
• Output validation
• Logging everything

Treat automation like a junior teammate. Assume it will mess up occasionally.

When Not to Automate

Not everything is worth scripting.

Avoid automating:

• Rare tasks
• High-risk operations without backups
• Processes that change often
• Workflows you don’t fully understand

Automation pays off when it saves you time consistently.

Final Thoughts

Small AI scripts are a low-cost way to reduce busywork. You don’t need a massive platform or deep ML skills to get value out of them.

Start tiny. Automate one annoying task. Then build from there.