Halfway through a first draft of a post about the importance of verifying every response you receive from generative AI, I checked my inbox. In a flash, my world flipped upside down. Down the rabbit hole I tumbled.

When I came out the other side, I had made and deployed a winter weather agent with nothing more than an idea and Claude Code. A ChatGPT project that stalled last year went from initialization to deployment in about an hour!

How’d you spend your Sunday afternoon?

Back The Bus Up

What did I find in the inbox?

Nothing more than a spark to light the powder which has been piling up for a few months.

Last October, I wrote about artificial intelligence agents. That post helped me better understand the difference between Gems, Custom GPTs, and Claude Projects and truly autonomous agents.

The former are deterministic tools. A person sets up parameters, writes instructions, then triggers a response when needed.

When a Gem, GPT, or Project isn’t being used, thouh, it’s sitting there waiting for a user. They’re kind of like remote controls for a Smart TV.

Autonomous agents, however, are a different breed altogether. Instead of sitting idly until used, agents can be always on. They can use tools, gather and analyze data. They can make decisions about what’s collected then act to improve their outputs based on how they perceives their environment.

I’ve wanted to make my autonomous true agent for a while but thought I lacked the know-how to do it. I took a run at it between Christmas and New Year with ChatGPT, but we quickly got bogged down in a back and forth chat and then I gave up when I hit some roadblocks.

And then the sparks started.

This Changes Everything

Last week, I listened raptly as Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput unpacked, on Episode 189 of The Artificial Intelligence Show, what happened between Christmas and New Year. In a nutshell, news of Claude Opus 4.5, which is a model Anthropic released in late November, exploded:

“…it just feels like a weird tipping point in using at least Opus 4.5 specifically for some of the knowledge work and complex documents and strategies I’ve been working on, especially over break…. I think the models are all within, what, three to six months of each other. So this isn’t even like an Opus 4.5 like promotion here. It’s this idea that something feels like it changed a little bit…”

The visceral excitement in Paul’s voice got me amped to check in with people in the RISE Community. And, yes, my RISE friends were also buzzing about Opus 4.5.

But it was a busy week. Five full days of work. Client work in the evenings. A head cold peeking around the corner. When could I get a moment to take a run at the agent?

Then I checked my inbox. A long-time friend in the financial sector had sent me a whitepaper about the exact same topic the podcast hosts discussed, and I knew the time had arrived.

So I/we made an agent.

It’s Alive

With Claude Code, I made a Winter Weather Agent that checks the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast and observed conditions at Harrisburg International Airport every six hours, looks out three days for winter weather, and sends me an email report. It also stores every forecast and observation and will, over time, adjust the forecast based on the degree of accuracy of prior NWS forecasts.

To make this, I opened Claude Code and typed. I conjured the agent from strings of text and an idea.

I described what the agent should do, how it should work, the outputs, etcetera. And then I worked with Claude to gather myriad bits of information, to sign in to a hosting platform, and worked alongside it as it revised code, tested it, then uploaded everything to the server.

Yes, I did do a little work on the command line in the Terminal app on my Macbook, but even there Claude guided me with what to type and how to proceed.

The only limiting factors were my imagination and a sniggling issue with being able to send emails. That should be cleared up in a few hours, and I’ll be up and running.

I’m bouncing in my seat just thinking about what is now possible. To be able to go from an idea to a finished product in an afternoon blows me away.

And you can do the same thing.

What Could YOU Build?

Think about the repetitive tasks in your life or business:

• Track competitor prices or market trends
• Monitor local news for your business mentions
• Review bank account statements for fluctuations or errors
• Summarize industry newsletters you never have time to read
• Flag unusual activity in your business accounts

If my weather agent can learn how to improve forecasts based on how accurate prior forecasts were, what could an agent do for your specific needs? The limiting factors aren’t technical anymore; they’re only in your imagination.

You don’t even need to worry about code or any technical limitations which might be whirring through your head at the moment. I didn’t. I simply stepped through a chat one prompt at a time. And I solved one puzzle then another to get the idea out of my head and into reality.

The key unlock is not the “how.” It’s all about how I went from “can I” to “holy crap it works” in an afternoon, and you can too.

Why You Should Care

If you are in the workforce and you have been sitting on the AI sidelines because you didn’t think this would be something you’d need to worry about, that time has passed.

The pace of AI change is accelerating. This latest pivot with Opus 4.5 won’t be the last one, and nobody knows what the impact will be to workers next month, next week, or next year, so prepare now.

If you don’t want to go it alone, I’m here to help. Sign up now for my personalized, one-on-one four-week personal AI course. I’m opening three slots at introductory pricing right now.

In four weeks, you’ll go from “I don’t know where to start” to “I built something that actually helps me.” So book your free 30-minute orientation session before you finish this article.

This is not a one-size-fits-all training. Instead, it’s customized to your unique abilities, challenges and goals.

My AI Trainer course is for:

• Professionals who want to use AI but don’t know where to start
• Small business owners looking for practical, time-saving applications
• Anyone who’s overwhelmed by AI headlines and wants clarity

You don’t need to want to make an agent for this course to be of value. My agent is only an example of what is possible when you shift your mindset from thinking about AI as a mysterious black box to considering it a workmate which will sit alongside you helping you think through every challenge you can pose.

Or, as I described in a post 11 months ago, set up an account with Claude, Gemini, or ChatGPT and start working with artificial intelligence. Give it a problem you haven’t been able to figure out, and ask it to help you solve it. Brainstorm with it. Get comfortable interacting with the technology.

Because you never truly know when you’re going to tumble down your own personal rabbit hole.