According to Fast Company, AI expert and writer Alexandra Samuel, who contributes to The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review, employs AI in deeply unconventional ways. She has created more than 200 personal automation scripts to streamline her workflow and built a comprehensive personal idea database that assists in drafting targeted pitch emails. Perhaps her most surprising tactic is using the AI music generator Suno to produce songs that explain complex topics, a method she shared during a recent visit to New York from her home in Vancouver. Her approach, detailed in a Wondertools Substack post, is all about pushing AI beyond predictable, bland outputs to achieve bolder, more personalized results that challenge assumptions.
Beyond the Basic Bot
Here’s the thing: most of our AI interactions are painfully transactional. We ask for a summary, a rewrite, maybe some code. What Alexandra Samuel is doing feels different—it’s about system building. Creating 200-plus automations isn’t just using AI; it’s making AI the plumbing for your entire digital life. And that personal idea database? That’s a killer app most people haven’t even considered. It turns your scattered thoughts into a structured, queryable asset. Basically, she’s not just asking a bot for help; she’s built a team of silent, automated interns.
The Music of Explanation
Now, the Suno example is where it gets really interesting. Using AI to generate a song to explain something complex is a brilliant end-run around our normal comprehension limits. We process information differently when it’s set to music—rhythm and melody can make sticky what dry text cannot. Is it a gimmick? Maybe sometimes. But it’s also a fundamentally creative repurposing of a tool most people use for novelty dance tracks. It makes you wonder: what other sensory channels could we use AI to tap into for understanding?
The Boldness Payoff
The core argument, which I think is spot-on, is that we get bland results because we make bland requests. We use the default prompts and stick to the known paths. Samuel’s work, which you can explore more on her website, shows that the real leverage comes from treating AI as a co-conspirator in your weirdest, most specific projects. The automation scripts handle the grunt work, the database captures the lightning bolts of insight, and the music generator communicates in a totally new language. So the question isn’t really “what can AI do?” It’s “what unique, personal system can I build with it that nobody else would think of?” That’s where the magic is.
