The unexpected things AI and automation will teach you

We asked our users: "Has AI or automating helped you do something you wouldn't have been able to do otherwise?"

This one's our favorite.

"Yes! I've learned to read a little coding; learned a lot about flowers; a LOT about myself — empathic abilities etc; what herbs to use when cooking different dishes; endless amounts of things I've learned."

Not "it saved me time on emails." Not "my calendar syncs better now." This is the kind of answer that makes us happy we asked.

IFTTT (If This Then That) connects your favorite apps and services so they work together automatically, and with the right automations, curiosity becomes a habit, and knowledge starts showing up on its own.

Most of us have a mental list of things we'd love to learn. Coding, maybe. Something about plants. A little more about ourselves. How to finally cook with herbs without Googling "what does thyme go with" every single time.

The list is long. The time is short. And the internet is both the solution and the problem.

The challenge: wanting to learn everything, having time for nothing

Sound familiar? There's no shortage of things to be curious about, it's the friction that gets in the way. Finding the right sources, remembering to check them, capturing the good stuff before it disappears into the void of tabs you'll "definitely read later."

This IFTTTer didn't try to overhaul their schedule or commit to a rigid learning routine. They just built a few small automations that kept feeding them information, consistently, without any extra effort. And slowly, all of it added up.

How they automated their learning with IFTTT

1. Coding: cracking the mystery, one summary at a time

Nobody becomes a developer overnight. But understanding the basics? Totally doable, especially when you're getting bite-sized explainers delivered straight to your inbox instead of having to seek them out.

Using IFTTT's AI Summarizer, new posts from coding RSS feeds: tutorials, breakdowns, beginner guides, get summarized and emailed automatically as they publish. No opening a new app, no remembering to check a blog. The learning comes to you, pre-digested and ready to actually absorb.

Pair that with saving articles to Instapaper, Feedly, or Raindrop.io, for later reading, and you've got a steady stream of knowledge without the overwhelm.

2. Flowers: going deep on something that actually brings joy

This is the underrated one. When you're genuinely curious about something, like, actually excited to learn, automation becomes a superpower. Each morning, a fresh flower fact appears in your notifications before you've even had coffee. And whenever a new post drops in your favorite plant subreddit, you're the first to know, whether it's a rare bloom ID, a care tip, or just someone very proud of their orchid. Just a growing library of exactly what you love, delivered to you.

3. Self-discovery: the kind of learning that actually sticks

This might be the most unexpected one, and the most powerful. Learning about yourself isn't something you can Google your way through. It takes reflection, consistency, and the habit of actually writing things down.

A daily Day One journal prompt, triggered automatically each evening. A reminder to check in with how you're feeling. Small, automated nudges that make self-reflection a regular part of the day rather than something you do once a year during a crisis.

Additionally, add a little cosmic guidance into the mix, and things get interesting. Your daily horoscope arrives as a push notification before the day even starts, and weekly one lands on the day of your choice to help you plan ahead.

Over time, patterns emerge. You start to notice things about yourself, things you might not have seen without the consistency of showing up every day.

4. Herbs and cooking: finally making sense of the spice rack

This one might be the most practical. Cooking with herbs is one of those things that feels intimidating until it suddenly isn't, and getting there is mostly just exposure. The trick is having the right information at the right moment, without having to go looking for it.

Type your ingredients into the Note widget and an AI-generated recipe lands in your inbox before you've even opened the fridge. Every Sunday morning, a full weekly meal plan: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a shopping list, arrives automatically. And a weekly digest of the top posts from r/EatCheapAndHealthy lands in your inbox every week, so you're always picking up something new without ever falling down a recipe rabbit hole.

Other top answers from our users

She wasn't the only one with a great answer. Here's what else came up when we asked.

"Yes — it transcribes work meetings and extrapolates action points. If I didn't use AI for this I'd just note down my own action points in a notebook during the meeting."

Anyone who's ever left a meeting with a half-page of scribbled notes and no clear idea what actually got decided will feel this one. AI meeting transcription doesn't just capture what was said, it pulls out the things that actually matter: who's doing what, and by when. Paired with IFTTT, those summaries get automatically emailed or posted to Slack, so everyone knows where things stand without having to piece it together after the fact.

"I set up an automation that monitors the weather so I am not watering my lawn in the rain."

Simple idea, genuinely great execution. Instead of checking the forecast every morning before deciding whether to water the garden, this user automated the whole thing. If rain is on the way, a notification shows up and it can show on your Google Calendar, and the lawn stays dry without you having to think about it. It's a small automation, but it's a perfect example of what IFTTT is really for: removing the tiny decisions that add up without you noticing.

10 popular AI automations to try next

The best part about automating your curiosity? There's always more to explore. Start with some of our most-loved AI Applets.

On top of our AI tools, we also have IFTTT MCP. You can connect it to AI assistants like Claude to create, edit, and run your automations through natural conversation. Check out the full guides here:

• What is IFTTT MCP?
• How to use IFTTT MCP with Claude

Learning is just curiosity on repeat

The secret isn't discipline. It's not waking up earlier or committing to a course you'll abandon by week three. It's just making it slightly easier for information to reach you, and slightly easier to hold onto it when it does.

IFTTT makes it simple: use already published Applets or create custom workflows in seconds. No coding required, unless, of course, that's exactly what you're trying to learn. Start a free trial of IFTTT Pro and start automating your learning today.