Automate a day job as an automation engineer
From the linked report, the poster had Claude write a Python script for a contracting job that pulls information from websites, because doing it manually was too time consuming. They use Claude as the decision-maker around that code: they tell it to start, it runs the workflow and returns the finished work, and the human mainly supplies the field expertise about where to look and submits the result. The poster says it now covers what had been a 40-hour-a-week job and that their own involvement is down to about 10 minutes.
- Agent or tool
- Claude
- Topic
- Research & Data
- Reported on
- Added
- 2026-10-15
Why it matters
Research is mostly gathering, cleaning and comparing. Handing that groundwork to an agent leaves the person with the part that needs judgment: deciding what the findings mean. It is one of 67 sightings filed under Research & Data on Agent Sightings (number 41 by interest), and one of 91 involving Claude.
How you could try it
Here is a reusable prompt, written by us in our own words, that captures the task. Paste it into Claude or any similar agent and adjust the details to your situation.
Research brief: automate a day job as an automation engineer. Prefer primary sources, include links and confidence notes, and do not contact anyone.
Tip: Start small: run it once on a low-stakes example, read what the agent did, and only then let it run on real work.
Source
Read the original first-hand account on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1uszlay/how_claude_does_my_40_hour_a…. Our summary is a paraphrase; details are in the source.