🎙️ How I AI: Gemini Omni: Clone yourself with AI in under 15 minutes & Shopping with Claude
Your weekly listens from How I AI, part of the Lenny’s Podcast Network
Gemini Omni: Clone yourself with AI in under 15 minutes
Listen now on YouTube • Spotify • Apple Podcasts
Brought to you by:
Merge—Connective infrastructure for production AI
Jira Product Discovery—Prioritize with insights, build with confidence
In this solo episode, Claire puts Google Flow and Gemini Omni to the test by cloning herself into an AI avatar and using it to build a full hype reel in about 15 minutes. She walks through the whole workflow live: scanning her face, generating scenes, troubleshooting weird outputs, stitching the video together, and reacting to the very real uncanny-valley moments along the way. It’s part tutorial, part tech demo, and part “wait, this is already possible?” glimpse into how AI video tools are making high-quality creative production accessible to anyone with an idea and a laptop.
Biggest takeaways:
AI video tools are unlocking creative capabilities for non-video professionals. Claire, who describes herself as “creative, but not video-creative,” was able to produce a complete one-minute hype video without any prior video production experience. The entire process—from creating an avatar to final video—took roughly 15 minutes, demonstrating how these tools democratize creative work that previously required specialized skills and expensive equipment.
AI can serve as a creative collaborator, not just a tool. Rather than just generating videos, Google Veo acted as a creative partner, helping Claire brainstorm scenes, develop a storyboard, and think through the overall narrative arc. The AI asked clarifying questions about setting, tone, and style, then proposed a seven-scene structure that Claire could refine and execute.
Character consistency remains a major challenge in AI video generation. Throughout the generated videos, Claire’s avatar appeared with different hair lengths, varying backgrounds (some with books, some with plants, different wall colors), and inconsistent environmental details. While the AI pulled some accurate elements from her original photos (like posters in the background), it couldn’t maintain perfect consistency across scenes.
Emotional expression is still a weak point for AI avatars. While some scenes looked remarkably realistic—particularly side profiles and serious expressions—scenes requiring emotion fell flat. Claire described one laughing scene as “100% uncanny valley,” noting she looked like she was “on some kind of medication perhaps.” The technology hasn’t quite mastered the subtle muscle movements that make human expressions feel authentic.
The workflow from idea to finished video is remarkably fast. The entire process included creating the avatar (a few minutes), brainstorming with AI (a few minutes), generating seven video scenes (several minutes total), and stitching them together in the built-in editor (about five minutes). What would have traditionally required a production team, studio time, and significant budget happened in a single session at a desk.
Blog and detailed workflow walkthroughs from this episode:
How I Built an AI Avatar and Hype Video in 15 Minutes with Google Flow: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/ai-avatar-video-in-15-minutes-with-google-omni-flow
↳ How to Create a Promotional Video with an AI Creative Director: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/workflows/how-to-create-a-promotional-video-with-an-ai-creative-director
↳ How to Create a Personalized AI Avatar with Google Flow: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/workflows/how-to-create-a-personalized-ai-avatar-with-google-flow
Shopping with Claude: How to find quality brands, automate returns, and buy things that last 100 years | Nicole Ruiz
Listen now on YouTube • Spotify • Apple Podcasts
Brought to you by:
Nicole Ruiz has built a Claude-powered shopping system to help her family buy fewer, better things—and avoid the endless noise of Amazon, drop-shippers, and low-quality brands. In this episode, she shares how she uses Claude Projects to vet every household purchase against criteria like craftsmanship, materials, brand history, and return policies, plus how she uses Claude Cowork to make returns faster when something doesn’t hold up. It’s a practical look at how AI can reduce decision fatigue, surface higher-quality products, and help busy parents spend less time managing stuff.
Biggest takeaways:
The modern internet shopping experience is broken for people who want quality over convenience. Between paid ads, drop-shipping brands, and knockoff products on Amazon, it’s incredibly difficult to find thoughtfully made items that will last for years. Nicole’s solution: build a Claude Project that holds all her purchasing criteria and trusted brands in one place, so she never has to start from scratch.
Keep a running list of brands you trust, and let AI search through them for you. Nicole maintains a list of shops with decades of history, strong return policies, and proven craftsmanship. When she needs something, she asks Claude to search through these trusted vendors first. This flips the typical shopping flow: instead of searching the entire internet and filtering out garbage, she’s searching a pre-vetted list and only expanding if needed.
Your purchasing criteria should be written down and reusable. Nicole has specific requirements: natural materials, made to last and repair, decades of business history, strong return policies, and no trendy direct-to-consumer brands that over-invest in advertising. By codifying these criteria in a Claude Project, she removes the mental overhead of running through an invisible checklist every time she needs to buy something.
AI can surface brand history and quality signals that would take hours to research manually. When Nicole queries a product, Claude explains why each brand is trustworthy, surfacing details like “This brand has been manufacturing the same tote bag for over 80 years” or “This company got acquired two years ago and reviews have been abysmal since then.” These insights help her make informed decisions without hours of research.
The worst websites often belong to the best manufacturers. Heritage brands that have been making quality products for decades frequently have terrible websites that are hard to navigate. This puts them at a disadvantage compared with Amazon or well-funded DTC brands. AI levels the playing field by making it just as easy to shop from a 100-year-old manufacturer with a clunky website as from Amazon.
Format your AI shopping results to surface the information that matters most to you. Nicole’s Claude Project presents each product with specific details: product name, photo, price, materials (especially important for avoiding plastic), care and maintenance notes, purchase link, and a brief note on the brand’s trustworthy history. This consistent format makes it easy to compare options and make quick decisions.
Use AI to automate the tedious parts of returns and refunds. When a product fails—like J.Crew pants that wore through after six months—Nicole uses Claude Cowork to pull the original receipt from her email, find the order details, and draft a customer service email requesting a refund. What would normally take 10 to 15 minutes now takes 2 to 3 minutes of voice dictation from her phone.
AI can identify manufacturing issues by analyzing review patterns. When Nicole requests a return, Claude often discovers that other customers had the same problem with the same product from the same time period, suggesting a manufacturing defect rather than normal wear. This strengthens her refund request and helps her avoid brands with known quality-control issues.
Build your shopping system for multiple use cases. Nicole uses her Claude Project in three main ways: “Help me find a can opener” (specific item search), “I have $30 for L.L.Bean; what should I buy?” (budget-constrained search), and “What’s your analysis of this brand I found?” (vetting a new brand). This flexibility makes the system useful for different shopping scenarios.
Buying quality items up front reduces household maintenance over time. Nicole’s philosophy is to move as much vetting upstream as possible. She lives in a small Brooklyn apartment with two young children, and every item needs to stand the test of time. By investing time in building a shopping system that prioritizes quality, she spends less time dealing with broken items and processing returns. The goal: buy things that will last for multiple children and can be mended rather than replaced.
Blog and detailed workflow walkthroughs from this episode:
Buying High-Quality Goods With Claude: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/buying-high-quality-goods-with-claude
↳ Automate Product Returns and Refunds Using Claude Cowork: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/workflows/automate-product-returns-and-refunds-using-claude-cowork
↳ Build a Buy-It-for-Life AI Shopping Assistant With Claude: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/workflows/build-a-buy-it-for-life-ai-shopping-assistant-with-claude
If you’re enjoying these episodes, reply and let me know what you’d love to learn more about: AI workflows, hiring, growth, product strategy—anything.
Catch you next week,
Lenny
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