How to Get a Daily AI Briefing (No Coding Required)

TL;DR

Drop your sources. Get a briefing. Instead of 30 open tabs and 15 unread newsletters, you get one short summary every morning. This guide walks through setting one up in about 10 minutes using RSS feeds, YouTube channels, and Reddit.

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What Is a Daily AI Briefing?

A daily AI briefing is a scheduled summary of your information sources, generated by AI, delivered at a time you choose.

Unlike a newsletter (curated by someone else) or an RSS reader (everything your sources published), an AI briefing:

• Reads only the sources you choose
• Filters based on instructions you write
• Delivers a condensed summary on your schedule
• Covers sources beyond articles (YouTube, Reddit, X, Slack)

The result is closer to opening one email each morning instead of 20 tabs.

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Step 1: Pick Your Sources

Start with 3 to 5 sources. More isn't better at first. A focused briefing on a small number of sources is more useful than a noisy one covering everything.

For tech and AI news:

• TechCrunch RSS: https://techcrunch.com/feed/
• Hacker News: https://hnrss.org/frontpage?points=100
• TLDR AI: https://tldr.tech/api/rss/ai

For industry monitoring:

• Your competitors' official blogs (most have RSS)
• Relevant subreddits (e.g., https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/.rss)
• YouTube channels from key voices in your space

For personal interests:

• Any blog or publication with an RSS feed
• Newsletters (most Substack and Beehiiv newsletters have RSS)

If you're not sure which RSS feeds to use, see the full list of 10 best tech and AI RSS feeds.

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Step 2: Group by Topic

Don't put all your sources into one briefing. Group them by what you're trying to track.

Example groupings:

• "Morning tech news" → TechCrunch + Hacker News + The Verge
• "AI research" → TLDR AI + Import AI + arXiv AI papers
• "Competitor watch" → Competitor blogs + their subreddit + their YouTube

Each group becomes one briefing. Keeping contexts separate means the AI can focus, so "competitor pricing changes" won't get mixed up with "AI research papers."

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Step 3: Write a Focus Instruction

This is the most important step. A one-line instruction tells the AI what to prioritize.

For news monitoring:

"Summarize the top 5 stories from today. Focus on product launches, funding rounds, and anything that affects [your industry]."

For competitor tracking:

"Flag any pricing changes, new feature announcements, or user complaints. Ignore general company news."

For research:

"Summarize new papers or posts about large language models, inference optimization, and AI safety. Skip anything about image generation."

The more specific, the better. Vague instructions produce generic summaries.

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Step 4: Set Your Schedule

Daily briefings work best when they arrive before your workday starts. Common schedules:

• 7:00 AM: Read during commute or breakfast
• 8:30 AM: Read at the start of the workday
• Weekly on Monday: For sources that don't change daily

Once it's set, the briefing shows up whether you remember to check or not.

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Step 5: Refine Over the First Week

After a few days, you'll notice:

• Some sources are too noisy (too many irrelevant articles) → narrow your focus instruction
• Some topics are underrepresented → add more sources to that group
• Some groups aren't useful → remove them

A good briefing takes about a week to tune. Tuning is where the value actually shows up.

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Common Questions

How is this different from Google Alerts?

Google Alerts monitors keyword matches across the web. An AI briefing monitors specific sources you choose. The difference: Google Alerts gives you everything mentioning a keyword (including noise); an AI briefing reads your trusted sources and summarizes what matters. For a fuller comparison, see Best Google Alerts Alternatives.

How is this different from Feedly?

Feedly collects articles. You still read them. An AI briefing reads them for you and delivers a summary. For a comparison of Feedly and AI briefing tools, see Best Feedly Alternatives.

Do I need to keep the app open?

No. The briefing runs on a schedule in the background and gets delivered to your email or notification of choice.

Can I share briefings with my team?

Yes. A briefing link can be shared with anyone. Some people send their morning briefing to a group chat or a teammate who's interested in the same topics.

What if I miss a day?

Briefings are archived. You can go back and read yesterday's summary at any time.