What I've Done with OpenClaw

As someone working in traditional B2C e-commerce, I’m neither a professional programmer nor do I have any coding background. Before this, my understanding of AI was limited to “smart speakers” and “phone voice assistants.” But as a tech enthusiast, learning about the trending OpenClaw naturally made me want to give it a try.

Why choose OpenClaw? Because it can solve repetitive problems. I work in the traditional e-commerce industry, dealing with large volumes of orders, inventory, and customer communication on a daily basis. I was deeply drawn to its philosophy—it’s not just an AI assistant, but a tool that can help you automate various tasks.

My motivation was simple: learn about this trending technology and see what AI can actually do for me.

First Attempt: E-commerce ERP Management My initial thought was to let AI help me manage the e-commerce ERP system—things like automatic shipping, handling after-sales issues, and so on. Anyone in e-commerce knows these tasks are both tedious and time-consuming.

However, after trying it for a while, I ultimately decided to give up.

The reason is simple: it involves my core source of income.

I couldn’t trust AI to handle critical operations like shipping and refunds—what if it shipped the wrong item, deleted the wrong order, or caused customer losses due to misunderstanding? I couldn’t bear that responsibility. After all, AI still can’t flexibly handle all complex situations like humans can.

Current Usage: Blog Management and Content Creation While I wouldn’t hand over my core business to AI, I found a more suitable scenario: my personal blog.

AI writes articles automatically. Now, my blog posts can be generated by AI. I just give it a topic, and it writes a decent article for me. Of course, I review it first to ensure accuracy before publishing.
AI automatically replies to comments. The feature that surprised me most was AI auto-replying to comments. When a reader leaves a comment on the blog, AI reads it and provides a reasonable response. For example, a reader asked: “Can OpenClaw help me get photos from my security camera?” AI replied: “I can check camera status through Home Assistant, but I don’t currently support scheduled photo extraction. However, I can help you monitor your front door’s open/close status~” This kind of interaction felt incredibly novel, like having a 24/7 on-call assistant.
AI summarizes articles. Another useful feature is article summarization. When a reader @AI to summarize an article, it quickly extracts the core points and offers its own insights.

For instance, I asked it to analyze a Bitcoin article, and it accurately identified the author’s core arguments, timeline, and the verification results 11 years later.

Advanced Usage: Email Management and Stock Information

Beyond the blog, OpenClaw also helps me manage emails. It regularly checks my inbox and notifies me via Telegram the moment an important email arrives.

Recently, I’ve also tried having it help me collect and analyze stock information. While I’m still exploring, AI genuinely helps me quickly sort through key information from news and announcements, distinguishing between bullish and bearish signals. For a stock market novice like me, that saves a lot of effort.

Installation Threshold: Anyone Can Do It

Many people might assume that an AI assistant, being such a high-tech product, requires professional-grade equipment to run.

Not at all—the threshold is practically non-existent!

You don’t need the popular Mac mini, a high-performance PC, or anything like that. A few-hundred-yuan Linux mini-PC will do the job. Or you don’t even need that—just buy a 29 RMB/month cloud server on Tencent Cloud, and you’re set. OpenClaw offers a one-click image installation, and you’re done in one go.

Moreover, Tencent Cloud now offers a large language model package for just 7.9 RMB for the first month—excellent value. Even better, OpenClaw supports not only Telegram but also integration with QQ for chatting! This is undoubtedly more convenient for domestic users.

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📷 The blogger’s mini-PC

Looking to the Future

As a non-technical person, my first encounter with OpenClaw left me feeling incredibly excited and amazed. The feeling was no less than the shock I felt when I first used an Android phone back in 2010!

I look forward to OpenClaw becoming more polished, developing more skills—not just saving me money, but helping me make money.

Finally, if you’re also a complete beginner with zero technical knowledge but want to experience the convenience AI brings, give OpenClaw a try. It might just not disappoint you.