Alex Lee joins the show to walk us through an end-to-end automated newsletter generator built using N8N, Airtable, and generative AI. From aggregating news and generating summaries to crafting branded HTML and distributing it via email, Alex shows how businesses can reduce newsletter production from 6 hours to 30 minutes. He also shares how Model Context Protocol (MCP) is enabling real-time access to company data, explains his decision-making process between using workflow automation tools vs. vibe coding, and previews what's next in AI-powered business automation.

Timestamps:

00:23 – Welcome Alex Lee: Career journey from SAP to Google to AI consulting

01:31 – How ChatGPT changed his mind about NLP

02:38 – Why Alex is focused on AI enablement for businesses

03:36 – Use case #1: AI-powered newsletter generator

04:49 – The manual pain of newsletter creation

06:12 – Why email is the best owned marketing channel

07:25 – Step-by-step demo: Aggregating articles, adding context, and generating drafts

09:09 – Human-in-the-loop editing and brand tone tuning

10:01 – HTML generation and branded email output

11:03 – Use cases beyond marketing: Internal custom newsletters

15:26 – Why Airtable powers the backend of the workflow

17:27 – Behind the scenes: N8N automation workflow overview

20:26 – Tool selection: When to use N8N vs. Zapier vs. Make

21:49 – Hosting your own N8N instance for cost efficiency

24:04 – How clients send the generated newsletter (Mailchimp, HubSpot, EasyMail)

27:12 – Vibe coding vs. workflow automation: which path to choose?

28:41 – Why Lovable stands out among V0, Replit, Cursor

30:19 – Benefits of prototyping and vibe coding for non-technical folks

31:24 – What is MCP and why it matters

33:05 – Example: Using Claude + MCP to search Google Drive and draft an executive summary

38:59 – AI-powered time tracking via calendar and file analysis

40:58 – What’s next: legacy system integration, coding agents, MCP standardization

42:39 – How to contact Alex

Tools and Technologies Mentioned:

N8N – Open-source workflow automation platform used to orchestrate the newsletter process

Airtable – Serves as the data layer and user interface for non-technical users

Claude (Anthropic) – Used for summarization, HTML generation, and MCP interaction

MCP (Model Context Protocol) – Enables AI models to access external systems like Drive and calendars in real time

Zapier, Make – Workflow automation tools considered depending on client preference

Lovable – No-code/low-code app builder that successfully integrates with Supabase and OpenAI

HubSpot, Mailchimp, EasyMail – Email service providers used to distribute the newsletters

Supabase – Backend database often used in vibe-coded apps

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AI Writes, Designs & Sends Your Newsletter in 30 Minutes with Alex Lee of Cadre AI

This New Way