Nicole Ruiz is a writer and parent who has built a comprehensive AI-powered shopping system to help her family buy high-quality, long-lasting items while avoiding the noise of drop-shipping brands, paid ads, and poorly made products. She writes an interview series on Substack about how technology is changing the household.

What you’ll learn:

How to build a Claude Project with custom instructions for vetting brands based on heritage, craftsmanship, and return policies
The shopping criteria that help surface century-old manufacturers over trendy direct-to-consumer brands
How to use Claude to search through trusted vendor websites that have terrible UX
Why AI actually helps small artisans and heritage brands compete against Amazon’s infrastructure
How to use Claude Cowork to automate returns by finding receipts in your email and drafting refund requests
The technique for getting Claude to analyze whether a brand is legitimate or just a drop-shipping operation
How to shop within a specific budget or with gift cards using AI assistance