5 Ways to Use Grok Bot to Boost Productivity

When Grok Bot was first launched, paying $200/month for something that could already be done with the Hermes Agent seemed a little crazy.

The price is no longer that high, but Grok Bot still requires a subscription, while the Hermes Agent is free.

In the last few months, AI agents running through Telegram and other chat gateways have become increasingly capable. They can perform browser extraction, browser navigation, and many other things that both Grok Bot and the Hermes Agent Bot Mode can do.

In fact, Hermes Agent Bots aren't too different from running multiple agents through Telegram. They simply make it easier for non-technical people to set up agents directly on the Hermes Desktop. Besides, the bots can also talk to each other.

But still, the Bot Mode on the Hermes Agent was never something that seemed particularly necessary. So why pay for Grok Bot?

After so many people complained about the premium price of Grok Bot, xAI decided to make it available to Cursor Pro+ subscribers, which made it much easier to try.

Once installed and used, Grok Bot turned out to be surprisingly addictive.

In this piece, the focus is on Grok Bot and how it compares with Hermes Agent Bot Mode. It also explores five use cases where Grok Bot can help boost productivity and even make money.

Grok Bot vs Hermes Agent Bot Mode: Which one is better?

The Hermes Agent is an open-source agent harness with endless customization options, a wide range of tools, the freedom to choose between models, and almost everything an advanced user could want.

However, it lacks ease of use, especially for people who are not particularly tech-savvy and simply want to start using agents without spending a lot of time on setup.

The Nous Research team, the creators of Hermes Agent, understood this, which is why they have been working on Hermes Desktop and recently added Bot Mode.

Now, creating a Hermes agent, also known as a profile, is a one-click process, making it much easier for more people to start using the harness.

Besides, these are the perks of the Hermes Agent Bot Mode:

• Every bot is a Hermes profile, meaning it can run on Hermes Desktop but also on other gateways, so agents can live almost anywhere.
• Browser actions can be performed on a local machine or remote machines, depending on where the repository is installed.
• Group chats can be created so profiles can communicate with each other.
• Users can switch between Large Language Models (LLMs), inference providers, or even use local AI.
• The skills, tools, and SOUL.md of the bots can be customized.

The Hermes Agent has built-in browser action tools, but providers like Browser Use or Browserbase can also be used. However, these are not always enough when logging in, bypassing CAPTCHAs, or accessing Cloudflare-protected websites.

And this is actually one of the downsides of Hermes Agent Bot Mode. There are essentially two options:

• Run browser actions from a local computer, knowing that they consume a lot of RAM and may limit the ability to work on other things while the agent is running. The machine also needs to stay turned on.
• Run browser actions from a VPS or remote machine, but use a VNC connection to approve things when necessary.

Knowing this, the big advantage of Grok Bot becomes clear:

• It runs on a persistent cloud computer. This is a Linux virtual machine living on xAI's servers, with its own browser, filesystem, and terminal. When a task is assigned, the bot opens a browser on that remote machine.

Like Hermes Agent Bot Mode, Grok Bot can also perform browser actions from a local computer, but that probably won't be necessary for most tasks. The remote environment makes it possible to keep working without relying on the local machine, while credentials can be stored so there is less need to constantly approve actions, bypass CAPTCHAs, or log in.

Besides that, Grok Bot also allows users to:

• Make bots interact with each other.
• Connect to multiple integrations, such as Gmail, Notion, Calendly, HubSpot, and Slack.
• Create routines, or cron jobs, for repeated tasks.
• Create templates for bots or use existing ones.

What users don't get with Grok Bot:

• Privacy: A significant amount of privacy is given up with Grok Bot, as data and activity are handled by xAI.
• Customization: Grok Bot doesn't offer anywhere near the same level of customization as Hermes Agent. Users can't even choose which model to run.
• Flexibility: Grok bots are tied to the platform. They cannot simply be taken elsewhere and run on other gateways.

With that being said, the biggest advantage of Grok Bot is really the ease of use and speed, because almost everything else can also be done with Hermes Agent.

The browser interaction is the real differentiator. For tasks where an API is already available, there is probably little reason to use Grok Bot.

The following use cases show where Grok Bot can be particularly useful and how browser automation can improve productivity and even create new business opportunities.

Grok Bot for finding and messaging leads on Upwork

Freelancers often rely heavily on Upwork to find clients. Agencies also need to apply for jobs on behalf of the freelancers working with them.

Applying for jobs is time-consuming and frustrating. It can be especially difficult for a new agency that needs to start actively searching for opportunities again.

The good part is that this process no longer needs to be entirely manual. A Grok Bot agent can be created specifically for this purpose and configured to perform the following tasks every day:

• Searches for positions that the team can deliver: Agent development, AI influencers, workflows, automation, Hermes Agent, Cursor, Claude, and chat assistants.
• Applies filters: Only positions that pay above $45/h and accept agencies.
• Lists & drafts: The top 10 positions are collected every day, and each position is matched with the most appropriate freelancers on the team. The agent then writes a draft as if the freelancer were applying.
• Sends proposals: The agent checks how many Connects the agency has and whether the opportunity is worth bidding on before applying for the position.

The final step doesn't necessarily need to be fully automated because the drafts can sometimes be poor and look too much like AI-generated content, which is the last thing a potential client wants to see.

A human can therefore spend a few minutes optimizing the drafts, while the rest of the process is handled automatically.

Upwork does have a developer API, but access is not always available, making browser automation a useful alternative for this type of workflow.

Grok Bot to collect data from Facebook Marketplaces

Facebook remains widely used in many countries, especially for real estate and second-hand products.

Many countries have their own real estate and second-hand websites, but not everything is listed there, and the prices are not necessarily the best available.

Meta does not have a publicly available API for individual developers, small businesses, or general public use, while scraping Facebook can be extremely difficult and tedious.

Grok Bot changes that by allowing an agent to collect data while the user is away from the computer, using remote servers to perform the work.

The possibilities with Facebook Marketplace are extensive, but some examples include:

• Web scraping: Data can be collected that isn't available on traditional e-commerce websites.
• Data enrichment: Products already listed on other marketplaces can be enriched with additional information from Facebook. For example, a house found on Idealista could also be found on Facebook, allowing information from both sources to be combined for additional insights about the property.
• New marketplaces: There may not be dedicated websites for certain niches, such as container houses, while Facebook may contain many listings. A new marketplace could be created using listings collected from Facebook.
• Newsletter: Instead of building and managing a marketplace, the collected listings could be turned into a newsletter with new opportunities published every day or week.

Essentially, Grok Bot removes a significant barrier to collecting data from Facebook and other social media platforms.

It isn't particularly fast because it relies on browser automation, and running it at full speed could put an account at risk. But it can still be useful for extracting information from niche markets and finding products or listings that would otherwise be difficult to crawl.

Grok Bot for automated QA

One of the things tuik can do is build agents that run on Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, or custom chat interfaces.

The problem is that every time an agent is shipped, it needs to be tested extensively to make sure it is properly sandboxed.

Grok Bot can make this testing process much faster by providing it with a prompt containing detailed information about what needs to be tested.

For example, Grok Bot can run daily checks on chat assistants in production to look for vulnerabilities. When it finds one, it can open a ticket directly on the relevant platform or send a text message.

This implementation can dramatically reduce the amount of time spent on testing, while also helping customers reduce costs and ship agents faster.

Again, Grok Bot is not a full replacement for QA testing because there are still many things that only humans have the sensitivity to detect.

However, it can reduce a significant amount of repetitive work.

Grok Bot for funneling information

One of the hardest things about being a freelancer is having to adapt to all sorts of environments and technology stacks that clients use.

• For project management, some may use Asana, while others use Notion or ClickUp.
• For communication, some use Microsoft Teams, while others use Slack.
• For taking meeting notes, some use Google Meet, while others use Fireflies.
• For Git, some use GitHub, while others use GitLab.

The list goes on and on, and freelancers often need to adapt to whatever tools their clients use.

This can take a significant amount of time, especially when working with multiple clients at the same time.

Grok Bot can eliminate a big part of this problem.

For example, tabs containing Asana tasks, Fireflies transcripts, and conversations on Teams can be left open while the agent accesses them, collects the relevant information, and condenses it into the tasks and information actually needed in Notion or another project management tool.

AI is increasingly good at information retrieval, and most of the time, it is fairly accurate.

The same cannot always be said about delivering information. AI-generated documents and articles can still be difficult to read and understand.

That's why using Grok Bot to funnel information from multiple clients' platforms can be so useful. Instead of spending so much time researching, switching between tools, and trying to piece everything together, more time can be spent actually delivering the work.

Grok Bot for automating my accounting

For an agency working with multiple freelancers, the person managing the agency may also need to handle accounting and executive-assistant work.

Grok Bot can be used to pull invoices and the hours worked by each freelancer and generate a report showing how much each freelancer should be paid, in whatever currency they use.

This is something that could otherwise take at least an hour, depending on the number of freelancers involved.

The process requires calculating the hours, applying the Upwork commission, applying the agency commission, checking the currency exchange rate, and finally writing a report explaining what is being paid and why.

For someone who has never handled this type of work before, having an agent perform most of the process can eliminate the need to hire someone specifically for it.

But the accounting process doesn't end there.

Invoices may then need to be submitted through the Portuguese finance website, which can be another time-consuming step.

Grok Bot can also handle this process using the PDFs stored on Upwork that contain the relevant information from clients.

Conclusion

As these use cases show, most of the practical applications of Grok Bot are related to browser automation.

And that is where the real potential of these agents with limited customization can be found.

They are not designed to be highly customizable agents. Users don't get the same level of control over models, tools, or workflows that they get with something like Hermes Agent.

This is a good example of how highly robust agents are not always necessary to improve productivity, optimize processes, or even make money.

Grok Bot stands out because of its browser interaction capabilities and, more specifically, the remote machine provided by xAI.

That is what makes it different from other agent harnesses and makes it possible to spend more time on important work while reducing repetitive tasks.

Hermes Agent is still a better choice for other kinds of use cases and whenever more control over agents is required, especially when creating and posting rather than simply reading and collecting information.

Grok Bot is also cheaper now than when it was first released, so if someone is already paying for people or software to handle some of these tasks, it may be worth considering whether an agent could replace part of that work.

But there is an important tradeoff: using Grok Bot means potentially exposing a significant amount of information to xAI.

For those who are comfortable with that tradeoff, Grok Bot can be a powerful way to automate repetitive work and delegate tasks that would otherwise require a significant amount of manual effort.