Build Your First AI Automation

Community Member Liz asked in the Slack last week who's built their own AI agent and what tools they used. That thread took OFF. Turns out a lot of us are thinking about agents right now: whether it's to keep a new startup lean, automate admin tasks, or just finally figure out what "agentic AI" actually means in practice.

Agents are clearly top of mind for 2026. So this week's Community Expert felt like perfect timing.

Name: Selina Li
Role: Co-Founder & CEO
Company: Bubble Lab

What she does: Selina Li is the Co-Founder and CEO of Bubble Lab, a Y Combinator-backed (W26), open-source workflow automation platform that lets you build AI workflows using natural language.

She got frustrated with tools like n8n while building automations for her previous startup, gymii.ai—the JSON lock-in, the lack of observability. So she built something better: a code-backed platform (TypeScript) that gives you full observability and deep AI compatibility. You can go from natural language to production-ready workflows.

Before Bubble Lab, Selina was a quant at JPMorgan. She holds a B.A. in Economics from UPenn (2023) and an MEng in Computer Science from Cornell Tech (2025).

What she'll be teaching us: Build Your First AI Automation with Bubble Lab

"I'll cover intro to workflows/automations—current paradigm and shortcomings (will talk about n8n, JSON lock-in). Then the backstory of personal frustrations with n8n while building automations for ourselves at our previous startup (gymii.ai), and how this led us to develop Bubble Lab. I'll go over differentiation with Bubble Lab: code-backed (TypeScript), giving full observability and deep AI compatibility. Then a live demo of building functional agentic workflows by just prompting."

Favorite AI tool right now: "Cursor—allows me to move at 100x speed. And of course Bubble Lab—constantly automating my own life haha."

Her AI hot take: "Human content will become more and more important and valuable as there is more and more AI content out there."

Where she thinks AI will be most impactful by end of 2026: "All manual and repetitive tasks across industries :) Hard to pinpoint one cuz there's TOO MANY!!"

Her best AI tip for someone just getting started: "Learn by building! Get started with a passion project right away."

Fun fact that has nothing to do with AI: "I've been a competitive golfer since I was 7! Played for the Hong Kong national team since I was 13, and co-captained the Div I team at UPenn! Being an athlete is a huge part of my entrepreneurship DNA."

Favorite SNACK: "Bubble tea! And kimchi seaweed lol."

Selina's links:

Thank you Selina for sharing your story and AI insights! Excited to see you all there.