Mark Tilbury gave himself seven days and a $99 budget to build AI influencers with Claude and Higgsfield. He made $276 in sales and $157 in profit. Here is what worked, what it really costs, the disclosure rules, and the better business use: AI UGC for your own brand.
In "I Tried The LAZIEST Way to Make Money With AI," Mark Tilbury tests whether AI influencers, fully synthetic social media characters, can make real money. He gives himself seven days, a startup budget under $99, and three rules: no using his own face or voice, and the first influencer has to exist by the end of day one. If he made less than $1,000, he promised to give $1,000 of his own money to a commenter.
He used Claude to invent three characters, Higgsfield to generate their photos, voices and videos, and Instagram to publish them. The winning character then sold a $12 digital workbook through Stan Store. Result: 23 sales, $276 in revenue, and about $157 in profit after costs. He missed his $1,000 target and paid out the forfeit.
Video credit: “I Tried The LAZIEST Way to Make Money With AI” by Mark Tilbury, published September 21, 2026 on YouTube (5.3 million views when we wrote this). Watch on YouTube. All rights to the video belong to its creator; we embed it with YouTube's standard player and add our own commentary.
Tilbury split the work into a simple checklist. Most of it ran inside one Claude chat, because he connected Higgsfield to Claude as a custom connector and used free Claude skills he found online for scripts and video prompts.
| Step | What he did | Tool used |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Study the competition | Looked at existing AI influencers, including Lil Miquela, a 108-year-old "holistic expert" character, and an AI granny, and noted how each makes money | Instagram, research |
| 2. Pick niches | Health, wealth and relationships, one character each | His own judgement |
| 3. Create characters | Asked for a name, backstory, look and selling point: Amos (101-year-old farmer, health), Grandma Vivian (wealthy grandmother, wealth), Sienna (22-year-old, dating) | Claude (free plan) |
| 4. Generate photos and scenes | Character sheets plus locations such as a porch, a private jet and a podcast set | Higgsfield via Claude connector |
| 5. Write scripts | A "content engine" skill produced content ideas and scripts per character | Claude skills |
| 6. Voices and video | Generated voices, then vertical 1080p clips with consistent characters | Higgsfield audio and Cinema Studio |
| 7. Launch | Three Instagram accounts, 10 videos each, captions added in a free editor | Instagram, Instagram Edits |
| 8. Monetize | A 30-day habit workbook for the winning character, sold through a link in bio | Claude skill, Stan Store |
One detail worth noticing: while studying competitors, Tilbury called out an account that pretends a real craftsman makes its products.
Now, is this ethical? No, because the person behind the account is lying to their customers. But is it making a load of money? Almost certainly, yes.
Amos, the 101-year-old farmer, won the first round of views, so Tilbury built the product around him. He chose a workbook over an ebook on purpose, arguing that plain information is now free from Google or ChatGPT.
If we want people to actually buy our digital product, it has to be structured, interactive, and hold their hand through some sort of transformation.
Here is the scorecard as reported in the video:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Workbook price | $15.99, discounted to $12 |
| Sales | 23 |
| Revenue | $276 |
| Higgsfield plan (counted at full price) | $99 |
| PayPal fees | $19.52 |
| Claude, Instagram Edits, Stan Store trial | $0 |
| Profit | about $157 |
The twist came at the end. After he doubled down on Amos, Grandma Vivian's account took off, with one video passing 250,000 views. Tilbury admits he picked the winner too early.
Our honest read: the video proves the mechanics, not the income. A few things are easy to miss.
Tilbury ends on a similar note of caution, even after the test made money:
But I definitely don't want everyone to jump on this because I think one of the coolest things about social media is connecting with actual people from all walks of life.
Treat the answer as yes. Tilbury added "your AI grandpa" to his character's bio, and says he did it so nobody felt tricked.
I'm also going to write your AI grandpa because I don't want anyone feeling like they've been tricked.
Three layers of rules point the same way:
A simple rule of thumb: label the character as AI in the bio, never claim the character used a product, and never invent customer testimonials. This is general information, not legal advice.
If you run a business, the interesting lesson is not "build a fake influencer." It is that the same workflow, script, character, voice, vertical video, can now produce short-form content for your own products in hours instead of weeks.
| AI influencer side hustle | AI UGC for your brand | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Build an audience, then find something to sell | Sell a product you already have |
| Main risk | Invented authority, deceptive personas | Overclaiming what the product does |
| Where it earns | Affiliate links, digital products, brand deals | Ads, product pages, organic social |
| Good practice | Label the character as AI | Label AI presenters, keep claims to real product facts |
| What to measure | Followers, views, product sales | Cost per lead, click-through, sales by video |
The honest version for brands: an AI presenter explains a real feature, demonstrates a real use case, and is labelled as AI. It replaces the cost and wait of hiring creators for every variation, and it lets you test ten hooks instead of two. We compared the tools for this in our MakeUGC alternative guide, and covered the wider toolkit in AI tools for solopreneurs.
Tilbury's own lesson still applies: launch several variations, wait for real data, then double down. The difference is that your winner sells your product, not someone else's affiliate link.
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For short-form video, the Dooza Workforce app includes a UGC Reel Creator for product videos and Somi, the social media employee, to plan and publish them. Every step has your approval on anything sensitive, and nothing goes out pretending to be a real customer. If your workflow is bigger than video, such as connecting content to lead capture and follow-up, Dooza Agents are custom agents built and maintained by Dooza engineers, and workflow automation ties the pieces together.
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According to the video, his AI character sold 23 copies of a $12 workbook for $276 in revenue. After a $99 Higgsfield plan and $19.52 in PayPal fees, profit was about $157, short of his $1,000 goal.
He used Claude on the free plan to create characters, scripts and the workbook, Higgsfield for images, voices and video, Instagram to publish, Instagram Edits for captions, and Stan Store to sell the digital product.
Not quite. The video still involved choosing niches, reviewing images and scripts, setting up accounts, editing captions, pricing a product and fact-checking it. AI removes the filming, not the decisions.
Yes, treat disclosure as required. Major platforms ask creators to label realistic AI-generated video, and US advertising rules require honest endorsements. Mark Tilbury labelled his character as an AI grandpa in the bio.
Use AI presenters to make short product videos about real features, label them as AI, test several hooks, and keep the winners. Avoid fake testimonials or characters who claim to have used the product.
Yes. The Dooza Workforce app includes a UGC Reel Creator for short-form product videos and Somi for social posting. Every Dooza product starts with a refundable pilot: 100% refund within 14 days.
Automate your business with AI employees that work 24/7. Start with a refundable pilot: 100% refund within 14 days.
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