Automating My Video Workflow with N8N and AI: A Real-World Test

Automating My Video Workflow with N8N and AI: A Real-World Test

Good morning everyone, Dimitri Bellini here! Welcome back to Quadrata, my channel dedicated to the open-source world and the IT topics I find fascinating – and hopefully, you do too.

This week, I want to dive back into artificial intelligence, specifically focusing on a tool we've touched upon before: N8N. But instead of just playing around, I wanted to tackle a real problem I face every week: automating the content creation that follows my video production.

The Challenge: Bridging the Gap Between Video and Text

Making videos weekly for Quadrata is something I enjoy, but the work doesn't stop when the recording ends. There's the process of creating YouTube chapters, writing blog posts, crafting LinkedIn announcements, and more. These tasks, while important, can be time-consuming. My goal was to see if AI, combined with a powerful workflow tool, could genuinely simplify these daily (or weekly!) activities.

Could I automatically generate useful text content directly from my video's subtitles? Let's find out.

The Toolkit: My Automation Stack

To tackle this, I assembled a few key components:

• 
  N8N: An open-source workflow automation tool that uses a visual, node-based interface. It's incredibly versatile and integrates with countless services. We'll run this using Docker/Docker Compose.


• 
  AI Models: I experimented with two approaches:
  
  
  
  • 
    Local AI with Ollama: Using Ollama to run models locally, specifically testing Gemma 3 (27B parameters). The latest Ollama release (0.1.60 at the time of recording, though versions update) offers better support for models like Gemma.
  
  
  • 
    Cloud AI with Google AI Studio: Leveraging the power of Google's models via their free API tier, primarily focusing on Gemini 2.5 Pro due to its large context window and reasoning capabilities.
  
  
  
  


• 
  Video Transcripts: The raw material – the subtitles generated for my YouTube videos.

Putting it to the Test: Automating Video Tasks with N8N

I set up an N8N workflow designed to take my video transcript and process it through AI to generate different outputs. Here's how it went:

1. Getting the Transcript

The first step was easy thanks to the N8N community. I used a community node called "YouTube Transcript" which, given a video URL, automatically fetches the subtitles. You can find and install community nodes easily via the N8N settings.

2. Generating YouTube Chapters

This was my first major test. I needed the AI to analyze the transcript and identify logical sections, outputting them in the standard YouTube chapter format (00:00:00 - Chapter Title).

• 
  Local Attempt (Ollama + Gemma 3): I configured an N8N "Basic LLM Chain" node to use my local Ollama instance running Gemma 3. I set the context length to 8000 tokens and the temperature very low (0.1) to prevent creativity and stick to the facts. The prompt was carefully crafted to explain the desired format, including examples.
  
  Result: Disappointing. While it generated *some* chapters, it stopped very early in the video (around 6 minutes for a 25+ minute video), missing the vast majority of the content. Despite the model's theoretical capabilities, it failed this task with the given transcript length and my hardware (RTX 8000 GPUs - good, but maybe not enough or Ollama/model limitations).


• 
  Cloud Attempt (Google AI Studio + Gemini 2.5 Pro): I switched the LLM node to use the Google Gemini connection, specifically targeting Gemini 2.5 Pro with a temperature of 0.2.
  
  Result: Much better! Gemini 2.5 Pro processed the entire transcript and generated accurate, well-spaced chapters covering the full length of the video. Its larger context window and potentially more advanced reasoning capabilities handled the task effectively.

For chapter generation, the cloud-based Gemini 2.5 Pro was the clear winner in my tests.

3. Crafting the Perfect LinkedIn Post

Next, I wanted to automate the announcement post for LinkedIn. Here, the prompt engineering became even more crucial. I didn't just want a generic summary; I wanted it to sound like *me*.

• 
  Technique: I fed the AI (Gemini 2.5 Pro again, given the success with chapters) a detailed prompt that included:
  
  
  
  • The task description (create a LinkedIn post).
  
  
  • The video transcript as context.
  
  
  • 
    Crucially: Examples of my previous LinkedIn posts. This helps the AI learn and mimic my writing style and tone.
  
  
  • Instructions on formatting and including relevant hashtags.
  
  
  • Using N8N variables to insert the specific video link dynamically.
  
  
  
  


• 
  Result: Excellent! The generated post was remarkably similar to my usual style, captured the video's essence, included relevant tags, and was ready to be published (with minor review).

4. Automating Blog Post Creation

The final piece was generating a draft blog post directly from the transcript.

• 
  Technique: Similar to the LinkedIn post, but with different requirements. The prompt instructed Gemini 2.5 Pro to:
  
  
  
  • Generate content in HTML format for easy pasting into my blog.
  
  
  • Avoid certain elements (like quotation marks unless necessary).
  
  
  • Recognize and correctly format specific terms (like "Quadrata", my name "Dimitri Bellini", or the "ZabbixItalia Telegram Channel" - https://t.me/zabbixitalia).
  
  
  • Structure the text logically with headings and paragraphs.
  
  
  • Include basic SEO considerations.
  
  
  
  


• 
  Result: Success again! While it took a little longer to generate (likely due to the complexity and length), the AI produced a well-structured HTML blog post draft based on the video content. It correctly identified and linked the channels mentioned and formatted the text as requested. This provides a fantastic starting point, saving significant time.

Key Takeaways and Challenges

This experiment highlighted several important points:

• 
  Prompt Engineering is King: The quality of the AI's output is directly proportional to the quality and detail of your prompt. Providing examples, clear formatting instructions, and context is essential. Using AI itself (via web interfaces) to help refine prompts is a valid strategy!


• 
  Cloud vs. Local AI Trade-offs:
  
  
  
  • 
    Cloud (Gemini 2.5 Pro): Generally more powerful, handled long contexts better in my tests, easier setup (API key). However, subject to API limits (even free tiers have them, especially for frequent/heavy use) and potential costs.
  
  
  • 
    Local (Ollama/Gemma 3): Full control, no API limits/costs (beyond hardware/electricity). However, requires capable hardware (especially GPU RAM for large contexts/models), and smaller models might struggle with complex reasoning or very long inputs. Performance was insufficient for my chapter generation task in this test.
  
  
  
  


• 
  Model Capabilities Matter: Gemini 2.5 Pro's large context window and reasoning seemed better suited for processing my lengthy video transcripts compared to the 27B parameter Gemma 3 model run locally (though further testing with different local models or configurations might yield different results).


• 
  Temperature Setting: Keeping the temperature low (e.g., 0.1-0.2) is vital for tasks requiring factual accuracy and adherence to instructions, minimizing AI "creativity" or hallucination.


• 
  N8N is Powerful: It provides the perfect framework to chain these steps together, handle variables, connect to different services (local or cloud), and parse outputs (like the Structured Output Parser node for forcing JSON).

Conclusion and Next Steps

Overall, I'm thrilled with the results! Using N8N combined with a capable AI like Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro allowed me to successfully automate the generation of YouTube chapters, LinkedIn posts, and blog post drafts directly from my video transcripts. While the local AI approach didn't quite meet my needs for this specific task *yet*, the cloud solution provided a significant time-saving and genuinely useful outcome.

The next logical step is to integrate the final publishing actions directly into N8N using its dedicated nodes for YouTube (updating descriptions with chapters) and LinkedIn (posting the generated content). This would make the process almost entirely hands-off after the initial video upload.

This is a real-world example of how AI can move beyond novelty and become a practical tool for automating tedious tasks. It's not perfect, and requires setup and refinement, but the potential to streamline workflows is undeniable.

What do you think? Have you tried using N8N or similar tools for AI-powered automation? What are your favourite use cases? Let me know in the comments below! And if you found this interesting, give the video a thumbs up and consider subscribing to Quadrata for more content on open source and IT.

Thanks for reading, and see you next week!

Bye everyone,
Dimitri