Five jobs AI can take off a small team, and three it should not

Most of what is written about AI is aimed at companies with a technology department. This is for the other kind: ten or twenty people, everyone busy, nobody with a spare afternoon. Here are five jobs worth handing over, and three worth keeping.

Five jobs to hand over

1. The first reply to a new enquiry

Someone fills in your form on a Saturday. An immediate, sensible acknowledgement that asks the two questions you always ask, and puts the enquiry in front of the right person on Monday, is routine work. A person should still make the real reply.

2. The first draft of a quote

If your quotes are built from the same price list and the same handful of past jobs, a draft can be assembled for you. You check it, correct it and send it. The saving is in not starting from a blank page every time.

3. Sorting the inbox

Separating invoices from enquiries from newsletters from the three messages that need you today is tedious and rule-based. It is a good first workflow because mistakes are cheap and easy to spot.

4. The weekly numbers

Pulling figures out of the systems you already use and turning them into a one-page summary is the kind of job that gets skipped when things are busy, which is exactly when you need it.

5. Writing down how things are done

Every company has knowledge that lives in two or three heads. Turning a recorded explanation into a clean written guide is something these tools do well, and it protects you the day one of those people is away.

Hand over the routine. Keep the judgement.

Three jobs to keep

1. Anything where a wrong answer is expensive

Prices you are committing to, legal wording, safety instructions, anything going to a regulator. A tool can draft. A person who understands the consequences must decide.

2. Difficult conversations

The upset customer, the late delivery, the staff problem. These need someone who can listen and take responsibility. Automating them saves minutes and costs relationships.

3. Deciding what matters

A tool can tell you what happened last week. It cannot tell you which customers you want more of, or what kind of company you are trying to build. That part of the job is still the owner's.

How to choose your first one

Look for a task that is done often, follows roughly the same steps each time, and annoys the person doing it. Start there, run the new way alongside the old for a few weeks, and only switch over once you have watched it work. One job done properly teaches you more than a plan for ten.

Next: Six signs your business has outgrown how it runs