“Two months ago I might have said lengthy meeting notes took me the most time, but I now use MS Co-pilot which has turned a laborious task into a pleasant one.”
- Jodie Mears, Executive Assistant
Explore how AI tools are revolutionizing tasks for Executive Assistants, from note-taking to travel management.
Let’s get something straight first - the role of Executive Assistant is not going anywhere. After all, they're the senior leaders’ right hand - the centrepiece of a well-run office, without which most things simply wouldn't get done.
But with growing discussions around Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it will automate much of the workplace, it’s worth investigating how it can best be used to EAs' advantage for the more repetitive tasks that take up a lot of time. In this article, we’ll look at some of the key tasks that could be enhanced by AI in your everyday work life, so that more time can be spent on the strategic tasks that get noticed.
Taking Notes:
Efficient note-taking is one of the cornerstones of being a good EA. While this may seem like a simple task, to do it well you need to capture important information, action tasks, and gather insights that can help propel the business forward. AI tools can help speed up the process by transcribing the meeting in real-time or post-meeting. Using AI to do the "dirty work", or the more mundane task of capturing the transcript, allows you to then focus on what’s really going on in the meeting, so that you can give your boss a more articulate reading of the situation and suggest the best course of action to follow up. This will not only elevate your role even further as an EA, but provide a huge amount of value to your boss in their role.
How EAs are using AI for Note Taking:
AI-powered transcription services, such as Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Rev or Microsoft Co-Pilot automatically translate the meeting discussion into a text format, and it’s mostly very accurate (and will continue to mature in what it can do over time). Once you’ve got the transcript, you can then ask Chat GPT to summarise the meeting notes into bullets and actions to save you time. For example giving it a prompt like “Please extract the key points and actions from the meeting into bullet points”. Other tools such as Evernote and Microsoft OneNote (which also has a transcription function) can help you organise your notes, tag entries and search for information quickly. Sense-checking and going over the notes with a fine tooth comb is then the most important job, to make sure that it’s clear what the outcomes of the meeting were, and who should be involved in any subsequent conversations or actions. |
Managing your calendar:
Sometimes it feels as though all you do is arrange meetings. There’s so much back and forth and communication to even just get the meeting in the diary in the first place, never mind all the calendar and venue changes that follow. It can seem overwhelming, but even though you can’t outsource the entire process to AI tools, you can certainly automate certain parts of it. If you’re using some of the bigger calendar management systems, you will already be using AI, because it’s integrated into the system and operating behind the scenes.
How EAs are using AI for Calendar Management:
AI-driven calendar management tools like Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook use machine learning algorithms to get smarter at scheduling and prioritising meetings. They look at scheduling patterns, any meeting conflicts and suggest meeting times based on availability and preferences. They can also preempt things like how long it takes to get from A to B, to allow for buffer periods in case of delays, and make sure that executives’ calendars are organized and optimized to get the most out of the working day.
Tools to consider: |
Organizing your inbox:
“I hope this email finds you well”. Sound familiar? Just staying on top of your emails can be a task in itself, let alone replying and actioning whatever the other person is asking you to do. What AI can help you do is help categorize emails, detect spam and automate or craft responses, especially if you don’t have time to write a Shakespearean response with the 10 minutes you have that day.
How EAs are using AI for Inbox Management
Filters: AI email filters, like Gmail's Priority Inbox and Microsoft Outlook's Focused Inbox, use machine learning algorithms to categorize emails based on how relevant and important they are. These filters analyze what's in the email, who it's from and how you've dealt with emails like that in the past to determine where it should go. For example if you receive an email from a senior executive like your boss, or from other key people within the organisation, or if the email is marked urgent, it will rank higher than others. By separating important emails from low-priority or promotional emails, AI-powered filters can help you focus and help you avoid email overload.
Writing Assistance: Additional integrations such as Grammarly (Free AI writing assistance) and CoPilot can be hugely beneficial and time-saving for writing and responding to emails. Even a free tool like ChatGPT 3.5 can take notes and put them into email format, and provided you're giving it the right guidance on tone of voice, can work quite seamlessly to do this. |
Booking and managing travel
On an average day, you could be emailing or calling your travel agent 3 or 4 times to book, amend or cancel a booking for your boss, especially if you don’t have a travel management tool to make the changes yourself. Making travel arrangements can be complex and time-consuming, especially when you have the added responsibility of building itineraries, booking on-site meetings and managing expenses at the back end. AI has developed in such a way that it can remove some of the more laborious tasks that may take a long time to do, but that don’t really get noticed by your boss (unless they go wrong!).
“By 2033, 75% of travelers worldwide expect to use AI for planning accommodation, indicating a seismic shift towards reliance on AI in travel.”Source: Statista |
How EAs are using AI for Business Travel Management
AI is a powerful tool for searching, booking and managing business travel because it aggregates all the best deals on flights, hotels, accommodation and transport. It can also be used to automate and personalise itineraries, making helpful suggestions of places that your boss could eat out, or explore when they’re on their business trip. From a sustainability perspective, AI can help predict trends in travel behavior, for example showing how continued travel patterns could result in not reaching your sustainability goals.
Key features to look out for in a AI-enabled travel management tool:
- Smart itineraries: Save time researching restaurant options and local attractions with AI-enabled trip itinerary suggestions and smart travel companions.
- Sustainability features: Get an overview of your business travel emissions for the whole company, and suggestions for alternative transport types or routes to take that can save on CO2 and help you reach your sustainability targets.
- Local knowledge: To make sure your boss nails that business trip with a new potential customer, you can use a tool like Chat GPT to answer some basic questions, such as "are there any business customs or formal requirements in Japan?". |
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