My EA keeps getting asked if she’s a robot

Last week, my EA Jem shared an email in our Inventium WhatsApp group. The sender wanted to know:

“Are you actually a real person?”

Jem, to her credit, didn’t reply with “beep beep.” (She’s clearly a more evolved person than I am).

It’s not the first time she has been asked this question. And while it’s mildly annoying, it’s also (perhaps) understandable given part of our business does AI training. We’ve spent the last two years telling people bots can do this stuff.

Jem uses AI a lot in her role. As we all do at Inventium. But I think the better question to ask is not whether my EA is a bot, but:

What are you actually doing with the time AI is saving you?

Because here’s what my team and I see happening in most businesses: AI licenses get handed out. Productivity (hopefully) goes up. And people immediately fill the time they save with more output. More emails. More reports. More meetings to discuss said reports.

Efficiency is a competitive advantage right up until everyone has it. Once every business has doubled down on AI, “we’re more efficient” is about as impressive as “we have wifi.”

At Inventium, I’d like to think that we try to do something different. When AI gives us time back, we spend it on the one thing AI can’t do for us. Being human with each other and with our clients. (And also: taking Gift of the Fifth).

Take Hannah, our amazing project manager. AI has sped up a huge amount of what she does. But the thing that makes Hannah ridiculously good at her job has zero to do with AI. It’s the relationships she builds with our clients and our team. Every hour AI hands back to her is another hour she can spend on the human (and arguably more important) part of her job.

This is the bit many leaders are missing. Sure, AI is about productivity. But it’s also a permission slip to put the human stuff back into your week. The check-ins you’ve been rescheduling. The thinking time you keep promising yourself.

So this week, please ask yourself (and your team, if you lead one) this question: How are you spending the time AI is giving you back?

Cheers

Amantha