Yesterday, I listened to an entrepreneur from an early-stage company discuss how his team uses AI to automate tasks. The person responsible for the task doesn’t build the automation. Instead, people in different functions are responsible for using AI to improve their coworkers’ workflow. For example, Sue does scheduling. Bob thinks scheduling takes too long. So Bob uses AI to automate Sue’s scheduling process.

You might think that fixing someone else’s job would cause discord. To the contrary, it’s been beneficial. To build an AI tool that does someone’s job, you must first understand what they do and why it’s needed. This learning has led to his team members developing a high level of respect for roles they used to think were easy. They now understand the complexity and nuances of other people’s jobs and how they navigate them.

For this CEO, the result is a more efficient team that respects the work each person does. Not what he was expecting, but he’s delighted with this outcome.