Meet Max! my virtual executive assistant

A rising star, all things administrative performer, with the capability to understand verbal requests, research a complex travel plan, distinguish calendar patterns and solve logistical challenges. Meet Max, my virtual executive assistant!

Max, let’s look at what we need to prioritize for this week. We have a town hall that needs to be coordinated with A/V support, breakout rooms and catering. Max can you find a large conference room that will hold 100 employees for the full day and five break-out rooms between 2:00 – 5:00 pm for the brainstorming sessions? And I’ll take care of the A/V and catering. Got it Max? Yes, BP [business partner].

Okay, moving on to next week, we have BB [big boss] who needs to get to London by the start of the business day on Wednesday, then Paris by 5:00 pm on Friday for the roundtable dinner at 7:00 pm. Max, can you coordinate the flights and hotels and I will get started on the meetings in Paris? Yes, BP.

Max is a virtual executive assistant of the future envisioned for the executive’s office and the workplace. While there will be limitations of what AI can support, why not start to foresee areas that technology can be optimized and start to think of AI capabilities to maximize the depth of its benefits.

Recognizing and adopting AI can enhance an EAs ability to focus on the big picture strategic plan for their executive that AI can’t do. And focussing on the future to effectively evaluate the changes that can be made to evolve technology is not only a win win for EAs but the organization as well.

Reports and findings reveal that AI can increase productivity and efficiency–automating many of the task EAs perform on a daily basis. This begs the question, how? AI will minimize time wasted on finding documents, researching topics, booking lunch reservations and more. Thus enabling the EA to have the time to devote to the proficiency of the office in areas that human capabilities are required.

Bracing for the changes to come and visualizing Max, will prepare EAs for the redesign of the role. The added benefit of this realization and learning more about AI, can help in being part of the redesign and creating the new EA job profile.

The office support position evolved from secretary to executive assistant over decades and will continue to be an integral part of business operations with renewed standards of excellence. Start today and map out the areas that can be automated vs the aspects of the job that require humans to perform. By taking charge of the change and being part of innovation will help to identify how to leverage the power of AI to broaden and enhance what an all-star EA can do.