Which tasks should you automate with AI first?.
A plain test for your first AI automation: repetitive, writable, checkable. Plus the tasks that stay human, and the one answer that's always allowed.
The short answer
Automate the tasks that are repetitive, writable, and checkable. Repetitive: they happen the same way, often. Writable: you can write down how to do them well. Checkable: you can tell at a glance whether they were done right. Everything else waits, or stays with a person.
Good first tasks
- Drafting answers to repeat customer questions, from your facts, in your tone.
- Chasing unpaid invoices with polite, scheduled nudges.
- Turning meeting notes into tasks, filed where they belong.
- Watching inboxes and flagging what needs a human today.
Notice these are drafts and nudges, not decisions. First tasks should be easy to check and cheap to undo.
What stays human
- Final sign-off on money, contracts, and hiring.
- The first reply to an angry customer.
- Anything where the rules change week to week.
- The work you started the business to do.
"We want a person for this" is a complete answer. It gets written down as a law, and no helper touches the task.
Your OK, every time
Nothing gets handed over without your OK. Selection is a dial, not a door: tasks move to AI when they prove ready, and back to humans when you change your mind. Every handover is written into the brain, so the whole team always knows who does what: a person, a helper, or a helper with human approval.
How we do it
This is level 2 of the 1slash service: Choosing what AI does. Each chosen task then becomes its own helper, with its own rules in Your way of working.