AI for EAs

Welcome to AI for EAs!

Firstly, thank you for taking the time to read this article. My name is Abi, a career EA with over 20 years experience under my belt. I’ve had exposure to multiple industries working in both corporates and non-corporates, large, medium and small organisations across a huge variety of cultures. Over the years I've developed a constant curiosity to seek out tools and ways of working that can be leveraged to help make my day-to-day work life more streamlined/efficient and increase productivity in order to focus on strategic high value tasks.??

Whether we like it or not, friend or foe, AI is here and it’s here to stay. So, we have two options, a) bury our heads in the sand and pretend it doesn’t exist, or b) get ahead of the curve by embracing and exploiting it to enable us in our roles. Imagine delegating processing expenses to a virtual EA (the dream!) or planning highly complex travel in seconds? It’s in our hands.?

AI presents an incredible opportunity for Executive Assistants to amplify our effectiveness, efficiency, and impact. By embracing AI-driven tools and technologies, we can streamline workflows, enhance communication, leverage data insights, facilitate collaboration, and automate mundane tasks. This, in turn, empowers us to elevate our roles, become more strategic contributors, and focus on activities that truly add value to our organisations.

Whilst AI refers to a broad field of computer science, I’ve recently become more and more curious about one AI application, ChatGPT, an AI language model developed by OpenAI. I’ve invested in looking at how it can free me up from time heavy, low value tasks such as note taking to focus on high value ticket items such as organising SLT offsites or mentoring junior members of the team.?

Here are just some of the ways we as EAs can leverage ChatGPT to enable us in our roles:

• Quick Information Retrieval: EAs often need to find relevant information quickly. ChatGPT can assist by providing instant answers to queries, retrieving specific data from documents or databases, or offering insights on a wide range of topics. EAs can rely on ChatGPT to access information efficiently, saving time and effort.
• Language Assistance: EAs frequently engage in written communication, including drafting emails, composing reports, or preparing documents. ChatGPT can act as a language companion, offering suggestions for phrasing, grammar, and tone. It can provide real-time proofreading and editing support, ensuring high-quality and polished written communication.
• Meeting Preparation: ChatGPT can assist EAs in preparing for meetings by providing background information on participants, suggesting potential discussion points, or summarising relevant documents. EAs can leverage ChatGPT to gather insights, anticipate questions, and better support executives in their decision-making processes.
• Calendar Management: EAs spend significant time managing schedules and coordinating meetings. ChatGPT can integrate with calendar platforms and assist in scheduling appointments by proposing available time slots, checking participants' availability, and sending automated meeting invites. It can simplify the calendar management process and minimise scheduling conflicts.
• Travel Planning: Planning and organising travel arrangements can be time-consuming for EAs. ChatGPT can offer support by providing recommendations for flights, hotels, and transportation options based on specific criteria. It can also assist in generating travel itineraries, suggesting local attractions or restaurants, and providing real-time travel updates.
• Task and Project Management: EAs often juggle multiple tasks and projects simultaneously. ChatGPT can serve as a virtual assistant, helping EAs organise and prioritise tasks, set reminders, and track progress. It can provide timely notifications, offer suggestions for task delegation, and ensure that deadlines are met efficiently.
• Virtual Assistant Integration: Many virtual assistant platforms integrate with AI language models like ChatGPT. EAs can leverage these integrations to enhance virtual assistants' capabilities, allowing them to handle more complex inquiries, provide personalised responses, and automate routine tasks.

Incorporating ChatGPT into our daily workflow enables us to deliver exceptional support, improve communication, and optimise task management.?

In the coming weeks I will continue to explore new ways to leverage AI and ChatGPT to drive innovation and improve decision-making. Join me as I share information in my upcoming posts, where we will dive deeper into practical tips, case studies, how to guides and insights on harnessing the power of AI and ChatGPT. We will cover items such as writing performance reviews, planning end-to-end complex travel, not having to(!) take meeting notes and much more. Stay tuned.

See you soon.

Abi x?