Five tasks a private PA can hand to an AI partner this week
The most common question asked about AI in a private office setting is not how it works. It is where to start.
Broad capability is, in a sense, the problem. An AI partner can help with almost any language-based task — drafting, summarising, researching, organising, rewriting, translating, formatting. When the list of possibilities is nearly unlimited, it is easy to do nothing with it.
What follows is not a list of possibilities. It is a list of five specific tasks that a private PA or EA can hand to an AI partner this week, with a brief note on how to frame each one.
None of them require technical skill. All of them free up meaningful time.
1. Triaging a full inbox
Copy the subject lines and sender names from a full inbox into your AI partner and ask it to categorise them by urgency and type — action required, awaiting response, information only, no action needed. Ask it to flag anything that may have been overlooked.
This takes thirty seconds to set up. It produces a clear prioritised list that would otherwise take twenty minutes to construct mentally while reading.
2. Drafting a complex decline
Declining an invitation on behalf of a principal — particularly one that requires warmth, a credible reason, and a door left open — is one of the more time-consuming pieces of correspondence in a private office. It requires getting the tone right, which takes thought.
Provide your AI partner with the invitation, the reason for declining, and two or three words that describe the principal's usual correspondence tone. Ask for three draft versions at different lengths. Choose the closest, edit for accuracy, and send.
3. Summarising a long document for a principal brief
When a principal needs to make a decision based on a lengthy report, proposal, or legal document, they rarely need the full text. They need the key points, the decision required, and any risks worth noting.
Paste the document into your AI partner and ask for a brief in that exact format: key points, decision required, risks to note. Specify a maximum length — three paragraphs is usually sufficient. Check the output carefully against the source. Never pass a summary to a principal without verifying the figures and any specific claims.
4. Building a travel briefing structure
Ask your AI partner to produce a structured template for a travel briefing — covering flight details, ground transport, hotel information, meeting schedule, key contacts, emergency numbers, local notes, and a pre-departure checklist.
Use this template for every trip. Over time, annotate it with the principal's preferences — window seats, particular hotel requirements, how far in advance they want to know about schedule changes. The template becomes a working brief that any team member can populate.
5. Drafting a staff handover note
When a household or office team member is absent, information gets lost. Ask your AI partner to help you design a handover note template — what is in progress, what is outstanding, what the principal has coming up this week, who needs to be contacted about what, and any standing preferences the covering person needs to know.
Running this before every absence, however brief, is the difference between a smooth handover and an avoidable mistake.
The common thread
Each of these tasks shares a structure. You provide the context and the specific request. The AI partner drafts. You review, adjust where necessary, and either use the output or pass it forward.
The AI partner never sends, never books, and never confirms anything on your behalf. That final step belongs to you.
Start with one task this week. The time it saves will make the case for the next one.
From the Library: The AI Partner Guide covers these tasks and more, with five ready-to-use prompt templates. Available now.
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