How AI can cover for you while you’re on vacation

Vacations can be enticing, but the thought of coming back to a pile of work can cut into the fun.

During a recent vacation, Jamie Haerewa didn’t worry about setting up meetings or fielding customers’ questions for the startup she runs.

That’s because artificial intelligence had her covered.

Haerewa is a cofounder and CEO of Agile HRO, which helps employers hire overseas.

When she set up her out-of-office, she made sure that an AI calendar tool to schedule meetings in her absence was running.

And she double checked that an AI bot that had been trained on the FAQs the company gets from customers was ready to handle the routine queries that came in. For the trickier ones, the bot was able to let people know Haerewa would be able to respond when she got back to the office.

Part of the promise of AI — and perhaps one of the most exciting aspects for desk workers — is the thought that AI can take over some of the humdrum. That would mean we, the people, could be left with more of what’s fun. And when it comes to vacation, what’s as fun and restorative as anything is getting away without worrying about what’s building up at the office.

“No one loves to come back to hundreds of emails,” Haerewa told B-17.

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The tasks AI took on for Haerewa when she was away aren’t everything she needed done, of course. But, overall, she enjoyed the assistance.

In fact, “I was kind of scared because there was not much to do when I came back,” she said.

Haerewa now expects to see AI take on more responsibilities even when she’s working. She said there are areas of social media management or data analytics where AI can automate some processes.

Yet, Haerewa said, AI can’t do it all just yet.

“It’s not going to close deals. It’s going to help if there’s a PR crisis, for instance, or any type of crisis which needs human involvement,” she said.

Keeping the demands limited

To get to where the AI was useful, and to where she wouldn’t worry it would hallucinate or offer some bananas response to customers, the company trained the tool on the main questions it gets.

“Then it won’t give out any answers that you haven’t trained it to,” Haerewa said.

Before she goes away the next time, she said, Haerewa would consider how she might use AI to help field questions she gets from within the company, not just externally. But Haerewa said she would also set up limits on what she would deputize an AI tool to do.

For now, Haerewa wouldn’t trust it with commercial contract signings and approvals, for example. Or there could be some urgent situation like a client wanting to terminate an employee.

“Stuff like that we wouldn’t leave to AI,” she said.

All that work left for humans is why she doesn’t expect employers will soon look to swap all of their people for bots. But what some bosses might do, Haerewa predicted, is one day use AI to reduce the size of their departments.

So, in the future, a team of 10 marketers might need only five people plus AI to get the same amount done, she said. The same might hold for areas like human resources or sales, Haerewa added.

But for now, she’s happy to use AI where she can to cut out some of the clutter that otherwise builds up when she steps away from work.

“This ability to maintain productivity when you’re away can revolutionize the concept of taking a break,” Haerewa said.