Eric Miquelon is President of Avanade North America.
I’ll never forget the first time I met Clippy. It was late one night in the late ’90s, and I was drafting a letter on my computer, which seemed pretty high-tech back then. I don’t remember what the letter was about, but I remember it was important.
No sooner had I opened a document and typed “Dear so-and-so” then the digital anthropomorphic paperclip—an early iteration of a virtual assistant—appeared in the corner of my screen.
“It looks like you’re writing a letter,” Clippy said. “Would you like help?”
No, I didn’t. I sent Clippy away and tried to refocus. A moment later, he reappeared on the screen. Trying, in vain, to help me. “It looks like you’re writing a letter…”
Fast-forward to 2024, and we’re entering a bold new age of virtual assistants. Powered by generative AI and seamlessly integrated with workplace applications, modern virtual assistants are doing everything from drafting emails and creating presentations to summarizing meetings and performing research—and that’s just scratching the surface.
Experimenting With AI
I recently had the opportunity to test-drive a prominent new virtual assistant offered by a well-known technology company.
Going in, I was skeptical. While I spend my days at work helping people and companies innovate, the one area where I shy away from disruption is my own workflow. What I do is time-consuming and complex, so I like to keep how I do it simple. Adding a new technology to the mix seemed risky.
What I underestimated was just how much mental energy I spent doing the things all business leaders have to do on a daily basis: reading and drafting emails, finding and prepping materials for my upcoming meetings, creating and editing presentations, the list goes on. In other words, I was spending a good chunk of my days hunting down information and trying to keep on top of things.
Then, a few weeks into my experiment, I found myself with something completely foreign to me: extra time. But it was more than just time; I had more creative energy to invest in the things that matter. That’s when the real potential of AI virtual assistants hit me.
I was shaving at least two hours off my workday, often more. That meant I could reinvest my time and energy into the most creative, human aspects of my job. It was more than a productivity enhancer. With AI in the passenger seat, I became better at what I do—and more satisfied with my work.
Gaining Greater Efficiency
In a recent article of mine, I laid out the ways that AI could reshape the way you think about time. I firmly believe that redefining our relationship with our time is key for other business leaders. I advise you to explore how a virtual assistant can help you reclaim some of your day to focus on what really matters—meeting with clients and co-workers, doing deeper thinking and planning.
My advice for fellow business leaders? Think about the areas of your workflow that tend to take an undue amount of time and could benefit from a virtual assistant. I find it particularly helpful for scanning and summarizing emails, for instance. Others might appreciate the ability to synthesize information across documents to present the most relevant information, enabling faster decision-making.
Try it out with just one task—then step back and evaluate to see how it impacts your work. My guess is that you could find yourself with more time on your hands for focused work, decision-making and other higher-level activities.
Here’s the thing: If efficiency is only the beginning, what happens when we implement virtual assistants at scale? What difference would that make to what the workforce accomplishes when they can invest more time and energy into the most creative, human elements of their work each day?
In the words of a bygone digital paperclip: “Would you like some help?”
Yes, as a matter of fact, we would.
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