How I used automation and AI to redefine the EA role

When I first joined Zapier as an executive assistant (EA), my success was measured by how invisible I could make the natural chaos of a fast-growing startup. If the calendars ran like clockwork, the inbox never spilled over, and the hundred tiny details of the week magically held together, that meant I was doing my job.

EA work has always required precision. You learn to anticipate needs before they surface, catch the small signals no one else sees, and operate just ahead of the avalanche. And for a long time, I thought this was the gold standard: be fast, accurate, and indispensable.

But here's the thing about being indispensable: it can accidentally trap you in the work you're good at, instead of pulling you toward the work you're meant for.

As Zapier grew, so did the complexity of the business and the demands on my role. I realized that if I kept working the same way (meticulously and manually), I'd never actually be able to elevate my work. I'd just get better and faster at the same tasks. And that's when I did something a little scary: I started using automation and AI to redesign the parts of my job that didn't need me. 

That decision opened the door to the next version of my career. 

EA work as manual precision (and why that's a problem)

At the start of my career, my days were built on repetition. I was managing calendars, wrangling travel logistics, capturing meeting notes, keeping information flowing between teams, and doing quality control on practically everything.

None of this was mindless. EAs are precision athletes. But that level of precision is exhausting. I found myself spending so much time maintaining workflows that I didn't have the space to actually improve them.

My job wasn't becoming more strategic. It was becoming heavier.

If my value was tied only to being the person who could do everything manually, then I would never be able to take on the bigger and more ambiguous work like helping leaders make decisions faster, improving cross-functional workflows, or designing systems for the company instead of just coping with them.

I didn't want to be the human glue that held everything together. I wanted to be the architect who built something strong enough that it didn't need glue.

Using automation and AI to redefine the EA role 

The shift to working myself out of my role started small: tiny experiments that felt low-risk and high-curiosity. I automated calendar triage, meeting prep, and travel workflows. I layered in AI to clean up notes, generate summaries, and build structure around messy information. Tasks that used to take 20 to 30 minutes now took two or one. 

That's when I started redefining the job itself: 

• Instead of manually shepherding information, I was designing how information moved.

• Instead of being the fixer, I became the builder.

• Instead of being the "person who knows everything," I became the "person who creates systems so no one needs to know everything."

AI accelerated that shift even more. I could build logic into notes, drafts, timelines, or quarterly planning docs. I could scale myself in ways that weren't humanly possible before. And I was spending my time doing things that genuinely required my perspective and partnership.

AI and automation didn't replace me. It made space for the next version of my role.

EAs as system designers and leverage builders

Once I removed myself from the repetitive work, I could see the bigger picture: EAs aren't just task-doers; we're system designers.

We're often the only people who have visibility across leaders, teams, workflows, and communication patterns. We're the connective tissue of an organization, which means we're perfectly positioned to build the systems that make everything flow.

And when you look at the role through that lens, something shifts. You stop asking, "How do I get all this done?" And you start asking, "How could this run without me?"

That question isn't threatening to me. It's liberating. It pushes you from being a pair of hands to being a multiplier. It turns you into someone who builds leverage for leaders, teams, and the whole organization.

For me, that meant:

• Designing automated reporting workflows so leaders get insights without me manually compiling them. 

• Creating AI-powered templates that standardize communications and documentation. 

• Turning recurring processes into simple, reliable, self-serve systems. 

• Building scalable workflows that new teams could adopt without reinventing anything. 

The more I automated, the more strategic trust I earned—not because I did more tasks, but because I was solving bigger problems.

Building AI fluency: How others can make the same shift

If you're an EA (or any operational role) looking to do the same, you don't need to leap into advanced automation or build-your-own-AI-app territory. At Zapier, we think of AI fluency as something you build level by level and not a single leap.

Here's how we map AI skills across four stages, and what it can look like for an EA to move through them.

The future of the EA role is bigger than the tasks we used to do

AI isn't replacing EAs. It's expanding what we're capable of.

When I freed myself from the repetitive parts of my role, I discovered there was so much more I could contribute, like bigger problems, cleaner systems, stronger operational clarity, and a level of strategic partnership I would've never reached if I'd stayed buried in my inbox.

My work didn't become less human. It became more human.

And that's the shift happening across the EA world: We're evolving from operators into designers. From doers into multipliers. From indispensable individuals to architects of leverage.

The next version of the EA role isn't about managing chaos. It's about building a world where chaos has fewer places to hide.

Related reading: 

• My top agents as Zapier's first AI Automation Engineer for HR

• The best AI courses for beginners

• How to achieve your career growth goals through experience and exposure