044: Give Away The Work...

Hi there

Quick question before we start. When did you last send something AI wrote for you without reading it first? (Be honest. Nobody is watching.) My drafts folder is full of emails my AI agents wrote for me: follow-ups, replies, proposals for clients.

Every one of them waits there until I have read it, changed what needs changing, and pressed send myself.

(Yes, this newsletter started as a draft too. My agent was writing it while I was speaking at a conference in Spain. You are reading the version after I got my hands on it.)

I have close to 30 AI agents by now. They collect my receipts, look after my website and help with my proposals. So they do a lot of the work.

Pressing send stays with me. So does deciding what I promise a client, or what I say on a stage.

That is the whole idea behind my keynotes this autumn. Give away the work. Never the judgment.

Time to read: 4 minutes

In this edition:
1. Leadership When AI Does the Work
2. Try This: Find Your Line With AI
3. One Last Thing: My Autumn Keynote Series

Leadership When AI Does the Work

Last week the World Economic Forum published a piece that could have been my speaker notes.

The point: as AI does more of the analysis and the doing, leadership moves to the decisions you cannot hand over.

The authors are specific about what those are: defining the problem, asking better questions, and spotting a challenge before it turns into a crisis.

That matches what I see every day with my own agents. They work through whatever I give them, fast and well. Choosing what to give them is my part.

It also gives two questions no system can settle for you: who has the responsibility, and whose interests are missing.

I would print those two and stick them next to the screen.

If you have seen my TEDx talk, some of this will sound familiar. I said it on that stage with the red carpet last autumn, and several times ever since: AI cannot take responsibility.

And near the end: let AI handle the rest. The sorting, the reminders, all that stuff that eats up your day.

This autumn I go one step further: what exactly you give to AI, and what you keep.

Try This: Find Your Line With AI

So how do you know what to do yourself, what AI should do, and where a mix of both works best?

I like to start with a simple picture. Microsoft's Work Trend Index 2025 describes three phases of working with AI. The short labels are mine.

Ask. AI is your assistant. It takes away the boring / time consuming / precision tasks off your plate and helps you do the same work better and faster.

Delegate. Agents join the team as digital colleagues and take on specific tasks or small workflows, at your direction. You do not do it once only, maybe you keep on delegating over and over again.

Run. You set the direction. Agents run whole processes, and you check in when needed.

Where am I personally? Honestly, in all three, depending on the task.

My receipts run on their own.

My proposals are mostly in Delegate. It starts with me: I put my thoughts down first as a voice memo. Then an agent turns the memo, the transcripts, the researches into a first draft, and we finalise it together.

From ask to run, the speed is increasing and AI is getting more and more autonomous. The further right a task moves, the less of each step you see. The line is getting thin, can you still take responsibility? So I suggest, draw the line first.

Which brings me to the prompt.

Maybe last time you did not get to do this prompt with me. Then do it now. It is the first step to see where the line sits between you and AI.

You need ten minutes and the AI tool that knows your work best: ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini. Pick the strongest model it offers (right now that is Astra, Fable 5.1 or similar).

When the answer comes back, go straight to the first list. The tasks that should remain fully human.

Do you agree with it?

The answer is only as good as what your AI tool knows about you. And it is worth running this prompt again from time to time, as your work changes.

(And if the answer sounds vague, ask it to be specific: use my real tasks. It listens.)

One Last Thing: My Autumn Keynote Series

Give away the work. Never the judgment.

That is the title of my autumn keynote series, and I am really happy to take it on the road.

The first stop was Barcelona, at the Criteo Travel Summit, for the top marketing and growth executives in the travel industry.

More than ten organisations follow this autumn, as a keynote and as a workshop.

If your leadership team, your offsite or your conference could use it, everything is on my speaker page. Or just hit reply, that works too.

Before I Go

That is it from me for this time.

What is on your fully human list? Hit reply and tell me, I read every answer.

Talk soon,

P.S. If you are near Zürich on Saturday 28 November, TEDxHWZ is back, with the theme Beneath the Surface. Last year the tickets were gone a month early.

How can we work together?

• You have rolled out Copilot. Your teams have gone through hundreds of training sessions. But in their daily work? Nothing's really changed. Take my free, 5-min assessment to see your AI leadership readiness.

• Hire me as your executive coach to help you master change. Sign up for a 30-min complimentary coaching call (waitlist applies).
• Book me as a speaker, panelist or moderator for your event. Get some impressions on how it is, here. Or watch my TEDx talk here.

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