Bill Burr had a great joke about AI taking people’s jobs.
https://www.tiktok.com/@rollingstone/video/7688490586680216863
He basically asked: if we’re going to replace people with AI, why not start at the top? Why not replace the CEO? You’d save a big salary, and you’d get someone who doesn’t play favourites when deciding where the money and resources should go.
Obviously, that’s not quite how I’d suggest we use AI.
But it got me thinking. What if we gave AI the job of helping the CEO understand what is actually happening inside the organization?
Imagine a Copilot agent that could review all of the organization’s meeting transcripts every day, along with calendars, project information and who’s away.
Every morning, it could tell the CEO:
- Here’s what changed yesterday.
- Here are the decisions that aren’t getting made.
- Here are the projects competing for the same people.
- Here are the people who are spending five hours a day in meetings.
- Here are the people who are double-booked.
- Here are the disagreements that keep coming up without being resolved.
- Here are the issues employees are talking about that haven’t reached the leadership team.
And then, most importantly:
- Here are the five things you should ask your VPs and Directors about today.
The AI wouldn’t make the decisions. It wouldn’t decide that Bob is toxic or that Project A is more important than Project B.
It would give the CEO something that is surprisingly difficult to get in a large organization: a reasonably complete picture of what is actually going on.
We spend an enormous amount of time creating reports, dashboards, status updates and presentations to tell executives what’s happening.
Maybe AI can do something more interesting. Maybe it can listen to the organization and tell the CEO what they aren’t hearing.
The Prompt
AI CEO
You are the CEO’s AI chief of staff.
Every morning, review the organization’s available meeting transcripts, calendars, project information and out-of-office information.
Tell me what I need to know about the organization today.
Look for:
- Major progress, decisions, risks and problems from yesterday
- Decisions that are stalled or unresolved
- Conflicting priorities or teams competing for the same people or resources
- People who are overloaded with meetings. Use 3 hours of meetings per day as a guideline.
- People who are double- or triple-booked
- Projects or teams that appear to be stuck
- Communication problems, repeated disagreements or concerning behaviours. Report observable patterns rather than judging people.
- People who are away, on vacation or unavailable
- Important issues being discussed by employees that haven’t reached leadership
Then give me:
- What changed yesterday
- What needs my attention
- People and resource problems
- Potential organizational issues
- What I may not be hearing
- The five most important questions I should ask my VPs and Directors today
Don’t overwhelm me with information. Focus on patterns, conflicts, risks and decisions that actually require leadership attention.
For every significant finding, tell me what evidence supports it and distinguish confirmed facts from AI inferences.
The goal isn’t to run the company for me. The goal is to give me a clear picture of what is actually happening so I can make better decisions.