The question that separates AI users from AI leaders
It's not just about the hours saved to AI. It's about what those hours become.
Most of the time when I train assistants on AI, their first and most urgent question is this:
“What are the things I’m doing every day that AI could help me do more efficiently?”
Good starting point — but better to also ask:
“What more could I be doing in my role now that I have AI as an assistant and a thought partner?”
Meaning what’s possible now that wasn’t before.
Two ways to think about this:
What gaps could I fill for my exec or their team, beyond my current job description?
What stretch projects could I take on that I've never attempted before, with some coaching from AI?
Figuring this out is the ticket to raising the ceiling on your role.
(Btw: the answers to these questions will be different for every single one of you. There is no silver bullet. You need to work that out for yourself!)
One example from a London-based EA
Here's an example of one of my clients who successfully did this: H, based in London 🙋🏼♀️
H works for a fintech scale-up. She stepped up to take on a stretch project for her exec team: analyzing employee engagement data (typically a HR function).
This involved slicing and dicing the data by different parameters — for example, how does happiness and belonging differ between remote vs in-office folks, or between US-based vs UK-based folks. She’d generate a detailed analysis of the data and actionable recommendations.
Without AI? This job would have taken several days of manual work. Work H wasn't an expert at doing, and didn't have capacity to do regularly.
With AI? (specifically by building a Custom GPT as part of the Carve AI program) H was able to do this in 2-3 hours, making it an achievable stretch project to own.
AI just raised the ceiling on H's role 💥
How to spot these tasks and projects
It all comes down to mindset. You need to get super curious.
Many of you are EAs because you’re curious and love the access of the role (that was me).
Think about:
Where are there capacity pinch points — a team that’s under-resourced, several projects landing at once?
Where are failures happening — deadlines missed, balls dropped?
Is your exec (or their team) behind on any key priorities this quarter?
When you’ve identified a problem, come up with a plan to help and go ask to be part of the solution.
Figure out how AI might help you here — maybe coaching you in uncharted territory, helping you structure the project, or even drafting some of the work itself.
📆 If you want to deep dive into the mindset shifts you need to thrive in the age of AI, join Rachael Bonetti and me for a FREE fireside chat next Wednesday, November 19th at 12pm ET | 5pm UK.
Rachael is someone I have a huge amount of respect for, and this conversation is one you don't want to miss.
Register for free (and if you can't make it live, register anyway and we'll send you the recording after).
Ready to raise the ceiling on your role with AI?
If you want guidance on all of this, I’d love to invite you into the winter cohort of Carve AI.
This isn’t a cookie-cutter course, it’s choose your own adventure style. You’ll experiment with AI tools, learn automation, and get inspired by a community of ambitious assistants on the same journey.
So here’s what you get:
✔️ 7 weeks of live sessions + hands-on projects
✔️ Just 2-3 hours per week to transform how you work
✔️ A supportive community to share experiments and wins (side note: in the current cohort of Carve AI we had 43 use cases and 27 powerful prompts shared in our WhatsApp in the first week of the course alone 🤯)
Bottom line? You’ll walk away more confident, more efficient, with a deep understanding of how to use AI + automation in your daily work.
Early Birds save £300 until Nov 26.