Build an Executive Assistant Agent
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Overview
Set up an agent that helps run your day—triaging inputs, drafting responses, prepping for what's ahead, and surfacing what needs your attention—as a personal chief of staff. This workflow covers scoping it safely, starting with low-risk tasks.
Best For
- Executives
- Managers
- Founders
- Busy professionals
Problem
The coordination overhead of a busy role—triaging inputs, drafting routine responses, prepping for meetings, tracking what needs attention—consumes time that should go to actual work. Most people can't justify a human assistant, so it all falls on them, fragmenting focus across dozens of small administrative decisions a day.
Solution
An executive assistant agent can take on the low-risk, high-frequency coordination: summarizing your inputs, drafting responses you approve, prepping briefs for upcoming meetings, and flagging what needs you. The critical design principle is scope discipline—start it on read-and-draft tasks where mistakes are cheap, keep approval on anything that acts externally, and expand its remit only as it earns trust. Never let it send or commit on your behalf unsupervised early on.
Workflow Steps
- 1
List your recurring admin tasks and rank them by how costly a mistake would be.
- 2
Start the agent on the lowest-risk ones: summarizing, drafting, prepping—never sending.
- 3
Give it context about your priorities, preferences, and voice so its drafts fit.
- 4
Keep a hard rule: it proposes, you approve anything that leaves your hands.
- 5
Review its work daily at first; note where it's reliable and where it isn't.
- 6
Expand its scope only into areas it's proven trustworthy—slowly.
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Example Prompt
You are my executive assistant. Help me handle my day. Start by helping me triage and prepare—do not send or commit to anything on my behalf. Here's what's on my plate: """ [PASTE INPUTS: emails to triage, meetings coming up, tasks, decisions pending] """ My priorities right now: [context] My communication style: [brief description] Do the following: 1. Triage: what needs my attention today vs. what can wait 2. Draft responses to routine items (for my approval) 3. Prep: brief me on anything I have coming up 4. Flag anything that needs a decision only I can make Present everything for my review. Never treat a draft as sent or a decision as made.