The org chart … a thing I build and update once a year during planning phases, but which has little to no resemblance to my organization shortly thereafter. Or at least until several months ago.

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When I started looking for AI automation opportunities, I tried automating whole job functions. But every automation that worked solved a small, subtask-level job. Stringing those together is how I eventually automated significant portions of a job function.

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What I realized was that a well-built org chart can surface a lot of automation use cases.

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For example, as the main marketing person for L2 Digital (Role), one of my responsibilities is engaging leads, so I write and send out an email newsletter (Job Function). To do that, I need to write the intro article (Task), which involves identifying a topic, researching it, referencing past content, and drafting an outline (all Subtasks).

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Automation does the prep work now so I can focus on writing the draft. Once done, automation handles the upload.

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Those small, repetitive subtasks are where the real AI wins came from for me and my clients.

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If I automate 80-90% of the effort involved in one subtask, then another, I've eliminated a significant portion of the larger task while staying involved in critical steps. Repeat that across several tasks, and you automate meaningful portions of an entire job function.

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Eventually, I'm spending less time on repetitive work and more time doing the stuff I'm uniquely good at and enjoy. Full transparency: Writing email articles (or anything really) isn't one of them, but there's a line to where I'll hand over ownership.

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Now I regularly revisit my org chart and add repetitive subtasks as I find them. It’s become the AI automation sandbox I work out of and my reminder on how certain parts of the job get done.‍

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Bonus opportunity: With clients, I look for roles where several people do the same work, like sales or customer service. Automating one subtask they all share becomes a force multiplier for performance and efficiency.‍

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AI transformation starts at the subtask level. Build small.