What AI can (and can't) take off a small team's plate

The first question most small teams have about AI is a simple one: what can it actually do for us? The honest answer depends on the task, and the line between “AI handles this well” and “AI gets this wrong” isn’t where most people expect it to be.

The line is jagged

In 2023, researchers from Harvard Business School and Boston Consulting Group tested AI with 758 consultants. On tasks that suited it, consultants using AI completed 12.2% more tasks, worked 25.1% faster and produced work rated more than 40% higher in quality. On a task just outside what AI does well, the same consultants were 19 percentage points less likely to reach the right answer than those working without it. The researchers called this the jagged technological frontier.

For a small team, the question isn’t whether AI works. It’s which of your tasks sit on the right side of that line.

What AI can take off your plate

Based on our experience building automations, the best candidates have three things in common:

• They repeat. The same steps every week: intake forms, follow-up emails, first drafts of standard documents.

• They follow a pattern. There’s a template, or a “right way” your team already uses.

• A person can check the output quickly. Reviewing takes minutes, not hours.

What it can’t

• Judgment calls. Pricing a job, handling an upset client, deciding what a finding means.

• Anything that’s new every time. If there’s no pattern, there’s nothing to automate.

• Accountability. In 2024, a British Columbia tribunal held Air Canada responsible for wrong information its chatbot gave a customer, and rejected the argument that the chatbot was responsible for its own actions. If your AI says it, your business said it.

Where to start

Pick one task your team repeats every week and write down each step. Mark the steps that follow a pattern, and the ones that need someone’s judgment. The first group is where AI can help. The second stays with your team, with AI drafting and a person approving.

That’s how we approach every project: automate the repetitive part, keep people on the decisions, and check the output before it reaches a client. You can read more on our approach to AI page.

If you’d like a second set of eyes on your list, book a call.