How to pick a good first job for your bot Explainer
3 min read
Not sure what to hand your bot first? The best starter jobs are small, repeat often, are easy to check and are easy to undo. Here's how to spot them.
The short version
Your first job for a bot should be boring. Pick something small that you do often, that takes you a few minutes each time, and where you can tell at a glance whether the result is right. Save the big, risky or once-a-year jobs for later, once you know how your bot works.
Four questions to ask about any task
- Does it repeat? A job you do every day or every week pays off again and again. A one-time job saves time only once.
- Can you describe it in two or three sentences? If you can explain it to a new helper quickly, you can explain it to a bot. If it needs an hour of background, start smaller.
- Is it easy to check? A short summary or a list is quick to look over. A long report full of numbers takes real effort to verify. See how to check a bot's work.
- Is it easy to undo? A draft, a list or a new file can simply be thrown away. A sent email, a payment or a deleted file can't. Start with jobs where a mistake costs nothing.
Good first jobs
- Summaries: "What came in today, and what needs a reply?" Reading and condensing is something bots do well, and you can check it against the originals. See reading and summarizing an inbox.
- Drafts you review: replies, product descriptions or short notes that the bot writes and you edit and send yourself. See drafting replies for your approval.
- Lists and tables: pulling scattered information into one tidy list, like this week's meetings or a set of orders in a spreadsheet.
- Simple research: comparing a few options and listing the pros and cons, with links you can open to check.
Jobs to save for later
- Anything that sends messages to other people without you looking first.
- Anything that spends money, issues refunds or changes prices.
- Anything that deletes or overwrites files or records.
- Big jobs with many steps that all have to go right.
These aren't off limits forever. Once you trust a simpler version, you can add them with an approval step, so the bot prepares the work and waits for your OK. See Staying safe with AI bots.
Start small, then grow it
A good pattern is to grow one job in stages:
- Ask once. Try the job in a normal chat and see how the result looks.
- Fix the request. Reply with what to change until the result is what you want. Writing good requests helps here.
- Save the steps. When it works, ask the bot to save the steps as a skill so it's done the same way next time.
- Put it on a schedule. If it's something you want every morning or every Monday, turn it into a routine.
Still stuck for ideas?
Keep a note for one week. Every time you think "this again?", write it down. At the end of the week, the tasks that show up most often and pass the four questions above are your best first jobs. You can also ask your bot to help you sort the list.
Where to go next
Read How to write a request your bot gets right the first time, then try one of the ideas below.
Ideas to try
- Finding repeat tasks.
Here are the tasks I do most weeks: [list them]. Sort them by which would make the best first job for you: repeats often, quick to describe, easy to check and easy to undo. Explain your top pick in one sentence.
- Trying a low-risk starter job.
Summarize my unread email from today in a short list: sender, subject and whether it needs a reply. Don't reply to or change anything.
- Turning a job that works into a habit.
That summary was just what I wanted. Save the steps you used as a skill so you do it the same way next time.