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Real automation takes tens of hours, not one master prompt
Before I got into this, I thought people bragging about their AI agents had written one really good prompt. They had not.
I would see posts about people with a team of AI agents working for them around the clock, and I assumed they had written one great prompt. It takes more work than that.
Saving a few minutes here or an hour there is easy. If that is what you want, you can have it quickly. Truly automating a job is different. It takes tens of hours of setting things up, testing and checking. AI cannot read your mind about what good looks like.
A sliver at a time
To take over a job end to end, you replace a sliver of it, then a thicker sliver, then a thicker one. The reasoning is already there. What it also needs is decision rules, and the right information to make each decision.
The hard part is the exceptions. It is the same reason self-driving cars have taken so long: the situation that comes up once in a million miles, which a person handles without thinking.
A firm is harder than a person
Setting up AI for one person is one thing. Rolling it out across a firm is, by my estimate, three to five times harder. Adoption, consistent processes, keeping data in sync, permissions, rules: there is a lot to get right.
What it means for you
Set honest expectations. A few hours a week back is a realistic early win. Bigger change takes longer, happens one job at a time, and is worth it when the job is the right one.
What is one job in your office you would want running on its own?
Start with a conversation
Tell Devan about the repeat work that takes the most time in your practice. If AI is a good fit, he will say so. If it is not, he will say that too.
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