What we refuse to automate
A short list, and the reasoning behind each line.
Every first meeting ends with the same question, asked in different words. Where does this stop. It is a fair question, and we would rather answer it before anyone signs anything. So here is the list we work from. It is short on purpose.
The first conversation with a person in trouble. A tenant behind on rent, a patient with a result they do not understand, a parent whose child has been sent home. A machine can draft the letter. It should not be the one that opens the door.
Any decision that can be appealed. If a person can say “that is unfair” and someone has to answer, that someone must be a person who made the decision, or at least read it. Software can sort the pile. It cannot own the outcome.
The apology. When something goes wrong, the message that says so is written by the person responsible, in their own words, even if it takes an afternoon.
Anything the team does not want to explain. If the people doing the work cannot describe in one paragraph what the tool does with their words, it is not ready. Not because it is dangerous, but because nobody will trust it, and an untrusted tool is a tool that gets worked around.
Everything else is on the table, and most of it is boring, which is the point. Timesheets, the weekly summary, the first draft of the minutes, the search through last year’s folder. The work that eats the afternoon and that nobody misses.