AI as Your Teammate: The Key to Operational Efficiency

Much of the conversation around “AI in the workplace” today is often split into two camps: those who think it's overhyped and not worth the investment, and those who know it's important but have no idea where to start. Both groups are missing a critical insight. AI is not just another piece of software you buy; it's a strategic teammate you can integrate into your workflows to unlock significant time savings and new capabilities.

Your Teammate Who Can Train Itself

One of the biggest hurdles to adopting AI is simply knowing what to do with it. The good news is, AI can help you with that, too. My favorite way to get started is to simply give the AI context about your work and ask it how it can help you. AI is a teammate that can guide you on how to use it. For example, I might say: "Here is my client onboarding checklist. I manually perform these 10 steps for every new client. How can I use AI to make this process more efficient?" The AI will analyze the list and provide actionable suggestions, such as using an automation to create a project folder, draft initial email templates based on client details, or set up calendar invites. It helps you find the opportunities you didn’t even know to look for.

It’s important to point out that the teams that get the most out of AI are the ones that use it as a teammate and not as a tool. The difference lies both in how you approach your interactions with the AI and the knowledge you need to get started. Consider this: if you have a new human added to your team, meant to free up time and take some work off your plate, you wouldn’t have to know the exact things you’d want them to do. Instead, you’d give them a lot of context about the project you’re working on together or the tasks you perform, explain the output you’d like for them to provide and- if you’re doing it right- ask them what other information they’d need in order to get that output done. That means that, unlike software like Excel, Python or a new CRM, you don’t have to know exactly how to use it. With AI, you can use its plain-language abilities to dialogue with it, provide it context and feedback and work it into your existing workflows.

Adding a Human Touch with AI

A lot of people worry that automation will make their business feel impersonal and cold. The reality is, when you use AI as a teammate, it can be the key to getting more done while simultaneously adding a human touch. In fact, it can turn an otherwise robotic process into a deeply human one as long as you put in the effort to give it feedback and the context it needs to learn the voice of your brand and to write in it.

Take new client onboarding, for example. Many businesses handle this with a generic, transactional workflow: a new client signs a contract and is then immediately met with a cold, templated "Welcome" email from a no-reply address. The message provides links to a form they need to fill out and a resource page. It's efficient, but it's completely devoid of any human connection.

Now, let's imagine the same process with AI as a teammate. As soon as the contract is signed, the AI pulls key details from the CRM, including notes from the initial sales calls and any specific goals the client shared. Using this context, it drafts a personalized welcome email. The email doesn't just say "welcome"—it references the specific pain points the client is looking to solve and expresses excitement about tackling their unique challenges. The AI then automatically creates a series of tasks for your team in your project management software, ensuring the right people get to work on the client's specific needs without a single copy-and-paste.

The result is a workflow that’s not just efficient but genuinely human-centered. The AI has handled all the tedious administrative work, freeing up your team to do what they do best: build relationships and provide high-quality service. Your new client feels heard and valued from the moment they sign on, while your team can get straight to the strategic, value-add work that only they can do. The important key, though, is to make sure you train the AI to understand what your brand should sound like and what would actually make a person feel heard and valued. That training is the human touch.

AI as a Strategic Asset, Not a Job Killer

It’s vital to use AI as a teammate to supplement your team, not as a tool to replace people. The absolute best use of AI is to help your team do what only people can do: use real imagination, build relationships, and drive innovation.

I believe that in the next decade you’ll see the following strata emerge in the business world:

1) most organizations that refuse to adopt AI will just go away- they’ll simply be out-competed;

2) some of those orgs that get quick wins by out-competing the anti-AI crowd will use their AI to replace workforce and will see great short-term financial gain that will eventually dry up;

3) the real winners will be the ones who adopted AI early and used it to supplement their team- not replace it- and they will have turned their people toward more value-add work: pushing their foot on the accelerator rather than turning on cruise control.

Trust me, your team won’t dislike bringing in AI to take the annoying time-suck tasks off their plate. As long as it’s not used as a tool to put them out of a job and just frees them up to do the things they like doing, you’ll see huge benefit in worker satisfaction and, hopefully, lower attrition.

At 11th Street Consulting, my work is rooted in helping organizations apply tried-and-true principles of Lean Six Sigma and PMP, along with innovative automation and good people management to find these kinds of opportunities. The goal is always to improve the system so that your people can do their best work. When you use AI strategically, you don't just streamline your operations—you create a more efficient, profitable, and human-centric organization.

Ready to explore how AI can become a powerful teammate for your business? Contact 11th Street Consulting today to learn more.