The world of work has transformed beyond recognition. We sit before screens for hours, our colleagues reduced to pixelated faces in rectangles. AI tools draft our emails, schedule our meetings and predict our needs before we’ve articulated them.

For Executive Assistants, this shift presents an existential question: in a world where technology can mimic so much of what we do, what makes us irreplaceable?

The answer lies in something no algorithm can replicate: authentic human connection.

I’ve spent years working with content design and tone of voice, watching organisations struggle with this very question. How do you maintain humanity when technology mediates nearly every interaction? The parallels with the Executive Assistant profession are striking and worth exploring.

The false promise of perfection

AI promises efficiency, consistency and error-free communication. It will draft your correspondence without typos, schedule your meetings without calendar conflicts and track your deliverables without forgetting a single detail.

Yet there’s something utterly exhausting about perfection. Something that makes us distrust it.

I learned this lesson when developing content for Cancer Research UK‘s massive website, which is a source of reliable information for millions of people each month.

Initially, we aimed for clinical precision in every line. After all, lives potentially hung in the balance.

But user research revealed something surprising: readers found overly polished content less trustworthy. They wanted to feel a human voice speaking to them during perhaps the most frightening time of their lives.

The same happened when I wrote the national drink spiking advice and information service for Police.UK, the website used by 82% of police forces in England and Wales. Victim support organisations praised it for having an “exactly right” authentic tone of voice. 

Executive Assistants face the same paradox. Your executives don’t want a flawless automaton. They want someone who understands the unspoken context, who can read the room, who knows when to push back and when to step in. They want someone real.

The trust equation

When I worked on content design for Universal Credit, it revealed how deeply mistrust can embed itself in systems. Recipients approached every communication with suspicion: what’s the hidden agenda? What are they not telling me? What will they use against me?

For Executive Assistants, trust is currency. Your executives must trust you with confidential information, their professional vulnerabilities and sometimes their personal struggles. This trust isn’t built through perfect execution of tasks; it’s built through authentic connections.

When you admit a mistake, show appropriate vulnerability or demonstrate genuine care, you’re not showing weakness. You’re demonstrating your irreplaceable humanity. You’re building the trust that technology can never establish.

Since the pandemic pushed us into remote and hybrid working, building this trust has become both more challenging and more essential. The casual conversations that once happened naturally must now be intentionally created. The rapport built through shared physical space must be deliberately cultivated across digital channels.

Finding your authentic voice

In content design, we speak of “tone of voice” as something deliberately crafted. But for Executive Assistants, authenticity isn’t something you design. It’s something you uncover by removing the barriers between your true self and your professional persona.

This doesn’t mean sharing everything or ignoring professional boundaries. It means bringing your genuine curiosity, empathy, and perspective to work rather than hiding behind a fabricated “professional” facade that feels safe but connects with no one.

I’ve seen EAs transform their effectiveness not by becoming more polished, but by becoming more present. By listening not just to capture action items but to truly understand. By responding not with scripted phrases but with genuine engagement.

When an executive faces a difficult decision, they don’t need an AI to present perfect options. They need someone who understands the nuances, who can reflect back what they’re hearing, who can challenge assumptions from a place of support. They need you, the complete human with insights no algorithm can replicate.

The courage to be imperfect

The greatest irony of our AI-saturated work environment is that as technology becomes more “perfect,” our human imperfections become more valuable.

Your lived experience, your intuition, your ability to navigate ambiguity aren’t weaknesses to be eliminated but strengths to be embraced. When you bring your authentic self to your role, you create space for others to do the same. You build a work environment where genuine connection thrives.

A perfect example is my friend Maria, who delivered a hilarious speech at my wedding. Many years ago, Maria really was “working as a waitress in a cocktail bar” in the City of London. But a mutual friend hired her for his sales team in a global tech company, because he recognised the value of her authentic personality and fab interpersonal skills. Maria quickly rose to head of sales. True story.

By contrast, I once worked with an EA who maintained a facade of unflappable perfection. It was as if she was playing a persona. Her emails were flawless, her calendar management impeccable. But executives routinely asked me if they could work with other assistants. Why? Because working with her felt like working with a machine: efficient but exhausting.

Contrast this with another EA whose occasional typos were offset by her remarkable ability to anticipate needs, to understand the personal context behind professional requests and to bring warmth to every interaction. Executives fought to keep her on their team, even as AI tools became available that could handle many of her administrative tasks without errors.

The path forward

For Executive Assistants navigating this AI-transformed landscape, the path to irreplaceability isn’t through outperforming the machines at their own game. It’s through embracing what makes us uniquely human.

This means cultivating genuine connections despite the barriers of remote work. It means bringing your perspective and insights rather than simply executing tasks. It means understanding that your value lies not in perfection but in presence.

As our work environments continue to evolve, those who thrive will be those who recognise that authenticity isn’t an optional soft skill – it’s the essential foundation of meaningful work. In a world where AI can draft a perfect email but can’t feel genuine empathy, your humanity isn’t a liability to be minimised. It’s your greatest professional asset.

For Executive Assistants, this truth offers both challenge and promise. The challenge is to bring your authentic self to work even when it feels vulnerable. The promise is that in doing so, you become not just valuable but truly irreplaceable.