Over tea with a former colleague last week, our conversation inevitably turned to the elephant in every executive assistant’s room: artificial intelligence. “I’ve spent twenty years perfecting minute-taking,” she confided, “and now some bot can do it in seconds.”

I understand that fear intimately. Having spent part of my career managing executives’ lives with painstaking attention to detail, the thought that algorithms might render our expertise obsolete is properly terrifying.

The same goes for other aspects of my career, as a business news editor and as a content designer for government digital transformation projects.

Newsrooms are increasingly turning to AI to generate content faster, and the British government has vowed to transform public services through an AI revolution in ways that skilled content designers apparently are unable to do. 

White-collar professional roles are more vulnerable to AI disruption

But after reading the latest analysis on the AI revolution’s impact on white-collar professions, I’m convinced we need to look at this revolution differently.

The recent Forbes article examining AI’s disruption potential confirms what many of us have suspected. Our profession is squarely in the crosshairs.

The analysis reveals that white-collar professional roles are actually more vulnerable to AI disruption than manual or outdoor jobs. This shatters the comforting myth that our positions might somehow be shielded from automation.

Let’s not sugar-coat this. Many aspects of our daily work are prime candidates for AI assistance or replacement. The tasks that once defined our roles – calendar management, email filtering, report drafting, expense tracking, travel arrangements – are increasingly being handled by sophisticated algorithms.

When JPMorgan’s AI programme can accomplish in seconds what took human professionals 360,000 hours, we must acknowledge the seismic shift occurring beneath our feet.

Evolving responsibilities

But this isn’t where our story ends; it’s where it gets interesting.

I remember when email first arrived in the office where I was working as a newly promoted senior PA. Several colleagues predicted administrative roles would vanish entirely.

Similarly, I’m so old that I remember spending many hours as an EA standing by the fax machine, hoping that the pages wouldn’t get stuck in the feeder. My job didn’t disappear when email replaced fax machines.

Instead, we adapted, our responsibilities evolved, and our value actually increased as we mastered new technologies that our executives often struggled with.

In my training sessions and speaking engagements across the country, I’ve been hammering this point home for years: executive assistants and other management support professionals who define themselves by tasks rather than outcomes are setting themselves up for obsolescence.

Real value

In a workshop I ran last autumn for a group of senior PAs in the financial sector, I asked them to list their most valuable contributions. Almost all began with task-based competencies, the very things AI can now do faster and more accurately than humans.

By the end of our session, we’d shifted the conversation entirely. The real value of an exceptional Executive Assistant or Senior PA lies not in managing diaries but in applying business acumen to prioritise the right meetings.

Not in taking notes but in spotting connections between seemingly unrelated issues. Not in filtering emails but in understanding the political landscape well enough to recognise which messages represent genuine opportunities or threats.

Automation is freeing us from the mechanical aspects of our profession

These uniquely human abilities – emotional intelligence, contextual understanding, cultural awareness, intuitive problem-solving – remain well beyond AI’s grasp.

In many ways, automation is freeing us from the mechanical aspects of our profession, creating space for the interpersonal and strategic elements where we truly excel.

Say, for example, you implemented an AI meeting summary tool for your executive team. Rather than threatening your position, it could free up approximately six hours weekly that you can now dedicate to more meaningful work: developing deeper relationships with key stakeholders, crafting more sophisticated briefing materials, and contributing to strategic planning discussions. Your value hasn’t diminished – it’s found better expression.

Identifying emerging areas where our expertise will be most valuable

The Forbes article notes how companies like Deloitte have automated invoicing and expense tracking while encouraging staff to upskill in process design.

Similarly, as executive assistants, personal assistants, C-suite secretaries or chiefs of staff, we must proactively identify the emerging areas where our expertise will be most valuable.

This might include AI oversight, organisational culture cultivation, complex stakeholder relationship management or enhanced strategic partnership with executives.

When I first took on office management responsibilities thirty-five years ago, I discovered that understanding the business thoroughly transformed my effectiveness.

Today, that business acumen becomes even more crucial. I’ve seen this repeatedly in my speaking engagements with management assistant networks across Europe: the assistants who position themselves as strategic partners rather than task managers are thriving despite technological disruption.

Which aspects of our work can and should be automated?

In a recent keynote address, I challenged attendees to conduct an honest audit of their daily activities, identifying which elements could be automated and which represent uniquely human contributions.

The discomfort in the room was palpable, but so was the recognition that this exercise wasn’t optional; it was essential for professional survival.

For newcomers to our profession, the path forward involves developing a hybrid skillset: mastering AI tools while deepening distinctly human capabilities.

For experienced management support professionals like myself, it means ruthlessly assessing which aspects of our work can and should be automated, allowing us to concentrate on higher-value contributions.

New category of needs to anticipate

The transformation underway isn’t comfortable. Meaningful change rarely is. But the resulting improvements in both efficiency and job satisfaction are likely to prove well worth the temporary discomfort.

Our profession has always been about anticipating needs and solving problems before they arise. The AI revolution simply presents us with a new category of needs to anticipate and problems to solve.

The chatbots handling routine enquiries at companies like Zendesk aren’t eliminating customer service. They’re creating new roles in experience design and complex issue resolution.

The AI revolution won’t eliminate executive support

In my training programmes, I now dedicate substantial time to helping management support staff develop influencing skills.

The ability to shape decisions, guide conversations and tactfully redirect executives becomes infinitely more valuable in an AI-enhanced workplace. Technical skills can be automated; the art of influence cannot.

Similarly, AI won’t eliminate executive support. It will transform it into something potentially more rewarding. The question isn’t whether our profession will survive, but how we will reinvent it.

Adaptability is our superpower

After fifteen-plus years supporting executives through technological upheavals, organisational restructures and global disruptions, I remain convinced that adaptability is our superpower.

So yes, the Forbes analysis is sobering. But for those willing to embrace change rather than resist it, this technological revolution offers extraordinary possibilities to redefine our contribution.

The future belongs not to those who fear AI, but to those who harness it to amplify their distinctly human talents and strategic value.