Critical Microtasks Can Have Macro Impact When Automated at Scale — Scheduler AI Co-founder and CEO

(US & Canada) Maddie Bell, Co-founder and CEO at Scheduler AI, speaks with Channie Mize, General Manager at Slalom, in a video interview about the company, the evolution of AI and GenAI into Agentive AI, and the automation of microtasks for creating macro-impact of AI.

Scheduler AI is an AI appointment setter that instantly books meetings and safeguards show rates.

Introducing herself as an accidental entrepreneur, Bell begins by stating that Scheduler AI was born when she and her Co-founder found a real problem to solve. She states that the company helps businesses instantly book meetings with their customers and clients, which in turn, fuels business growth.

At Scheduler AI, meetings are considered core growth drivers; thus, the focus is on building custom AI agents to help businesses manage them.

Delving deeper into AI and generative AI, Bell states that automation and AI are not new, but the fact that the technology has rapidly become mainstream is new. She notes that what people want from AI and generative AI truly depends on their state of comfort with it.

While some people do not know where to start with AI, others are trying to augment processes, says Bell. Further, people like herself are figuring out what GenAI and LLMs mean for the future of work and how these can be pushed to newer levels.

Next, Bell refers to GenAI as mass adoption AI, as GenAI is breaking down some critical silos. Elaborating, she points out the existing silos between the commercial and technical groups in an organization.

Now, AI demands a unique partnership between the commercial strategy and the technical sides to get things done, says Bell. This has caused interesting changes as the two siloed groups are now made to collaborate in new ways.

AI has now reached a state of mass awareness, and businesses are now capitalizing on AI and becoming aware of its new capabilities to gain a competitive advantage. However, within enterprises, proper application of AI would again require commercial and technical functions to collaborate, she reiterates.

Bell states that she finds it interesting to work with organizations that not only want to transform business results with the technology but are also ready to drive immediate adoption.

Shedding light on the aspect of AI as a dot connector, Bell discusses the evolution of AI in three phases. The first phase hit when everybody was trying to comprehend what the generative form of AI is, and it started with OpenAI and ChatGPT.

The second phase saw the integration of GenAI into different existing platforms, which has changed the way people use the current platforms. Bell finds its speed interesting and says that the technology is now moving into its third phase, which is agentive AI.

In the third phase, organizations are now able to utilize intelligent automation to achieve business workflows and transcend the platforms. With agentive AI at the fore, AI technology is viewed more like a team member rather than a tool.

Delving further, Bell states that with agentive AI in the team, managers can specifically sort the problems to be solved by humans and those that can be automated. She affirms that she works with people to identify and diagnose this.

To address this aspect, Bell insists on resetting organizational expectations on how problems can be solved. She then mentions having conversations with businesses about the business problems that need emphasis to get a macro-impact of AI. She says that businesses mostly end up listing the top three problems. Secondly, they want humans to tackle those problems.

Whereas, according to Bell, the real low-value tasks should not be automated and should be eliminated. However, she maintains that fundamentally critical microtasks can be automated with a tool, as they could have macro-impact when done at scale with speed.

Adopting this approach, Scheduler AI considers meetings as the blueprints of business growth, says Bell. She states that meetings define the who, what, and when of every organizational workflow.

While meetings are written off as microtasks, they create macro impact at scale, states Bell, and this is where AI becomes a force multiplier for organizations that can rethink processes.

In conclusion, she says that these critical microtasks are often left unseen because 90% of them are on autopilot. Bell adds that if organizations can change expectations around how work is done and add automation, it can create a massive impact.

CDO Magazine appreciates Maddie Bell for sharing her insights with our global community.