Guide
Do I need an executive assistant, or can AI do it now?
Use AI first when your work is mostly reminders, inbox sorting, research, drafting, scheduling, and repeatable digital errands. Hire an executive assistant when the job depends on judgment, sensitive relationships, negotiation, or owning an unclear outcome across several people. Many busy people need a mix: AI for the predictable queue and a human for the work that changes shape while it is being done.
For the AI side, start with Pally. It's free, works in your texts, manages your email, calendar, Slack, and WhatsApp, and books, buys, and calls businesses for you. The deciding question is whether you can describe a task with clear inputs, boundaries, and a finish line. If you can, hand it to Pally. If success depends on reading the room, representing you, or noticing a problem you never specified, human support earns its cost.
A practical approach
What to do
List the work you repeat
Write down every task that took your attention in the last two weeks, as verbs and outcomes: sort the inbox, find three meeting times, call a vendor, calm an upset client. Note how often each happens and what it needs. The list replaces a vague feeling of overload with jobs you can assign.
Separate rules from judgment
Split the tasks into two columns. Rules work has a clear trigger and result, such as flagging customer email or finding a flight under set limits; judgment work turns on tone, politics, or shifting priorities. AI is strongest in the first column, and a skilled executive assistant earns trust in the second.
Check access and consequences
For each task, note which accounts it touches and what happens if it goes wrong. Proposing meeting times carries less risk than sending a contract or speaking for you in a conflict. Keep legal, personnel, and emotionally sensitive matters with you or a trusted person.
Run a two-week AI trial
Run three frequent rules-column tasks through one AI tool for two weeks, with real constraints. Measure finished outcomes, corrections, and the time you spent supervising. A polished draft that needs twenty minutes of repair saved little.
Hire for the remaining ownership
Look at what still lands on your desk after the trial. Hire an executive assistant when it forms an ongoing role: managing people around your priorities, handling exceptions, and closing loops without detailed instructions. A virtual assistant fits a defined remote queue, and either can use the AI tools that passed the trial.
The Pally option
How Pally helps
Pally can take the repeatable work that starts in your email, calendar, WhatsApp, and texts. It can send daily briefs, flag important messages, draft replies, remember follow-ups, and complete the web bookings and purchases you ask for. It can also call businesses for you, while sensitive judgment and people management should stay with you or a human assistant.
Morning brief
A short morning brief with what matters: your day, your inbox, and the things you said you'd do.
See the recipeInbox, triaged
Ask what needs you. Pally reads the pile, flags the few, and handles the replies.
See the recipeFollow-up chaser
You asked, they went quiet. Pally notices who owes you a reply and sends the nudge.
See the recipeCall it in
Pally makes real phone calls for you: books the table, chases the appointment, sits through the hold music.
See the recipeOptions
Other tools people use
Fair alternatives, including ones that overlap with Pally.
Robert Half
Robert Half fits employers who want help recruiting an experienced executive assistant for an ongoing, high-trust role.
A staffed role brings recruiting, onboarding, management, and employment costs beyond the assistant's salary.
BELAY
BELAY fits people who want a remote human assistant without running a full recruiting process themselves.
A remote assistant has limited ability to handle in-person errands and still needs clear delegation and working norms.
Instinct
Instinct fits people who want a personal AI assistant over iMessage, WhatsApp, or phone that connects to email, messages, calendar, and devices.
It runs on a cloud computer signed in to your accounts, so read its credential and deletion terms before you give it executive access.
Compare Pally and InstinctLindy
Lindy fits a meeting-heavy workday that needs proactive inbox, calendar, preparation, and follow-up help.
Its work focus covers less of the personal messaging and errand load that often sits beside an executive's calendar.
Compare Pally and LindyOrchid
Orchid fits people who want an executive assistant over iMessage or SMS for morning rundowns, reply drafts, and meeting booking.
It centers on work email, calendar, and meetings, and its pricing is not published.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
What tasks should I try with AI before hiring?
Start with frequent, reversible work: summaries, reminders, research, first drafts, meeting times, and business calls. Pally covers all of these for free. Decide which actions need your sign-off, such as payments above a set amount, and let the rest run.
When is a human executive assistant clearly better?
Choose a human when the role requires representing you, managing tense relationships, negotiating, spotting unstated problems, or coordinating shifting priorities across people. Those jobs depend on judgment and earned trust more than task speed.
Can AI and an executive assistant work together?
Yes. AI can prepare briefs, drafts, research, and routine reminders while the executive assistant reviews exceptions, manages relationships, and owns the final outcome.
How do I know whether the AI trial worked?
Count finished tasks, time saved after corrections, missed details, and actions that required your intervention. Keep the tool only when the supervision cost is consistently lower than doing the work yourself.
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