Key Takeaways
- Managers often drown in administrative tasks that prevent them from actually leading
- AI can handle mechanical workflows through workflow automation—like 1:1 preparation, feedback drafting, and meeting summaries
- The goal isn't to replace thinking—it's to reduce the friction around thinking
- Add up these workflows and you're looking at 5-10 hours a week that could go back to actual management
Managers are drowning in work that isn't managing.
Writing. Summarizing. Searching. Preparing. Documenting. Administrative tasks that consume hours but don't develop people, don't advance strategy, and don't move the important work forward.
The actual management—coaching, decision-making, removing obstacles, building the team—gets squeezed into whatever time is left.
AI won't do your job for you. But it can handle a surprising amount of the work around your job, freeing you up for the parts that actually require a human manager.
Here are ten workflows where AI can save you meaningful time every week.
1. Preparing for One-on-Ones
Before: You're scrambling five minutes before the meeting, trying to remember what you discussed last time and what's been happening with this person's projects.
With AI: Ask for a summary of your notes from previous one-on-ones with this person. Ask what's been happening on their projects based on recent updates. Ask for suggested topics based on what's come up lately.
Walk into the meeting prepared, even when your week has been chaotic.
Time saved: 10-15 minutes per one-on-one, and the conversations are better.
2. Writing Performance Feedback
Before: Staring at a blank document, trying to remember six months of work, struggling to phrase things constructively, spending an hour on something that should take fifteen minutes.
With AI: Start with your notes and observations. Ask AI to help structure them into a coherent narrative. Get suggestions for how to phrase developmental feedback constructively. Edit and refine rather than create from scratch.
Time saved: 30-45 minutes per review. Multiply by your team size.
3. Answering Policy and Process Questions
Before: Someone asks about the expense policy or the PTO approval process. You either dig through documents to find the answer or ping HR and wait for a response.
With AI: Ask the question directly. If your organization's policies are in an AI-accessible knowledge base, you get the answer in seconds, with sources.
Time saved: 5-10 minutes per question. These add up.
4. Summarizing Long Documents or Threads
Before: A 20-page report lands in your inbox. A Slack thread has 47 messages from when you were in meetings. You either spend twenty minutes reading everything or skim and hope you didn't miss anything important.
With AI: Ask for a summary of the key points. Ask what decisions are needed or what action items emerged. Get the essential information in two minutes instead of twenty.
Time saved: 15-30 minutes per document or thread.
5. Drafting Communications
Before: You need to send an announcement about a change, communicate a decision to stakeholders, or write an update for leadership. Drafting takes longer than it should because you're trying to get the tone and structure right.
With AI: Describe what you need to communicate and to whom. Get a draft in seconds. Edit it to sound like you, add context the AI didn't have, and send.
Time saved: 10-20 minutes per communication.
6. Preparing for Difficult Conversations
Before: You know you need to have a tough conversation—performance feedback, delivering bad news, addressing a conflict. You think about it, maybe sketch some notes, but mostly just feel anxious about it.
With AI: Describe the situation and ask for help structuring the conversation. Get suggestions for how to open, what points to cover, and how to handle likely responses.
Simulating the Dialogue: Practice the conversation with AI playing the other person. You can run through multiple scenarios—what if they get defensive? What if they shut down? This rehearsal builds muscle memory so you walk in with a plan.
Time saved: Less about time, more about effectiveness.
7. Creating Meeting Agendas and Follow-ups
Before: Meetings happen without clear agendas. Afterward, you meant to send notes but didn't have time. Decisions get lost.
With AI: Before the meeting, quickly generate an agenda based on topics you need to cover. After, summarize what was discussed and what was decided. Draft follow-up messages in seconds.
Time saved: 10-15 minutes per meeting in preparation and follow-up.
8. Onboarding New Team Members
Before: A new person starts, and you realize you don't have a good checklist of everything they need to know and do. This is exactly where managers can create training themselves rather than waiting for L&D. You improvise, they miss things, and the first few weeks are messier than they should be.
With AI: Generate an onboarding checklist customized to the role. Create a list of key people they should meet and why. Draft welcome messages and first-week schedules.
Time saved: Hours over the onboarding period, and the new person ramps faster.
9. Researching Topics Quickly
Before: You need to understand something—a concept, a technology, a competitor, a best practice. You open a bunch of tabs, start reading, go down rabbit holes, and eventually piece together an understanding.
With AI: Ask for an explanation, a comparison, a summary of best practices. Get oriented quickly. Ask follow-up questions to go deeper on what matters.
Time saved: 20-40 minutes per topic.
10. Turning Ideas into Drafts
Before: You have an idea for a process improvement, a proposal, or a new initiative. But turning it into something you can share requires writing, and writing takes time, so the idea sits.
From Concept to Concrete: Describe your idea verbally or in rough bullets. Ask AI to turn it into a structured document—a proposal, a one-pager, a process outline. Now you have something to react to, edit, and share. Ideas move from your head into the world faster.
Time saved: 30-60 minutes per document you would have eventually written.
The Shift from Processor to Leader
The common thread across all of these: AI handles the mechanical work, so you can focus on the judgment work.
You still decide what feedback to give—AI helps you write it clearly. You still determine what decisions to make—AI helps you get informed faster. See how L&D teams are using AI for similar productivity gains. You still prepare for the hard conversation—AI helps you structure your approach.
Add up these workflows, and you're looking at hours per week that could go back to actual management. Time for the conversations that develop people. Time to think strategically instead of reactively.
That's the manager toolkit. For workflows across every department—HR, Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, L&D, and Operations—see our complete guide to 50 AI workflow use cases.
That's the toolkit. The question is just whether you'll use it.
JoySuite puts these workflows at your fingertips. Ask questions about company knowledge. Prepare for conversations. Get answers instantly. An AI assistant that understands your organization and helps you manage more effectively.
