I use AI bots to attend meetings for me and manage my diary – now I run my company from the beach and my weekly hours are down from 50 to 32

A British businesswoman is living the nomadic lifestyle she always wanted thanks to AI bots.

Remi Gutteridge, founder and CEO of a social media agency RG Creativesuses AI tools to attend meetings for her and manage her calendar, allowing her to work from New York, Santorini and Corfu rather than the company’s headquarters in Britain.

Thanks to AI, her hours have decreased by as much as 18 hours per week.

The bots have allowed Remi, 35, to plan more trips around the world while keeping her day job, with more Greek islands on the itinerary and the Balearic Islands in her sights for the holidays. She spends 70 percent of her time on the beach that the agency runs.

Before introducing AI tools to her business, Remi – who is originally from St Albans – says she spent “a lot more time at her desk in very long meetings or doing a lot of admin”.

She tells MailOnline Travel: ‘Keeping track of client and team schedules can be a chore in itself – so I found myself working more hours than I would have liked.’

She worked about 40 to 50 hours a week – and didn’t realize her dream of seeing the world.

After introducing AI tools into her company’s operations, Remi found it meant she didn’t have to be ‘in the room’ at every meeting, giving her the flexibility to work from abroad.

Now she works a more manageable 32 to 35 hours a week, sometimes working from co-working spaces abroad.

Remi says: ‘Using AI has really freed up time in my day so I can focus on other things that are important to me. I’ve noticed that nowadays I can take much longer breaks and usually finish much earlier than before!’

Moreover, her business has only gone from strength to strength over the past six months.

What role does AI play in the business? Remi explains: ‘I mainly use AI to perform small, boring daily tasks, such as keeping track of my agenda and planning appointments or meetings.’

These bots help with her to-do list every day. Remi says she uses “AI as a kind of personal assistant to figure out things like the best meeting times to catch up with (her) team or clients or to generate project timelines.”

And when she orders bots to attend virtual meetings for her, “the system makes a recording of a meeting, runs it through the system, and then gives me the key insights and actions.”

She continues: ‘It means I don’t necessarily have to be at the meeting, and my team doesn’t have to spend time catching up on what I’ve missed, so it’s great for all of us.’

AI tools automatically respond to certain emails on Remi’s behalf, while flagging important emails to her attention so she can ‘pick them up’ when she returns to her desk.

Remi says this means that when she’s traveling or spending time with loved ones, she doesn’t feel the need to check her email inbox, which has made a “huge difference” in her life.

Overall, AI allows her to “spend time offline, knowing that the business is still going strong without (her),” she reveals.

There were a few teething problems in the early days of AI adoption, Remi admits, but “nothing drastic.

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She says, “When I played with the tools and tried to figure them out, I got a few stray emails that went to the wrong person or meetings that were scheduled at wrong times, but luckily they were mostly internal errors, so there are was nothing that couldn’t be solved.’

Remi also takes steps to ensure that no serious mistakes are made.

She explains: ‘I ensure that all notes taken and shared with clients are checked so that they are accurate and have the context they need. The tools are there to help me, not to do my job completely for me.

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Most of Remi’s customers are ‘intrigued’ when they hear that she works with AI. She reveals: ‘Many of my clients know that I use AI to make smaller day-to-day administration easier…many are already using ChatGPT in some way. The technology has not replaced my staff, but has only made life easier and freed up time for us.’

The customers who were more “skeptical” “started to think about how they can implement AI in a way that also benefits their daily work,” she says.

Has anything surprised Remi about the use of AI in the workplace? She says she was surprised by how “easy” it is to work with, noting: “Once you get your hands on it, you’ll be eager to explore other ways the technology can work to your advantage. ‘

Remi isn’t the only British worker using AI in the hope of improving work-life balance – and in business – LinkedIn reveals.

New research from the social media site shows that 76 percent of British workers say they are excited about using AI in their work, and 65 percent believe it will advance their careers.

The research shows that UK employees see AI as a tool that helps them focus on what they do best and be more productive. Half (51 percent) plan to use AI to say goodbye to boring work tasks, and 42 percent admit they will use AI tools to answer the questions they are too embarrassed to ask their colleagues.

Another 40 percent plan to help resolve conflicts by seeking advice on difficult scenarios at work.

However, the majority (66 percent) of UK workers have not received formal AI training, leaving many to figure it out on their own. More than half (56 percent) have already taken steps to advance their knowledge of AI through hands-on experience – including experimenting with Gen AI tools like Chat GPT (22 percent) – or reaching out to friends and colleagues for advice ( 16 percent).

Despite this, many still feel like they are falling behind. Thirty percent of professionals think their colleagues know more about AI than they do, and more than a quarter (26 percent) have even pretended to know more about AI to appear “in the know” to teammates, LinkedIn reveals.

The research also shows that two in five UK workers (38 percent) predict a ‘significant’ change to their job in the coming year due to AI, which has led to mixed feelings. More than a third (36 percent) admit to feeling overwhelmed by AI, and a further 38 percent worry they won’t be able to keep up with AI developments in their workplace.

Employees predict that interpersonal skills such as communication (48 percent), adaptability (48 percent) and problem solving (46 percent) will become even more important as AI becomes increasingly important.

And LinkedIn suggests that gaining an understanding of AI could be beneficial for those in the workforce – the data shows that since November last year there has been a 21x increase globally in English-speaking jobs that incorporate new AI technologies such as Chat GPT to be mentioned. .

Commenting on the research, LinkedIn Career Expert Charlotte Davies said: ‘Post-pandemic, professionals are once again adapting to a new wave of change as AI becomes increasingly prominent in the workplace. It’s understandable that getting up to speed can be overwhelming, but it’s positive to see people embracing the change and focusing on the many benefits AI technology can bring to their working lives, including more time to focusing on the work they care about and helping with their careers. progression.

‘It is also clear that people are eager to learn more about AI. We’re seeing a significant increase in conversations on LinkedIn, with members already adding AI skills to their profiles, but our data also highlights the enormous value of soft skills and how important they will be for the future as we continue to navigate this new technology navigate. and the change it brings.”

To help introduce employees to the world of AI, LinkedIn offers its most popular AI LinkedIn Learning free courses.