Zapier CEO Wade Foster Built a ‘Robot Staff.’ It Briefs Him, Challenges Him, and Drafts His Emails

From automated briefings to a seven-agent hiring council, Foster says his systems save him 2 hours a day and protect his attention.

Wade Foster. Illustration: Inc.; Photos: Courtesy subject; Adobe Stock

Zapier makes tools for businesses to help automate apps and services, so it’s probably not a big surprise that the company’s CEO Wade Foster is bullish on artificial intelligence. That enthusiasm extends into his own day to day routines as well.

On a recent episode of the My First Million podcast, Foster described to hosts Sam Parr and Shaan Puri several of the ways he has incorporated AI into his daily workflow at the San Francisco-based company, which he co-founded in 2012 and that touts a $5 billion valuation. Foster said he uses the tools to increase his output, without increasing the number of hours he works.

All totaled, he said, AI tools save him

All totaled, he said, AI tools save him about two hours per day—and keeps him more focused on tasks that are critical. Here are some of the ways Zapier is using AI to lighten Foster’s load.

Foster said he uses a collection of different AI automations and agents to handle recurring tasks, freeing him from having to manually initiate those. That includes things like customer relations management (CRM) with enterprise customers and acting as a sounding board for ideas. He calls it his “robot staff.”

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“This is kind of like my chief of staff that does like a whole bunch of different automations and agents for me,” he said.

Automated morning briefings and end of day tasks

At 6:00 a.m. every day, Foster receives an AI generated Slack message that has looked through his calendar, email, meeting notes and more. It’s a daily brief, of sorts, showing him what’s on his plate that day.

Source: www.inc.com