Discover how engineering leaders can use AI to save hours each week by offloading status reports, Slack catch-up, and difficult feedback prep—without losing their human touch.

Ever feel like you’re trying to lead… and also be in 47 Slack threads at once?

Same.

One of the biggest shifts I’ve made in how I work — and how I coach engineering leaders to work — is learning when to delegate to people, and when to delegate to tools.

Because the truth is:

So much of what clogs up our day isn’t strategic. It’s just work that needs to get done.

And AI can actually help.

Not in some magical, overhyped way — but in small, meaningful ways that buy back your time and mental space to actually lead.

Here are 3 tasks I’ve stopped doing manually — and what I’m doing instead:

✅ 1. Catching up on Slack & Email Chaos

You know the drill — you step away for a few hours, and suddenly there are 100+ unread messages across 12 channels.

You scroll… scan… and still feel like you might have missed something important.

Now?

Slack AI summarizes those threads in seconds — and tells me what actually mattered.

It’s not just a time-saver — it’s a sanity-saver.

✅ 2. Writing Team Updates & Reports

Every Friday, I used to spend 45 minutes pulling Jira data, reviewing meeting notes, and trying to distill it into something readable for cross-functional partners.

Now, I feed that data into Claude (or ChatGPT), and I get a first draft that’s polished and to the point:

“This week, we closed 12 onboarding and retention tickets.
Key highlights: 30% latency improvement in sign-up flow, and a fix for Android caching bugs.”

All I have to do is tweak and hit send. No more blank screen, no more Sunday-night status updates.

✅ 3. Prepping for Difficult Conversations

Let’s be real — sometimes, giving feedback is hard. Especially when you’re frustrated.

When I feel reactive or emotionally charged, I’ll literally vent to ChatGPT and then ask it to rewrite my thoughts with clarity, empathy, and leadership presence.

It helps me shift out of rant mode and into high-EQ problem-solving mode (and release the frustrated energy too!)

This isn’t about offloading your judgment.

It’s about clearing space to actually use it.

When you stop spending your brainpower on formatting reports or rewriting Slack messages, you get to focus on what really matters:

• Strategic planning
• Coaching your team
• Making better. faster decisions

That’s real leadership leverage.

In an upcoming issue, I’ll break down how to write effective prompts to get better results from AI — because what you ask makes all the difference.

But in the meantime, I’d love your input:

Speaking truth to power is another gravitas hallmark.

👉 What AI-related topics would you love to see me write about?

I’ll be sharing more on how engineering leaders can use AI to lead more effectively — and I want it to be genuinely helpful for you.

Share your thoughts— let me know what you’re curious about – tools, use cases, rollout strategy, or anything else.

Related Posts