AI shouldn't replace your team

People keep saying AI won’t replace humans—it’ll just “create new kinds of work.”

They’re right.

Last week, we reclaimed 37 human hours without firing a single person, all by letting AI handle tasks that were once impossible or too expensive.

This isn’t theory—it’s operational.

Here’s how we’re using AI at Single Grain to unlock high-leverage “new work:”

A content notetaker that surfaces ideas I missed while talking
It sits in meetings, listens attentively, and sends me content angles I’d never have thought to jot down myself. Saves us ~2 hours per week, but more importantly, these are the ideas that have the greatest impact.

A sales + team performance coach that never sleeps
We feed our AI recordings of EOS and sales calls. It responds with spreadsheets and Slack notes on how to improve. Frees up ~8 hours per week, and it’s improving our close rates.

A standup coach who gets the whole team focused on the 80/20
This one helps everyone self-coach into the highest leverage work. No more micromanaging priorities. People got better fast, and the compounding effects are no joke.

None of this is rocket science. But it’s the difference between 10X-ing your team or holding them back with admin work.

Just like Flexport’s robocalls to fleet drivers, a slight AI shift created a job that wasn’t worth doing manually. Now it’s just automated revenue.

AI is still in its early stages. These are base hits. But the teams who take AI seriously now will be the ones outrunning their competitors by Q4.

So the real question isn’t “Will AI replace jobs?”
It’s: What powerful new jobs are you creating with it?

To working smarter,
Eric Siu

P.S. Shopify is offering a $1/month trial for Marketing School listeners. I decided to offer it to Leveling Up newsletter subscribers as well. If you’re interested in trying out Shopify, go to shopify.com/marketingschool