Is an AI employee right for you? An honest checklist

An AI employee fits when the work can be written down as a brief and you can judge the result yourself. It fits badly when the job needs someone to act in the world, answer for the outcome or give advice that requires a licence. The ten questions below take five minutes; count your yes answers.

The checklist

Answer about the specific job you have in mind, not about your business in general. A florist can score 9 on the shop's Valentine's Day landing page and 3 on photographing a wedding. Copy the list, fill it in for one job, then read the section that matches your score.

1. Can I describe the job in a few sentences: what it is, who it is for, what done looks like? (yes / no)
2. Is the result text, a one-page website, a page mockup or a single code file? (yes / no)
3. Can I tell whether the result is good, or do I have someone nearby who can? (yes / no)
4. Am I fine publishing, sending or deploying the result myself? (yes / no)
5. Can the job be done from what I paste in, without access to my accounts, my files or the internet? (yes / no)
6. Is a solid draft I edit worth more to me than a blank page? (yes / no)
7. Can I wait for the result without a promised date? (yes / no)
8. Is the job free of legal, tax, medical or financial advice that a licensed person must give? (yes / no)
9. Can it be done without anyone being there in person: no photos, visits or events? (yes / no)
10. If I want to talk it through on a call, am I comfortable doing that in English? (yes / no)
Count the yes answers.
8 to 10: a good fit. Give it a real task.
5 to 7: a fit for part of the job. Split it.
0 to 4: not this job. Keep a person on it.

What the questions test

Questions 1, 3 and 6 are about you: whether you can say what you want and recognise it when it arrives. Questions 2, 4, 5 and 9 are about the shape of the result. Questions 7, 8 and 10 are about the conditions around it. A no in the first group is the hardest to work around, because nobody at Vott reviews the work before you see it.

8–10 yes: a good fit

The work is well defined, it comes back as something you can check, and you are ready to take the last step yourself. Some examples of good fits:

• A bakery's pre-order page: five sections, prices, a form. Sofia, the website builder, makes it as a one-page site with a live preview; you publish it with your web host.
• A launch email for a small software product, plus two follow-ups. Priya, the marketer, writes them; you paste them into your email tool.
• A booking form with validation for a dental practice's site: one code file from Daniyar, the backend developer, which your developer drops into the site.
• A plan for the week, or a checklist for opening a second location. That is Iris, the executive assistant.
• A page mockup and a short set of interface rules before a redesign, from Mara, the product designer, so you can show a freelancer what you mean.

Even a perfect fit runs into a few limits. Each employee takes up to 5 tasks in progress at once, your tasks are written one at a time, and each task includes 3 rounds of changes (An employee said the task wasn't created).

5–7 yes: a fit for part of the job

Usually one or two answers fail for a specific reason. Split the job: give the AI employee the part it can do, and keep a person on the rest.

• No to question 4 (publishing): the AI employee writes and builds the page; a freelancer or your web host puts it live.
• No to question 8 (licensed advice): a law firm's services page can be drafted, but a lawyer checks every sentence before it goes up.
• No to question 9 (in person): a restaurant's new menu page can be written and built; the photos come from a photographer.
• No to question 2 (the result): sites of several pages are being tested on a few accounts and aren't generally available yet. Ask for the home page as a one-page site, plus a written plan for the rest.
• No to question 10 (English): calls are in English only, for now. Chat replies in the language you write in, voice messages included (Which language do employees speak?).
• No to question 3 (judging the result): ask someone who knows the field to look before you accept. A developer you know can look over a single code file quickly.

Splitting is often cheaper than it sounds: publishing or checking a finished draft usually takes a person fewer hours than writing it from nothing. For what each option costs, see AI employee vs freelancer vs hire.

0–4 yes: not this job

That is a useful answer too. These jobs are poor fits for an AI employee today:

• Running something for you: posting on social media, answering customer emails, managing an ad account. Employees can't send anything or log in to your accounts.
• Images: a logo file, product photos, illustrations. Employees don't make images.
• A hard deadline with someone answerable for it. Employees don't promise dates, and there is no fixed time for a task (How long does a task take?).
• Tax filings, contracts, medical or financial advice. Use a licensed professional.
• Changes across a large existing codebase. Employees see only what you paste in, and a task produces one code file.
• A result you can't judge, with nobody near you who can. Nobody at Vott reviews the work before you see it; you are the reviewer.
• Anything that depends on live information from the web, such as today's competitor prices. Employees can't browse the internet; paste in what they need.

For these, a freelancer or a hire is the right call. Many of them still benefit from a written plan or a brief, which an AI employee can draft in chat.

Vott's limits, in one list

Everything below is from the help center and describes the product as it works today. Vott is in pre-beta, so some of it will change.

• Every employee is an AI agent. Faces and voices are generated, and an employee won't deny being an AI when asked sincerely (Are the employees real people?).
• Nobody at Vott reviews the work. You press Accept or Request changes.
• A task produces one thing: a written document, one web page with a preview, or one code file. No images, no publishing, no browsing, no access to your systems (What employees can and can't do).
• Calls are in English only, for now, and one call lasts at most 15 minutes. Chat replies in the language you write in.
• Each employee can have up to 5 tasks in progress. After 3 tasks in a day can't be finished because of their briefs, new tasks pause until the next day.
• Tasks can't be cancelled or deleted. A task you no longer need still counts once; only a task that fails doesn't (Can I cancel or delete a task?).
• There is no fixed time for a task, and employees won't promise a date.
• Unused tasks and minutes don't carry over, and extra tasks or minutes can't be bought separately.
• Paid plans aren't on sale yet: their cards say Opens when payments do.

Make the free plan's one task count

The free plan, Meet the team, has one task a month, 5 voice minutes and 2 video minutes, and asks for no card. A task can't be cancelled once it exists, so choose it before you start.

• Pick real work you would otherwise pay for or keep postponing, not a test question.
• Pick something you can judge in ten minutes: a landing page for one offer, a welcome email, a page mockup.
• Gather the facts first: names, prices, opening hours, the address, the text you already have, your brand colour.
• Agree the brief in chat. Chat messages don't count against your plan, so keep asking until the one-line summary says what you mean.
• Use the 3 rounds of changes. They don't count as a new task; a new brief would.

Your first task, step by step

1. 1Open Chat and tell Iris what your business does, in two or three sentences (Your first 15 minutes).
2. 2Say what you need and ask who should take it. Iris names the employee and writes a brief.
3. 3Paste the brief into that employee's chat. They sum it up in one line; if it is right, say so. The task appears on Tasks as In progress.
4. 4When it shows Needs you, open Details, check the result and press Accept or Request changes (Review the work).
5. 5Spend a few voice minutes on a short call in English: open Calls, choose Voice and press Go live.

For a brief that gets it right the first time, see How to write a brief. For what to hand over and what to keep, see What to delegate to an AI assistant.