What should I automate?

Interviews you about your job in five quick questions, then ranks the five recurring tasks most worth handing to AI, with what AI does, what stays human, which level to build it at (prompt, skill, routine, loop or agent) and a first prompt to try today. Use when someone asks "where do I start with AI", "what should I automate" or "what could AI do in my job", in any AI app.

Run it as a prompt

Paste this into any AI agent, or fetch it: curl -s https://uplift.page/api/v1/prompts/what-should-i-automate/raw

prompt.md

# What should I automate?

Find the work in my week most worth handing to AI, and give me the first prompt for the best one. Office hours, in one chat.

## Steps

1. **Interview me.** Ask these five questions in one message, numbered, then stop and wait. Tell me short answers are fine.
   1. What's your role, and what does your company do?
   2. Walk me through last Monday: what did you spend the morning on?
   3. What do you do every week that you'd happily never do again?
   4. Which tools do you live in? (Email, spreadsheets, a CRM, an ERP, a scale or tracking system, chat, paper.)
   5. What in your job is expensive to get wrong?
2. **Ask one follow-up** if an answer is too vague to act on ("reports" → "which report, for whom, how long does it take?"). Only one, then go.
3. **List five candidate tasks** from my answers, ranked by hours a week saved, then how often it happens, then how safe it is to hand over. For each one:
   - **The task** in my words, and roughly how long it takes me now (my estimate, or yours marked as a guess).
   - **What AI does** and **what stays human** (the human gate: who checks before it leaves).
   - **The level:** Prompt (ask when needed), Skill (teach it once, like my writing voice), Routine (every morning or week), Loop (runs on a schedule and checks itself), or Agent (several of these with a job description).
   - **A first prompt to try today:** the actual text, ready to paste, written for my job.
4. **Pick one to start with** and say why in one sentence. Usually: frequent, low-risk, and annoying.
5. **Name what not to automate yet:** anything in my answers that signs, certifies, pays, sends to a customer unreviewed, or deletes. Say what part of it AI could still draft.

## Rules

- Use only what I told you. Don't assume my industry's tools or rules; ask.
- No jargon. If you use a term like "connector" or "agent", define it in a few words the first time.
- Keep the whole answer to one screen per task. Lead with the ranked list.

Install it as a skill

Agents that support the Agent Skills standard load it automatically when it applies.

download

curl -fsSL https://uplift.page/p/what-should-i-automate/SKILL.md --create-dirs -o .agents/skills/what-should-i-automate/SKILL.md

or from any MCP client

MCP server: https://uplift.page/mcp
Tool: pull_skill  {"slug": "what-should-i-automate"}

The full skill

Find the work in my week most worth handing to AI, and give me the first prompt for the best one. Office hours, in one chat.

Steps

Interview me. Ask these five questions in one message, numbered, then stop and wait. Tell me short answers are fine.
1. What's your role, and what does your company do?
2. Walk me through last Monday: what did you spend the morning on?
3. What do you do every week that you'd happily never do again?
4. Which tools do you live in? (Email, spreadsheets, a CRM, an ERP, a scale or tracking system, chat, paper.)
5. What in your job is expensive to get wrong?
Ask one follow-up if an answer is too vague to act on ("reports" → "which report, for whom, how long does it take?"). Only one, then go.
List five candidate tasks from my answers, ranked by hours a week saved, then how often it happens, then how safe it is to hand over. For each one:
- The task in my words, and roughly how long it takes me now (my estimate, or yours marked as a guess).
- What AI does and what stays human (the human gate: who checks before it leaves).
- The level: Prompt (ask when needed), Skill (teach it once, like my writing voice), Routine (every morning or week), Loop (runs on a schedule and checks itself), or Agent (several of these with a job description).
- A first prompt to try today: the actual text, ready to paste, written for my job.
Pick one to start with and say why in one sentence. Usually: frequent, low-risk, and annoying.
Name what not to automate yet: anything in my answers that signs, certifies, pays, sends to a customer unreviewed, or deletes. Say what part of it AI could still draft.

Rules

Use only what I told you. Don't assume my industry's tools or rules; ask.
No jargon. If you use a term like "connector" or "agent", define it in a few words the first time.
Keep the whole answer to one screen per task. Lead with the ranked list.

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