I Hired a Dozen Robots, and None of Them Want a Raise

I’ve never been much of a boss. The last thing I managed with any real success was a garage full of junk, and some folks would argue I didn’t manage that either. 😂

But here I am, running a whole crew. Not people, mind you. Robots. AI helper bots, each one with its own little job. None of them take lunch breaks, none of them call in sick, and not a single one has asked for a raise.

Meet the crew

Here’s who’s on the payroll, if you can call it that:

• A website and blog bot that helps me keep this place running
• A calendar bot that remembers where I’m supposed to be
• A car maintenance bot that keeps track of oil changes and such
• A shopping bot for hunting down the stuff I need (and some I don’t)
• A social media bot that helps me figure out what to post
• An image and graphics bot that makes the pictures you see around here
• A weight-loss logging bot that keeps me honest about what I eat
• A finance bot that keeps an eye on the money
• An inventory bot for all those collectibles and books
• A research bot for when I go down a rabbit hole
• A chief-of-staff bot that keeps the rest of them pointed in the right direction

That’s eleven. I rounded up to a dozen for the title because I figure I’ll have another one hired before you finish reading this. 🤔

What’s worked

The best part is I don’t have to remember everything anymore. I can tell a bot something once and it’s written down somewhere I can find it later, which is more than I can say for the sticky notes on my desk.

My first aha moment was when I pointed my financial bot to a folder on my computer that held 3 spreadsheets, the last 3 months of sales from my antique booth. I simply told it to analyze the data and tell me what it found. I was shocked when within 5 minutes it presented me with a very comprehensive sales report, broken down into categories that it had no way of knowing beforehand.

The other thing I like is that each bot sticks to its own lane. The calendar bot isn’t trying to do my taxes. The car bot isn’t trying to sell me shoes. When something needs more than one of them, the chief-of-staff bot hands it off to the right one.

What hasn’t

Now, I’m not going to tell you it’s all sunshine. These bots are smart, but they’re not wise. They’ll do exactly what you ask, which is a problem when what you asked isn’t what you meant. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Communicating with the bots can be a challenge. More than once, a bot hasn’t given me what I thought I was asking for. Maybe it’s my Southern slang, but 95% of the time the bots have given me exactly what I asked for or more. If there is a question, they are not afraid to ask.

They also don’t know what they don’t know. Ask a bot a question it can’t answer and every so often it’ll give you an answer anyway, with a straight face. So I’ve learned to check their work, same as I would with any new hire.

And setting them up took more patience than I expected. Just thinking about how to set up the bots took some thought and a few changes of mind. Should one bot do/manage three items or should I set up one bot for each task? I am still refining that process.

My 2 cents

Would I recommend it? For the right person, yes. If you like tinkering and don’t mind some trial and error, it’s a whole lot of fun. If you want something that works perfectly out of the box, you might want to wait a year or two.

As for me, I’m keeping the crew. They work cheap, they don’t complain, and they’ve never once told me my jokes aren’t funny. That alone is worth the price of admission.

— Rick