How I've shifted from hiring to automating

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When AI became my best teammate

My AI-first hiring philosophy

When Kyle decided to leave my business back in 2021, I was completely lost. 

I remember it vividly: walking along the beach in San Sebastián, Spain… Kyle informed me he was starting his own copywriting business and would be moving on. 

Finally, in 2025, after many attempts to fill this role, I gave up on hiring a human copywriter and found something better.

Here's what I learned after 4 years of trial and error: AI helps me nail the best version of my voice, and is more effective than hoping to train a human to be an adequate version of me.

In that spirit, I wanted to share 5 roles I filled with AI in 2025, and I’ll likely never hire for again (and why you probably shouldn't either):

1. Copywriting

Used to be: Send audio files to a writer, hope they'd fill in the blanks, endless back-and-forth revisions that never quite hit my standards.

Now: Voice dictate into AI bots (some mine, some from other sources) that organize my thoughts using proven copywriting frameworks.

This newsletter? Voice dictated and transformed into something coherent.

The difference? AI has the backbone of copywriting frameworks built in. Human writers often impose their style instead of amplifying yours.

2. Website Development

Used to be: Hire WordPress developers, 3-week projects, tons of back-and-forth, expensive hosting.

Now: Vibe coding - talking to AI to create websites that don't rely on WordPress, cost pennies to host, and take hours instead of weeks.

I actually am thinking about building a whole course around this because once you experience vibe coding, WordPress feels like using a typewriter. 

I still procrastinate on websites sometimes - probably because I used to be a web designer and I'm my own worst client. But when I need to jump in, it's a couple-hour project instead of a month-long ordeal.

3. Research Assistants

Used to be: Pay people to look up articles, find details, compile information.

Now: Deep research reports from any LLM work extremely well.

Why pay someone to Google things when AI can synthesize information from thousands of sources instantly?

4. API Integration Specialists

Used to be: Hire developers to read documentation, figure out connections, manually code integrations.

Now: AI summarizes API docs and tells me exactly how to make connections. MCP servers and tools like n8n make this even easier.

Is it easy? No. Is it much easier than before? Absolutely.

5. Assistants

This one's the biggest game-changer.

Used to be: Either pay for a really good EA (expensive) or get what you get (usually disappointing and more work than doing it yourself).

Now: AI can handle scheduling, email management, research, and most coordination tasks better than 90% of VAs on the market.

The Pattern

Notice what these roles have in common?

They're all about taking your input and organizing it, researching it, or implementing it according to established frameworks.

That's exactly what AI excels at.

The roles I still hire for? Creative strategy, relationship building, complex problem-solving, and anything requiring genuine human judgment.

But for execution of established processes? AI wins every time.

Your Turn

What roles are you still hiring for that AI could handle?

Not saying you should fire everyone tomorrow. But if you're growing a business, these are positions you might not need to fill in the first place.

Hit reply and let me know what you think. 

To Your AI-First Success,
Jeff Sauer

P.S. The hardest part isn't the technology - it's letting go of the idea that you need humans for everything. Sometimes the best teammate is the one that amplifies your strengths instead of adding their own limitations.

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