Sales and customer success teams have more ways to get work done than ever. AI can draft emails and update records in seconds, team members can take on follow-ups and admin, and leaders still carry the work that depends on their experience.
With so many options, it's easy to send work to the wrong place. Some teams automate tasks that need a person. Others keep doing work that AI or a team member could easily handle.
So how do you decide who, or what, should own each task?
Not every task belongs to AI, and not every task belongs to you. The key is knowing what to automate, what to delegate to a person, and what to keep human-led.
Start With Where Your Time Goes
Before deciding what to hand off, track your time for a week or two and sort your tasks into three groups:
AI can even do the sorting for you. Brand strategist Phil Pallen reviews his week this way every Friday in about 15 minutes. Start small: hand off one to three tasks this week, then a few more next week.
Automate the Work That Repeats
Automation works best for tasks that follow the same steps every time and need little judgment, like scheduling follow-ups, updating CRM fields, and building regular reports.
A good place to look is the work that happens after a sale: coordinating projects, tracking orders, and processing invoices. As Bobby Lehew, Chief AI Officer at commonsku, pointed out, these tasks often have people clicking through too many screens, and that's where AI is already saving teams the most time.
Delegate the Work That Needs a Person, Not You
Some tasks need a human, but not necessarily you. Managing order updates, chasing approvals, keeping client records accurate, and reviewing AI-drafted emails all need care and accuracy, but follow a process someone else can learn. Often, the best setup is simple: AI writes the first draft, and a person checks it and makes the final call.
AI works best when the person guiding it already knows the work. At commonsku, a company of around 100 people, just one designer and one motion graphics designer now support far more of the business, because AI handles the slower parts of their work.
Keep the High-Value Work Human-Led
Key client relationships, difficult conversations, and decisions that depend on experience should stay with you or your senior team.
Watch out for a common trap: automating a task just because it takes the most time. The sales stage often takes the longest because it needs the most creativity and judgment. That's the work to protect.
Some tasks are also worth keeping because they matter to your team. At DCX, Sales Assistants post every new client win in a dedicated team chat. This could be automated , but the team loves sharing those wins themselves.
The goal isn't to make work faster or cheaper. It's to make it better.
Putting It Into Practice
Most workflows don't belong in just one group. The best results come from splitting them so each part goes to the right owner:
When you're not sure where a task belongs, run it through three quick questions:
Help Your Team See AI as Support
Even the best plan won't work if your team is worried AI will replace them. Successful implementation requires people to understand why work is being reassigned and how AI supports their roles.
Find the people on your team already using AI well, and let them share what's working. And remember that people always make the final call. AI doesn't send anything on its own, so quality still comes down to a person.
Want to go deeper? Watch our webinar 👉 What to Automate & Delegate: A Human + AI Playbook for Sales & CS, featuring Phil Pallen, Bobby Lehew, and Stephen Musgrave: