Chief of Agents

For years, virtual assistants (EAs) & Virtual Assistants (VAs) have helped founders manage meetings, emails, and operations. But in today’s world, manual work is no longer enough.

A great assistant should not just take tasks off your plate. They should automate them off their own plate.

The Rise of the Chief of Agents / Automations

For the last four years running EntryLevel (my ed-tech startup with over 285,000 learners, later acquired by HEX), I worked with an incredible EA named Mia.

When she started, I told her:

“I don’t just want you scheduling meetings—I want you automating your own role.”

I pitched her on a different kind of assistant job. One where she’d be 5x more employable within 12 months but have a much harder learning path.

Fast forward to today—Mia is now an Operations & Automations Manager at HEX.

Now that I’m hiring a new assistant, I have the same requirement.

But this time, I’m calling the role:

The “Chief of Agents” (CoA)

A traditional VA follows manual processes:

• Booking meetings

• Organizing company Notion pages

• Managing email responses

But an CoA creates systems that eliminate manual work.

For example:

🗓️ Booking Meetings → AI-Powered Scheduling

• Instead of manually scheduling, your CoA builds a system that:

• Parses emails to detect meeting requests

• Triages requests using an AI-powered model

• Auto-schedules meetings via a calendar link or light email exchanges

📝 Organizing Notes → AI Categorization

• Instead of just dumping notes into Notion, an CoA:

• Uses AI to classify notes into categories (Action, Reference, Project)

• Automates storage so information is always accessible without manual tagging

An CoA is proactive, not reactive.

They don’t just handle tasks—they eliminate them.

Why This Matters: “Agent Flows” Will Be the New Resume Section

In the near future, people won’t just be hired for their skills.

They’ll be hired for the AI agents and automations they bring with them.

Imagine a resume where, next to “Relevant Experience,” you see:

• Agent Flows: Agent X → manages all my social media posting based of my last 10,000 trained posts.

• Automations: My email inbox is automatically triaged based on company & personal goals

If automation is the future of work, then hiring human assistants to manage these systems makes complete sense.

Even if you don’t hire an CoA, learning these skills yourself will be a massive advantage.

How to Hire an Chief of Agents/Automations

Since this role doesn’t formally exist yet, my hiring process has been experimental. I use paid work trials to test multiple people and see who learns the fastest.

Since candidates won’t know everything upfront, the key question is:

“Can they learn a new system quickly with minimal guidance?”

I give them high-level directives and see how they problem-solve.

Here are two examples of automation tasks I’ve tested:

A great CoA won’t just complete this task. They’ll suggest ways to optimize or extend the system.

This test checks technical fluency, adaptability, and execution speed.

To attract high-quality talent, I pay 2-4x the average VA salary.

Why?

• Smart, ambitious people won’t settle for a standard EA role.

• The leverage of a great CoA far outweighs the cost.

Investing in top-tier automation talent is like investing in compounding productivity.

Final Thoughts: The Future of Assistants

Most people still think of assistants as manual task-handlers.

But in the new era, the best assistants will:

• Automate their own workflows

• Integrate AI into business processes

• Optimize company-wide efficiency

If you don’t have an CoA yet, start thinking about it now.

Because the future of work isn’t just about what you can do.

It’s about what you can automate.

Until Next Time,

Ajay-I