Agency Management: What Should You Automate First?
Automation is one of the biggest opportunities for modern agencies.
But automation doesn’t mean automating everything.
The smartest approach is to identify the repetitive activities that consume time without requiring much human decision-making.
So where should an agency start?
1. Start With Repetitive Administrative Work
Look at the tasks your team performs every day or every week.
- Updating statuses.
- Sending reminders.
- Creating recurring tasks.
- Collecting information.
- Preparing routine reports.
- Following up on deadlines.
These activities may seem small individually, but together they can consume significant amounts of time.
2. Automate Task Management
Tasks are one of the easiest areas to improve.
Instead of manually creating the same tasks every time a project starts, create repeatable workflows.
For example:
New Website Project
→ Create project
→ Assign project manager
→ Create design tasks
→ Create development tasks
→ Create testing tasks
→ Create client review task
→ Create delivery task
The team still makes the important decisions, but the repetitive setup happens automatically.
3. Automate Follow-Ups
Missed follow-ups can slow projects down.
Automated reminders can help teams stay aware of:
- Upcoming deadlines
- Overdue tasks
- Pending approvals
- Client actions
- Internal responsibilities
Automation doesn’t replace accountability. It makes accountability easier.
4. Automate Reporting
Management shouldn’t spend hours manually collecting operational data.
A centralized system can help bring information together so managers can understand activity, progress, workload, and performance more efficiently.
The goal is simple:
Spend less time preparing the report and more time acting on it.
5. Use AI for Recommendations
Automation handles predictable processes.
AI can go one step further by helping with decisions.
For example, AI can help identify:
- Tasks that may need attention
- Potential workflow bottlenecks
- Operational trends
- Opportunities for improvement
- Information that requires review
The best approach is not to let AI make every decision.
Instead, use AI to surface insights and recommendations, while people remain in control.
6. Don’t Automate What Requires Human Judgment
Not everything should be automated.
Client relationships, creative decisions, strategy, negotiation, and important business decisions still require people.
Automation should remove unnecessary repetitive work—not remove the human element from your agency.
