Should you hire an executive assistant or use AI?

It depends on what you need taken off your plate. If it is mostly email, calendar, follow-ups and meeting prep, an AI assistant can now handle much of it for a small fraction of the cost of a hire. If it is judgement, discretion and someone who can represent you in a room, you still want a person. Most founders find they need some of each, in proportions that change as the business grows.

What does an executive assistant actually do?

An executive assistant's real job is to protect your time and attention. The tasks are the means.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics describes executive assistants as providing "high-level support for an office and for top executives of an organization", often handling complex work such as reviewing incoming documents, research and preparing reports. In a small company, that tends to look like:

• Running the inbox. Reading everything, answering what they can, and passing you only what needs you.
• Running the calendar. Booking, moving and protecting time, and knowing which meetings matter.
• Following up. Chasing the replies, documents and decisions other people owe you.
• Preparing you. A brief before every meeting: who, what they want, what was said last time.
• Travel and logistics. Flights, hotels, visas, dinners and everything that changes on the day.
• Making judgement calls. Who gets a meeting this week, what can wait, what is urgent even though it does not look it.
• Representing you. Speaking for you on the phone or in person, with your team, clients and partners.

A great assistant also learns how you think, and starts doing things before you ask. That last part is what founders usually mean when they say they want an EA.

Which of those jobs can AI do today, and which can't it?

AI is now good at the jobs that are about reading, writing and keeping track. It is weaker where the job is about trust, discretion or physical presence.

The top half of that table is where most of an assistant's hours go in a typical week. That is why AI is a real option now, when two or three years ago it was not.

The bottom half is where a good human assistant is worth far more than their hours. Knowing when not to send something, smoothing over a tense moment, reading a room: these still need a person.

What does each cost?

A full-time executive assistant is a salaried hire. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics put the median annual wage for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants at $76,590 in May 2025. That is the US median for the role, not what you will pay. Pay varies a lot by city, experience and seniority, and outside the US the numbers will differ.

On top of salary you pay for the things that come with any employee: benefits and payroll taxes, the time it takes to recruit, and the weeks it takes a new assistant to learn how you work. Part-time and remote assistants cost less, with less of their time and attention in return.

An AI assistant is a subscription, usually billed monthly, and you can usually try it before paying. There is still a cost in your time: setting it up, approving its work at the start, and teaching it what you want. That is real, but measured in hours, not months.

The honest comparison is not price against price. It is what each one takes off your plate, for what it costs.

When is a human EA clearly the right call?

A human assistant is the right call when any of these is true.

• Your work happens in person. If you need someone to greet visitors, manage an office or be physically present for you, software cannot help.
• Your logistics are complicated. Frequent travel across countries, events, or family and personal matters that need careful handling.
• Discretion is the job. Board matters, people issues, or relationships where a wrong word does lasting damage.
• You need someone to make decisions for you. Not draft, not suggest: decide, on your behalf, and stand behind it.
• You manage people who need managing. A senior assistant often becomes a chief of staff in all but name, and that is a human role.

If two or more of these describe you, you probably need a person, and AI is a way to make that person more effective rather than a replacement.

Can you use both?

Yes, and for many founders this is the best answer.

The pattern that works is to give the AI the repeat work: triaging the inbox, chasing follow-ups, keeping the calendar tidy, preparing meeting briefs and keeping the CRM current. That frees a human assistant to spend their time on judgement, people and logistics, the parts of the job where they are irreplaceable.

It also changes when you hire. Many founders start with AI, see which parts of the job are left over, and write a far sharper job description when they do hire. Some find the leftover part is small enough to wait. Others find it is exactly the senior, judgement-heavy role they needed all along.

Where does Mira fit?

Mira is the closest thing to an executive assistant that runs on its own. It is autonomous: you text it, and it works inside Gmail, Outlook, WhatsApp, iMessage, LinkedIn, Slack, Google Calendar, HubSpot and Attio, doing the work an EA would do without waiting to be told.

It takes the top half of that table and runs it every day. It reads every conversation and only brings you the ones that need you. It briefs you each morning, preps you before every meeting, checks in through the day and wraps up each evening with what moved. Hand it a person and it owns that relationship, following up and keeping the thread moving across every app. Ask once for a repeat job, such as a CRM update after every call, and it is done every time.

Like a great assistant, it learns how you work and starts suggesting what else it can take on. And like one in their first month, it checks with you: nothing is sent as you until you say yes. Your messages are never used to train AI models; the privacy policy has the detail.

For founders and owners who run their business on messages, Mira is the place to start before you hire. It is free to start, and it shows you exactly how much of the job is left for a person.