This meeting should have been an agent

Most companies are one question away from getting 20 hours back per week: "does this decision change if the number is different?"

If the decision is pure math—revenue above threshold, headcount under budget, utilization rate hits target—that's not a meeting. It’s just arithmetic wearing a calendar invite.

Yet we schedule these meetings anyway. 

Six people. One hour. 

To confirm what a spreadsheet already knew.

The breakthrough question isn't "Can AI do this?" It's "What actually needs us?"

I've been using this framework with teams:

AUTOMATE

Objective numbers only. Let the agent run it. No humans required.

(Think: budget alerts, performance dashboards, utilization reports)

COLLABORATE

Mixed data + opinions. Needs human judgment, but async works. 

(Think: campaign post-mortems, quarterly planning input)

DEBATE

Pure subjective territory. This is where you earn your salary. Messy, political, requires real conversation. 

(Think: brand repositioning, org restructuring, strategic pivots)

The meetings in the "automate" zone? 

They're the organizational equivalent of asking six people to verify that 2+2=4.

IBM's latest study found 69% of execs say AI agents deliver better decision-making. And by year-end, AI-enabled workflows jump from 3% to 25%.

Translation: Your calendar's about to clear up.

The question is—what will you do with those hours back?

Can you name one recurring meeting that's secretly just an algorithm in disguise?