AI for your role

AI for COOs

Run operations with less busywork and clearer decisions.

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The shift

How AI is changing the COO role

AI now handles the time-draining parts of operations work like summarizing weekly performance reports, drafting process documentation, and pulling KPI trends across departments. It can compare vendor proposals, flag schedule conflicts, and turn messy meeting notes into action items. This gives a COO more hours for headcount planning, budget calls, and the judgment work that actually moves the business.

What AI can take off your plate

  • Compiling weekly KPI and performance reports from multiple sources
  • Drafting first versions of SOPs, policies, and process documents
  • Transcribing meetings and turning them into assigned action items
  • Comparing vendor quotes and contract terms side by side
  • Routing routine onboarding and approval steps across tools

What stays distinctly human

  • Deciding which tradeoffs to accept on budget, headcount, and timelines
  • Negotiating contracts and managing key vendor and partner relationships
  • Reading team morale and handling sensitive personnel issues
  • Setting operational priorities that match the company strategy
  • Making the final call when data points in conflicting directions
Tools

Five AI tools for COOs

ChatGPT
A COO uses it to summarize long operations reports, draft policy documents, and model out the tradeoffs of a staffing or budget decision.
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Microsoft Copilot
A COO uses it inside Excel and Teams to build KPI dashboards, summarize meeting threads, and draft cross-department updates without leaving Office.
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Notion AI
A COO uses it to turn scattered project notes into clean SOPs, meeting summaries, and a searchable operations wiki for the whole team.
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Otter.ai
A COO uses it to transcribe leadership and ops meetings, then auto-generate action items and decisions to assign and track.
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Zapier
A COO uses it to connect tools so tasks like new-hire onboarding steps or weekly report compilation run automatically across systems.
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Prompts

Five prompts to try today

Paste these into Claude or ChatGPT and replace the bracketed parts with your own details.

1. Weekly ops report summary
You are my operations chief of staff. Summarize this weekly report into one page for the leadership team: top 3 wins, top 3 risks, KPI changes versus last week, and recommended actions. Keep it under 250 words. Report: [PASTE REPORT]
2. Vendor proposal comparison
Compare these [NUMBER] vendor proposals for [SERVICE]. Build a table covering price, contract length, service level terms, onboarding time, and key risks. Then recommend one with two sentences of reasoning. Proposals: [PASTE DETAILS]
3. Process into SOP
Turn this rough process description into a clear standard operating procedure with numbered steps, owners for each step, required tools, and common failure points to watch for. Audience is a new team member. Process: [PASTE DESCRIPTION]
4. Meeting notes to actions
From these meeting notes, extract every decision made and every action item. For each action, list the owner, the deadline if mentioned, and what blocks it. Flag anything with no clear owner. Notes: [PASTE NOTES]
5. Capacity planning check
My team of [NUMBER] people handles [WORKLOAD] per month. We expect demand to grow [PERCENT] over [TIMEFRAME]. Estimate when we will hit capacity, what roles to hire first, and three ways to handle growth without adding headcount.
The playbook

Every AI play for COOs

The full library of tools, prompts, and tricks for your role — updated every week. Tap any card for a step-by-step walkthrough and examples.

✦  New tools, prompts, and tricks are added every week — and go straight to subscribers in their morning brief. Skip the scrolling and get yours delivered free. Get my free brief →
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A day in your inbox

This is the kind of brief a COO gets, every weekday morning.
Monday morning
✦ Personalized for: COO
Today's Tool
Use Copilot for the Monday KPI roundup
Point Microsoft Copilot at your shared Excel sheets and ask it to summarize week-over-week changes across departments. It produces a draft leadership update you can edit in minutes instead of an hour.
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Today's Prompt
Ask for the risks, not just the numbers
Add this line to any report prompt: "List the three risks most likely to slip a deadline this month and why." It pushes the AI past restating data into flagging what needs your attention.
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Today's Trick
Keep a reusable context block
Save a short paragraph describing your team size, tools, and KPIs, and paste it at the start of prompts. The AI gives sharper answers when it knows your actual operation instead of guessing.
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Today’s three are just the start — go deeper on your role.
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