For the past few years, much of the conversation around generative AI has focused on one skill: prompting.
We have learned to give AI context, define the audience, specify the task and refine our instructions to generate better results.
But AI is changing. As AI agents become more capable, the next skill may be less about asking AI to produce something and more about delegating work to it.
And there is an important difference. It shifts the focus from answering questions to completing tasks. A traditional AI assistant responds to a request. Draft an email, summarise a report or brainstorm ideas. You review the response and decide what happens next.
An AI agent can potentially take a goal and complete a series of steps towards achieving it. Instead of asking AI to draft a meeting agenda, for example, you might ask an agent to review previous meeting notes, identify outstanding actions, gather relevant information and prepare a draft agenda.
The interaction shifts from: “Do this task” to: “Help me achieve this outcome.”
Good delegation requires more than good prompting
Anyone who’s managed people knows effective delegation is not simply handing over a task and walking away. The same principle applies to AI with users needing to define:
- the outcome they want
- the information the AI can access
- the boundaries within which it can operate
- which decisions it can make
- when it should stop and ask for human input
- how its work will be checked
The more autonomy we give AI, the more important these questions become.
Never confuse delegation with abdication
AI agents are completing increasingly complex tasks, but that does not mean handing responsibility over to them. If an AI agent sends the wrong information, overlooks an important detail or makes an inappropriate decision, the organisation still owns the outcome.
Human oversight therefore becomes more important, not less.
The skill is knowing what to delegate, how much autonomy to allow and where to insert human checkpoints.
A new workplace capability
This shift has significant implications for workplace training. More than technical knowledge, employees need to:
- Understand workflows
- Exercise judgement
- Provide clear instructions
- Critically evaluate what AI has done.
In other words, some of the skills required to manage AI may look remarkably similar to the skills required to manage people.
Be AI-Wise
The next generation of AI users will not simply be better at writing prompts.
They will be better at deciding: What should I do? What should AI do? And where do we need to work together?
At GAPS Professional Writing, our AI training helps employees move beyond basic prompting to explore how AI can support real workplace tasks, workflows and responsibilities.
Because as AI evolves, knowing how to use the technology will matter.
Knowing how to delegate to it wisely will matter even more.