Before I automate something, I need to ask who should still carry it

"As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace." (1 Peter 4:10, ESV)

I lead people. I also lead an AI consulting company with my business partner Brendan that helps small business owners figure out what to automate. Between those two things, I run into the same tension constantly: AI can absorb almost any task I hand it, but not every task was ever mine, or anyone's, to simply hand off.

The honest thing about my own leadership

I want the people who work with me to experience me as honest, trustworthy, and leading by example. I have a lot of patience for someone who's loyal, teachable, and trying hard even when the work is a little rough around the edges. I love coaching people through that. What I'll admit, though, is that I don't yet fully know how to trust and let go of control when I delegate. That's true whether I'm handing something to a person or to a piece of software.

That admission matters here, because AI makes it dangerously easy to solve my own discomfort with delegation by skipping the person altogether. A tool doesn't need patience. It doesn't need coaching. It doesn't do the task slower or less elegantly than I would while it's still learning. It's simply faster to hand a task to AI than to invest in growing someone into the responsibility.

But growing someone into a responsibility was never just about the task getting done.

Bear one another's burdens, and bear your own

"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:2, ESV)

Grounding Scripture: "For each will have to bear his own load." (Galatians 6:5, ESV)

Those two verses sit right next to each other on purpose. Some burdens are meant to be shared and carried together. Some are meant to stay someone's own load, because carrying it is part of how they grow, and taking it from them would actually be a kind of theft. AI collapses that distinction if I let it. It's very good at bearing burdens. It has no opinion about which ones were supposed to stay mine, stay yours, or stay a task a teammate needed to wrestle with in order to become someone I can eventually trust with more.

Where I've had to ask this with clients

Through Ascent AI, I sit across the table from small business owners deciding what to automate. Some of that work is an easy yes. Repetitive data entry, drafting first-pass responses, summarizing documents nobody was reading closely anyway. Other times, the honest answer is that the task they want automated is actually the thing their team needs to learn how to do well. Automating it wouldn't save the business. It would just quietly stunt the person who needed that responsibility to grow.

That's not a popular thing to say to someone hoping AI will fix a staffing problem. It's still the true thing to say.

A short test before I automate something

Does this task exist mainly to build judgment in someone, or is it pure repetition with nothing to learn from?

Does automating it remove a relationship, a coaching moment, or a chance for someone to be trusted with more?

Am I handing this to a tool because it's genuinely better suited to it, or because it's easier than having a harder conversation with a person?

Who is actually accountable for the outcome once the tool is running it?

If I can't answer the last question clearly, I haven't finished thinking it through. That's the same instinct behind three questions before you automate anything, and the same one behind knowing what to keep human.

Frequently asked questions

Should Christian leaders automate work instead of delegating to people?

Not automatically. Automation is appropriate for genuinely repetitive tasks with little developmental value. Tasks that build a team member's judgment, trust, or skill are usually better delegated to a person, even if it's slower at first.

How do I decide what to automate versus what to delegate to a team member?

Ask whether the task exists to build someone's capability or simply to move information. Growth-oriented tasks belong with people. Repetitive, low-judgment tasks are reasonable candidates for AI.

What does the Bible say about carrying responsibility?

Galatians 6:2 and 6:5 hold two truths together: some burdens should be shared, and some are meant to remain a person's own load because carrying them is part of their growth.

Start here: the free F.A.I.T.H. AI Stewardship Audit is twenty questions about your week, not about technology. About five minutes, no cost, and your answers stay on your device.

I'm Dave. I lead teams at my day job and co-lead an AI consulting company with my business partner Brendan, helping small business owners decide what AI should and shouldn't carry for them.