From Redundancy to Irreplaceable: Martha Kilner on Embracing AI and Operational Thinking

How do you go from 19 years as a primary school teacher, through two redundancies, to fully booked as a VA within six weeks? This week I am joined by Any Other Business founder, Martha Kilner, who shares her story.

We also talk about how she's transitioned into being the operational backbone of the businesses she works with, and why Virtual Assistants should embrace AI rather than shy away from it.

"I think generic VA tasks will be redundant... and the VAs who have moved on to being the operational thinkers and the true right-hand person in the business will be the ones who'll be fully booked." - Martha Kilner.

That shift, from generic tasks to operational thinking, is exactly what AI has made possible for Martha. We explore what AI actually means for the industry right now, how she uses it to become better and more efficient at her job, what it does well (and not so well), and the tactics she uses to get the most out of it.

She also shares what VA tasks are at risk with AI, what isn’t going to be replaced, and the importance of keeping up to date. There’s also a rapid-fire question round (most underrated AI feature, most used AI tool, etc) and her prediction for the VA industry by 2030.

Key takeaways:

1️⃣ AI won’t make VAs redundant, but it will make some generic tasks redundant. Move from task execution to operational thinking, where you become someone your clients rely on.

2️⃣ It’s important to spend time getting the foundations right with AI. If you don’t, it will just churn out rubbish that isn’t useful for anyone.

3️⃣ When you become more efficient, you need to stop charging by the hour and penalising yourself. Base your pricing on the value you're giving to your client.

Pick one AI tool. Whether that’s Claude, Copilot, Gemini, ChatGPT, or whatever is best for you, and go all in on it. Spend the time getting it set up properly, the way you'd brief a new team member.

And if you don’t know where to start with AI, Martha reminds us that asking “what do I want it to do?” is much more helpful than “what can it do?”

Timestamps:

(00:00) Podcast episode starts

(01:30) Martha's VA journey

(03:40) How has your business changed over the years

(05:47) Impact AI has had on business

(09:22) What tasks don't you outsource to AI?

(10:06) Is AI going to make VA jobs redundant?

(11:16) Advice for VAs feeling they're behind

(13:18) Will AI always be a specialist skill?

(14:22) Has AI changed your mindset on pricing?

(16:55) Checking the quality of AI's output

(19:24) Keeping up with the latest in AI

(21:54) Deciding what is genuinely useful for businesses

(23:02) Common mistakes people make with AI

(24:08) Overhyped AI features in the industry

(24:53) Quick fire AI questions

(25:58) AI prediction for 2030

About Martha

Martha Kilner is the founder of Any Other Business, where she works as a Business Ops and AI Specialist for founders juggling everything at once, brilliant at what they do, held together by memory rather than a system. Before AOB, Martha spent nearly twenty years in primary education, including years leading on IT, unlikely training for building systems around how people actually think. Her flagship offer, The Smooth Operator Method, AI training sessions and whizzy tech skills help founders turn what's living in their head into something someone else could run.

Where to find Martha:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martha-kilner/

Website: https://aobva.com/

Resources mentioned in this episode

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