How Zapier’s EA built an army of AI interns to automate meeting prep, strengthen team culture, and scale internal alignment | Cortney Hickey

Cortney Hickey is the executive assistant to the CEO at Zapier, where she’s leveraging AI to transform traditional EA responsibilities into scalable, organization-wide systems. In this episode, she demonstrates how she’s built AI workflows that automate meeting preparation, reinforce company culture through automated feedback, and democratize strategic knowledge across the organization. Her approach shows how EAs can use AI not to replace their roles but to elevate them—working on higher-impact initiatives while creating systems that benefit the entire company.

What you’ll learn:

1. How to build an automated meeting prep system that researches participants, checks CRM data, and delivers actionable insights before important meetings
2. A framework for creating AI-powered culture reinforcement through automated meeting feedback aligned with company values and operating principles
3. How to develop an AI-powered document review system that helps teams align with executive expectations before formal reviews
4. A strategy for creating a centralized knowledge base that makes company strategy accessible and interactive for all employees
5. Why “progress over perfection” is the key mindset for building effective AI workflows that evolve over time
6. How EAs can use AI automation to work themselves out of repetitive tasks and into higher-impact strategic roles

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Brought to you by:

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction to Cortney

(02:48) Overview of meeting prep automation with Zapier Agents

(04:43) How the meeting prep agent works

(10:21) An example of the meeting prep agent in practice

(12:16) Creating a culture reinforcement system through meeting feedback

(15:45) EAs’ unique position to leverage these tools

(18:12) Building an automated meeting coach

(24:03) Developing an executive document review system

(33:15) Creating a centralized strategy companion in NotebookLM

(36:18) How AI is transforming the EA role, not replacing it

(40:00) Lightning round and final thoughts

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Tools referenced:

• Zapier: https://zapier.com/

• Zapier Agents: https://zapier.com/agents

• Todoist: https://todoist.com/

• Slack: https://slack.com/

• HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/

• ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/

• Google NotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google/

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Where to find Cortney Hickey:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cortneyhickey/

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Where to find Claire Vo:

ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/

Website: https://clairevo.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/

X: https://x.com/clairevo

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co.