To automate repetitive tasks with AI, choose a small task you do the same way every week, such as summarizing project emails or sorting customer messages, and test a tool that is already part of your daily routine. The AI handles the draft and the sorting. You continue to review what comes out before sending, publishing, or deleting.
How to know if a task is worth automating
Not everything that is tedious is a good candidate. Before opening any tool, run the task through four questions:
- Does it repeat frequently, at least a few times a week?
- Are the steps similar each time, even if the content changes?
- Can you check the result quickly, in less time than it would take to do from scratch?
- Does a mistake have a small consequence or can it be corrected before causing harm?
If the answer is yes to all four, you have a good starting point. Sorting emails by subject passes this test. Responding to a legal complaint from a customer does not: the mistake is costly, and the review requires someone specialized.
A practical tip: for one week, jot down everything you do more than twice.
Concrete examples by type of task
Emails
Summarizing the week’s email exchanges about a project and drafting an update for the team are direct uses. Microsoft reports that Copilot Chat in Outlook does this for Microsoft 365 subscribers, consulting inbox, calendar, and meetings. With the additional Microsoft 365 Copilot license, it also orders unread emails by importance and prepares meeting agendas based on ongoing projects.
Spreadsheets
In Excel, Copilot points out trends and patterns in the data and creates charts. Those with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license receive Agent Mode, designed for multi-step tasks, such as reorganizing data or merging tabs. In Google Sheets, Google announced in April 2026 that Gemini began creating and editing entire spreadsheets based on a natural language request, including pivot tables and complex formulas. One detail: in the announcement, the feature was only available in the United States and in English, so check if it has reached your account yet.
Reports and documents
In Word, Microsoft lists summarization, rewriting, and drafting texts. In OneNote, Copilot transforms notes into task lists and project plan outlines. A common use is turning loose meeting notes into minutes with decisions and responsibilities, then checking who is responsible for each task.
Customer Service
Automation tools connect applications to each other and insert an AI step in the middle. In Zapier, the step AI by Zapier has ready-made templates to summarize, write, classify, and extract information. A possible workflow: each new message from the contact form is classified as inquiry, quote, or support, and the classification goes to a spreadsheet or the appropriate team channel. The response to the customer stays with a person.
File Organization
The same extraction step is used to pull data from documents that come in by email, such as order number, date, and company name, and use that data to name and file the attachment in the correct folder. Start by just logging the suggestion in a spreadsheet. Actually moving and renaming comes later, once you trust the result.
Code and scripts with APIs
If you program, a short script in Python or JavaScript that calls the API of an AI model solves very specific tasks: generating descriptions for a list of products, standardizing file names, or summarizing logs. Zapier also allows you to use your own API key from providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Azure OpenAI, and Amazon Bedrock, which helps merge the two approaches. Store the key in an environment variable, never in the code that goes to the repository.
Step by step to start small
- Choose a single task from your list, preferably the most repetitive and lowest risk.
- Write down step-by-step how you do it today.
- Test first within the tool you already use (Outlook, Gmail, Excel, Sheets) before setting up workflows between applications.
- Run the automation in parallel with manual work for one or two weeks and compare the results.
- Only after that, let the automation run on its own, and even then, keep a review point at the stages that send, publish, or delete something.
Gemini in Sheets follows a similar logic: according to Google, it builds a plan and asks for your approval before constructing the spreadsheet. Read this plan carefully: it’s there that an interpretation error is likely to show up early.
Caution with personal data and LGPD
ANPD, in the Technological Radar on generative AI published in November 2024, highlights a very everyday risk: people enter their own or others' personal data, sometimes sensitive data, in prompts and attachments, without fully knowing how they will be treated. The same document reminds that models can generate false, yet convincing, information about real people.
In practice, this means:
- Use the corporate versions of the tools, approved by your company, for customer and colleague data.
- Send to the AI only the data necessary for the task. To classify an order, a CPF or address is almost never needed.
- Avoid sensitive data, such as health, religion, or biometrics, in automation with AI, unless the legal or privacy team has approved it.
- Check where the data is stored. In Zapier, for example, knowledge sources remain in the account until you delete them.
Human review is not optional
Google itself reports that Gemini in Sheets got 70.48% of the tasks correct in the SpreadsheetBench test set. Google describes this result as close to the level of human experts, and it also shows that the tool does not get everything right. Therefore, define who reviews each automation and what that person checks: numbers, names, recipients, and tone. The more irreversible the action, the closer the review should be.
How much does it cost
The cost depends on the tool and the plan, and these values change frequently. Some points that the official pages show today:
- Microsoft 365: Copilot Chat in Outlook is available to subscribers, but in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, Microsoft requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot license and a corporate or school account.
- Google Workspace: the Gemini spreadsheet feature appears in plans like Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise Standard and Plus, and in personal plans Google AI Pro and Ultra, with usage limits per person.
- Zapier: the AI step consumes tasks from the plan. The Standard level uses one task per execution, the Advanced uses three times more, and the Premium, standard for new steps, five times. With your own key, the step uses one task per execution, and the use of the model goes through your account with the provider.
Before signing up for something new, do the simple math: how many hours per month does the task take today and what does the automation cost in that same period, including the review time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to know how to program to automate tasks with AI?
No. The AI features of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace work with natural language requests, and tools like Zapier set up workflows without code. Programming helps when the task is very specific.
Can I paste customer data into any free AI?
Avoid it. ANPD points out that, in general, there is a lack of clarity on how the data entered in prompts is treated. Use the tools approved by your company and send only what is necessary.
What is the first automation most recommended for beginners?
Summarizing emails or classifying messages are often good choices because they happen frequently and errors are easy to notice and correct.
Can automation with AI work without anyone watching?
For low-risk steps, like recording a classification in a spreadsheet, yes, after a testing period. For sending messages, deleting files, or handling customer data, keep a person approving.
Next steps
This week, list the tasks you repeat more than twice and choose a low-risk one to test with the AI you already have available. If you want to delve deeper into AI, automation, and programming, explore the Hcode course platform.
Sources
How Copilot Chat works in Microsoft 365 apps, Microsoft Support, updated in April 2026.
Build and edit complex spreadsheets with Gemini in Google Sheets, Google Workspace Updates, April 22, 2026.
Use AI by Zapier to analyze and return data, Zapier Help Center, updated October 1, 2026.
Technological Radar No. 3: Generative Artificial Intelligence, National Data Protection Authority (ANPD), November 2024.