Delegate, Direct, or Do · Business & Finance
Financial Analyst: what would you hand to AI?
Data gathering and reporting are automated; interpreting results under uncertainty is the work.
AI changes a lot of this job
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Three bins
| Delegate | AI does it and a person spot-checks the result. |
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| Direct | AI drafts; a person steers, fixes, and decides. |
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| Do | A person does it. AI stays out. |
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Four questions for every task
Every sort needs a one-line reason that uses at least one of these.
- What does a mistake cost? A typo in a draft is cheap. A wrong dose, a wrong verdict, or a live wire is not.
- Can a person check the output quickly? If checking takes as long as doing it, delegating saves nothing.
- Who answers for the result? Whoever signs, submits, or says it out loud owns it, whoever wrote the draft.
- Does it involve private data or judging people? Health records, student files, and decisions about a person need a person.
Grades 6-8: Sort it
Start with these tasks, then add 3-7 more that people in this job really do. Put each in a bin and write one line on why, using the four questions.
- Gather quarterly numbers from five reports
- Draft the monthly report summary
- Explain to leaders what the numbers mean when the future is uncertain
Some jobs land mostly in Do. That is a real answer, not a failure.
Grades 9-12: Brief it, then audit it
Sort the tasks as above. Then pick one Delegate or Direct task and write a brief with four parts: the goal, the context the AI needs, the constraints it must follow, and what done looks like.
Audit this sample
Summarize quarterly revenue for a team meeting
- goal
- A three-sentence summary of revenue so far this year.
- context
- Q1 revenue was $120,000. Q2 was $135,000. Q3 was $150,000.
- constraints
- Report only what happened. No predictions about future quarters.
- done
- Three sentences with numbers that match the context.
What the AI sent back
Revenue grew every quarter this year, from $120,000 in Q1 to $150,000 in Q3.
That is a 25% increase from Q1 to Q3, or about $15,000 more each quarter.
At this pace, Q4 revenue will reach $165,000.
Something here should stop you from signing off. Find it, name which of the four questions it fails, and rewrite the brief so it is less likely to happen again.
A live AI tool is optional, only if your district allows student use.
Close: one task you would never hand off
Which task would you never hand off in this job, and why?
Grades 6-8: one paragraph. Grades 9-12: a short argued response that answers the strongest reason someone might give for handing it off.