Automatable

A task performed by Online Merchants

Correspond with online customers via electronic mail, telephone, or other electronic messaging to address questions or complaints about products, policies, or shipping methods.

Green LightWorkers want it · AI can do it

Likely yes, and the people who do it want it gone. Workers rate their desire to automate this 3.2/5, and experts rate current AI capability at 3.67/5. That puts it in the Automation Green Light zone.

Worker desire to automate3.2/5

How much the people who do this task want AI to take it over (avg of 10 workers).

AI capability today3.7/5

How capable experts rate current AI at this task (avg of 3 experts).

How much human involvement should stay?

The Human Agency Scale (H1–H5) captures how much human direction workers think this task should keep.

H3Equal human–AI partnership

Why workers want this automated

  • Frees up time for higher-value work80%
  • Helps handle larger scale50%
  • It's stressful40%
  • Reduces human error40%
  • It's repetitive20%

How to automate this

Good news: this is a strong candidate to automate now.

Routine communication

Template the repeatable parts, keep the human touch where it counts.

  1. 1Use saved replies and templates for common messages.
  2. 2Auto-route and auto-respond to routine requests with rules.
  3. 3Draft with AI, then review and send it yourself.

Tools that can help

Email templatesHelp-desk autorespondersAI drafting assistant

Know a better way, or spot an error?

Share how you automate this in real life, or correct the data. Reviewed before publishing.

This is 1 of 15 tasks studied for Online Merchants, where workers want 67% of tasks automated.

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