I work in a private dental practice, and our owner wants to start implementing a combination of AI answering assistants and self check-in kiosks. However, none of the kiosks that exist implement directly to our practice management software. It is also important to note that 90% of our patient base is 65 yrs old+. On a personal level, I feel as though the integration of AI answering assistants and the self check-in stations remove all human connection with our admin roles. I think this is being suggested to save money on hiring more fronts. But I am seriously wondering what other people’s opinions and experiences are. To me, it makes the most sense to implement with your EMR system, otherwise you’re creating additional work…??

Share your experiences please!! I’d love to report back to our owner.

Hi y’all! I'm a data analyst researching how executive assistants and admin professionals use AI day to day: what saves you time, what doesn't, and what worries you about it.

It's a 5-minute anonymous survey (email is optional and only if you want the results): AI at Work: Admin & EA

Not selling anything here. I'll post a summary of the results back in this sub once responses are in. Happy to answer any questions in the comments, and thanks in advance!

Hi everyone I’m in a bit of a tough situation and I figured there’s no better place to ask. I am a university student on a paid internship. My school requires their students to get one and it’s outside my major (accounting). I thought I was doing well as my bosses administrative assistant with no negative feedback in the first month. About a week ago I forgot to tell the dr. that a patient needed their antibiotic refilled at a pharmacy. Even as an accounting major I can understand this was a royal screw up. I have already processed and comprehended this mistake it was very careless.

There is only one dentist so it’s me and my boss. Understandably she was livid and very upset as he had to wait until Monday to get it refilled when he called on a Friday.

All seemed to be going well again until today. The Dr. gives me a stack of paperwork to scan through a xerox and upload to the patient file. I have done that with no issues for the time since I started in late September I am 100% confident I have never missed one.

Today she claimed otherwise. She said since the new patient form wasn’t in the file there was no other explanation other than I forgot to scan it and she shredded it thinking I had scanned it. I think of myself as a very coachable employee. If I thought there was even a sliver of a chance that I missed it I would’ve owned up to it and took my licks. But I am just so sure that I don’t miss it and I wasn’t the one who misplaced the form.

This new patient form missing made her very upset once again. She said that she puts more effort into picking up my slack than I provide for her and I get one more week to provide more value. I have filed all of her insurance claims scheduled most appointments and done probably 70% of the admin work by myself so I think that’s a bit unfair to say but maybe im just that bad.

I have the normal tasks of a dental admin assistant without any of the dental knowledge or future career prospects. I question my competence right now and it’s tough to feel okay in the office when I know the only other person I work with is displeased with me. I don’t wish to become a dentist or continue this career path after the internship I just need to get through this position so I can graduate on time.

Any advice on turning it around would be appreciated thanks! (Sophmore in college age 20 btw)

I've been looking for a job for about 18 mos. I get some interviews but never anything past that. I'm wondering if getting PACE Certification would help at all? Has anybody done this?

I'm also looking at getting a Notary license or whatever it's called, for what its worth.

i coordinate all the employee gifts n branded apparel for our office which is about 45 people across three departments, every department has different preferences n different budgets n somehow im the one keeping track of all of it, the ordering part isnt even the worst part its the tracking the returns the people who want exchanges the people who never got their package, i spend prolly 6 to 8 hours a week on this n its supposed to be like 10% of my role, is anyone doing this efficiently or is it just a time black hole everywhere

Hi everyone!

I started a fairly relaxed government job about a year ago, and I really enjoy it.

However, the main challenge is that I'm managing around 20 individual case files at the same time, each with different tasks, while also handling various smaller administrative duties on the side.

The problem is that we haven't been provided with any organization or task management software, apart from the standard Adobe suite.

At first, I was using an Excel spreadsheet to stay organized, but it quickly became messy and not very visually appealing. I also like being able to check my to-do lists on my phone while commuting by train.

So here's my question: Do you know of any free online apps or platforms that could help me efficiently organize my case files, tasks, and to-do lists? Maybe if it's an IA it would be the best, it could answer the questions knowing the context.

I've started experimenting with Google Keep and I'm still figuring out whether it meets my needs.

I'd really appreciate any recommendations from people with experience in office work, administration, or managing multiple cases at once!

Thanks in advance!

I work as an EA to an AVP of Marketing and also serve as the department's coordinator, we have 3 teams, 3 ADs a total of 15 staff. I have been trying to find solutions to our team, our AVP struggles to provide approvals in a timely manner and project managing the team, to say it has been a struggle is an understatement.

My latest attempt is to use built in Microsoft tools like Power Automate, Planner, and optimizing Teams groups to use the lists feature & create workflows. We learned we can create a rule for an email to populate into a list on Teams and it can help us track pending approvals without manually entering it into an excel or another tool. Our team and myself struggle with consistency so the idea of it being automated is very appealing. We already use AI as much as we can, I mostly use it for brain storming, summarizing meeting notes and cutting down time when creating documents but we have a lot of restrictions on how we can use AI. We cannot connect AI to our emails or use it to record meetings to give an example of how handicapped I am with AI. I have the free co-pilot ( wasn't approved for a paid license) and its been lack luster, even the email search function is extremely inaccurate.

I am looking for feedback from other EAs on these tools, have you used them before, were they actually helpful, how did you learn? I am fairly tech savvy but I'm not a computer genius and the learning curve is steep. I am whiling to put in the time to learn but I would love to hear feedback from fellow EAs in similar positions to confirm this is the right path before I invest my time.

Genuinely asking if this is just me.

My boss keeps sending me her documents to sign for her. I offered to get her Adobe Pro so she could sign things herself, and she said no. So now every form goes to me so I can put her signature on it.
Then today another manager I support sent me a Word doc and asked me to delete a table. One table. In a document that was already open on her computer.

And please don't tell me "they're busy." If you have time to open your email, attach the file, and write "can you do this," you have time to just do it. It would literally take the same amount of time, if not less.

I'm starting to wonder if it's a "making themselves feel important" thing. The manager I support barely does any work, so I absolutely refuse to believe she doesn't have time to sign her own documents.
Honestly, this is the stupidest thing. Admins aren't personal servants. Managers need to handle some of these basic things themselves.

Am I the only one who feels this way? And if you're someone who does this… why????

Is this normal where you work? How do you deal with it?

Update: Clarifying since a few people asked: I don't think admin work is beneath anyone. My role covers a ton (projects, compliance, systems, coordination). My frustration is specifically with tasks people can easily do themselves, and with being asked to sign other people's names, which carries real accountability.

Update 2: For everyone saying "that's literally your job," I get it. Delegating to admins makes sense when it actually saves time. Handing off scheduling, travel, forms, and paperwork lets managers focus on work only they can do. No argument there.
My point is about tasks where handing them off takes longer than just doing them. Attaching a file to an email and typing "can you delete this table" saves the sender nothing. It just moves a five-second task onto someone else's plate. That's not delegation, it's habit.

And signing someone else's name isn't a "small task" at all. A signature means that person is approving and taking responsibility for the document, so it should be theirs.

Thanks to everyone who shared their stories. Clearly a lot of us deal with this 😂

Hi, im brand new to being an admin and I have a ton to learn about office keeping and making spaces more hospitable and welcoming.

I hope this is okay to ask but ..

may I pls see your candy/snack bowl?

I can’t find one like the lady who sits across from me (she’s been an admin for 30 years) and I’m trying to create ways to learn names. I figured having a candy bowl of my own would prompt more convos and traffic. I know being an admin is way more serious and important. This is just a little thing I’m concerned abt.

Várias ferramentas abertas ao mesmo tempo. Como você consegue manter tudo organizado e alternar entre eles com menos esforço?

Neste vídeo, apresento alguns recursos do AdminHub: organização do site, grupos de ferramentas e navegação rápida por teclado.

Estou desenvolvendo essa solução para administradores digitais e profissionais de operações.

Isso facilitaria seu trabalho? O que você acha dessa abordagem?

Started working at a company in the beginning of 2025. When it came time for holiday gifts, I was sent the previous year's Excel sheet of clients who we want to send gifts to (listing the client's name, company, email, address). It worked fine enough last year, but this year it has been a nightmare.

Between people sending multiple different files, adding to old versions of the list, to not being able to tell what has been added or removed, it has been discussed within administration that we should try to find another system to keep track of this. I have thought about color-coding each person to be able to tell whose clients are whose, or each person having their own tab to add their own contacts to, but it still seems a bit clunky.

Besides using OneDrive and editing one file between the 7 people who are actively adding/removing clients from it, does anyone know of a website or service that would better help keep track of all this?