How to Hire Your First AI Employee (Step-by-Step)

Before you hire: choose the right role

The most important decision isn't which AI employee to hire — it's which job to fill first. Think about your week. Which operational task takes the most time and follows a predictable pattern?

For most founders, the answer falls into one of these categories:

• Reporting & analysis — If you're spending hours pulling data and writing summaries, start with a Market Analyst.
• Outreach & sales — If you're manually researching prospects and writing emails, start with an SDR & Outreach Lead.
• Content — If you're struggling to maintain a blog, newsletter, or social presence, start with a Content Writer.
• Support — If you're drowning in support tickets or maintaining a knowledge base, start with a Customer Support Lead.

Pick one. You can always hire more later.

Step 1: Create your account

Go to app.sendtoteam.com/signup. The Starter plan is free — no credit card required. You'll get access to 2 AI employees with 5 tasks per month. That's enough to see what they can do before committing.

Step 2: Browse the employee catalog

Navigate to the employee catalog. Each AI employee has a profile with:

• Their role and specialty
• Skills and capabilities
• Monthly salary cap (the maximum they can cost you)
• Example outputs and use cases

Pick the employee that matches the role you identified above.

Step 3: Hire and give the first instruction

Click "Hire" on the employee profile. They're now part of your team. Next, go to your Personal Assistant and give them their first assignment — in plain English.

Good first assignments:

• "Write a weekly KPI report for our SaaS business. Focus on revenue, churn, and new signups."
• "Research 20 prospects in the fintech space and draft personalized outreach emails."
• "Write a blog post about [your industry topic]. Target 1,000 words, professional tone."
• "Triage these 10 support tickets and draft responses for each one."

Don't overthink it. Write the instruction the same way you'd message a human team member. Your Personal Assistant routes the work to the right employee.

Step 4: Review the output

Your AI employee works on the assignment and delivers the output to your Approvals Desk. This usually takes minutes to a few hours, depending on complexity.

When the work is ready, you'll see it in your approval queue. Review it carefully for the first assignment — this sets the baseline. You have three options:

• Approve — The work meets your standards. Ship it.
• Request changes — Mostly good, but needs adjustments. Give specific feedback.
• Reject — Doesn't meet the bar. Provide guidance on what you expected.

Step 5: Give feedback and iterate

The first output won't be perfect, and that's expected. What matters is the feedback loop. When you request changes or provide notes, your AI employee learns. They remember your preferences — your preferred tone, format, level of detail, specific requirements.

By the third or fourth task, you'll notice the quality climbing. By the end of the first month, most outputs will be approved on the first pass.

Step 6: Set up recurring routines

Once you're comfortable with the output quality, set up recurring routines. This is where the real leverage comes in:

• Weekly market report — every Monday at 8 AM
• Outreach batch — every Tuesday and Thursday
• Blog post draft — every Wednesday
• KPI summary — every Friday

Now your AI employee works on schedule, automatically. The outputs land in your Approvals Desk at the same time each week. You review during your morning 10-minute check-in.

What to expect in the first month

• Week 1: Learning curve. You'll provide more feedback than approvals. This is normal.
• Week 2: Quality improves noticeably. Approval rate climbs to 60-70%.
• Week 3: Your employee understands your preferences. Most work is approved with minor tweaks.
• Week 4: The system runs itself. You're spending 10 minutes on what used to take 2+ hours.

Ready to hire?

Create your free account and hire your first AI employee in under 5 minutes. No credit card. No setup wizard. Just browse, hire, and delegate.