Short answer
To delegate to an AI employee, write the request the way you would brief a capable new hire: the outcome you want, the context it needs, the limits it must respect, what needs your approval, and how you want the report. Vague requests produce vague work; a few specific sentences produce reliable results.
Delegation is a skill, not a prompt
People who struggle with AI often write the way they search: a few words, no context. 'Follow up with leads.' A person would ask which leads, how, how often, and what to say. A good AI employee will ask too, but you save time by answering those questions in the request.
Oraculo is a managed AI employee you can reach in WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack, Telegram, email, by phone and in the app. You do not need special syntax. You need the habits of a decent manager.
The six parts of a good request
- Outcome. What should be true when the work is done? 'Every unanswered lead from this week has received a reply and a booking offer.'
- Context. What does it need to know? Who the customers are, what happened before, which price list applies.
- Limits. What it must not do: no discounts, no weekends, nothing to anyone flagged as a complaint.
- Approval points. Where it should stop and ask: anything over a dollar amount, anything sent to a new contact, any public post.
- Deadline or rhythm. One time, by Friday at 3 pm, or every Monday morning.
- Report. How you want to hear back: 'a five-line summary,' 'the link,' 'a list of exceptions only.'
You do not need all six every time. A routine task you have delegated before might need two. A new, risky one needs all of them.
Before and after: ten requests
| Vague request | Better request |
|---|---|
| Follow up with leads | Text every lead from the last 7 days with no reply. Ask what service they need and offer Tuesday or Thursday. Stop after two tries and tell me who's left. |
| Post on Instagram | Post the attached photo today at 5 pm. Caption: new spring menu, link in bio. Reply to comments and send me anything that asks about allergies. |
| Fix my website | Change the holiday hours on the contact page and footer to closed Thursday, open 10 to 2 Friday. Send me the link. |
| Handle invoices | Send invoices for the five completed jobs in the list. Net 15. For anything unpaid over 30 days, send a friendly reminder, but ask me before a second one. |
| Keep an eye on the team | Every Friday, tell me who has open follow-ups older than 3 days and nudge them on Slack. |
| Order supplies | When glove stock drops below 4 boxes, draft an order with the usual supplier. Do not submit; I approve first. |
| Check the competition | Look at the pricing pages of these three companies and summarize differences from ours in one table. |
| Answer the phone | Answer after 5 pm. Collect name, address, problem. Book a visit if it's in our service area. Emergencies: call me right away. |
| Write a blog post | Write a 900-word post answering 'how often should I service my furnace,' for homeowners in Albany. Add two photos from the shared folder. Show me before publishing. |
| Reconcile expenses | Read the attached receipts, categorize them, and list anything over $200 or without a vendor name for me to check. |
Approvals: how much trust to hand over
Trust is built like it is with a person. Early on, ask to approve everything that leaves the building: messages to customers, public posts, invoices, orders. As the work proves reliable, relax the approvals on the routine items and keep them on the sensitive ones. Important actions can require your approval first, and you set the rules.
- Green light (no approval). Internal summaries, reminders, reading reports, updating records.
- Amber (approve at first). Customer replies, appointment changes, social posts, website edits.
- Red (always approve). Spending money, refunds, legal or sensitive communications, deleting anything.
Write that list down once. It becomes the standing instruction behind every other request. A fuller treatment of standing instructions is in how to write SOPs your AI employee can follow.
Standing instructions beat repeating yourself
The second time you give a similar request, you should be able to say less. Oraculo remembers customers, decisions and past fixes, so 'do the usual Friday follow-up' can work after you have shown it once. The more your preferences are captured as rules rather than single requests, the less you have to say.
Memory is covered in how AI employees remember your business. For a menu of good first jobs, see first 10 tasks to give your AI employee.
Common mistakes when delegating
- Delegating the problem without the goal. 'Our reviews are bad' is a problem. 'Ask every happy customer for a Google review within a day of completion' is a task.
- Skipping the stop conditions. Without 'stop after two tries,' follow-up can feel relentless.
- Not giving examples. Paste one message you wrote that you liked. Tone transfers best by example.
- Delegating judgment. Pricing exceptions, firing a customer, a delicate apology: decide yourself, then have it carry out your decision.
- Never reviewing. Spend ten minutes a week reading what it did, especially the first month.
Getting started with Oraculo
Starter is $12 per hour of work with a 6 hour weekly minimum ($312 a month); Business is $8 per hour at 43 hours a week ($1,500 a month). Setup is $499 one-time with four 1-hour Zoom sessions with an engineer who sits with you and connects your tools, which is also where your first delegations get tuned. Billing follows a published task-time chart, and a 30-day money-back guarantee applies.
Book a 20-minute demo and bring three tasks you wish someone else would do.
Key takeaway
Good delegation is a few clear sentences: the outcome, the limits, where to ask first and how to report. Write those once and an AI employee can run with them.
Frequently asked questions
How detailed should my instructions be?
As detailed as you would be with a capable new hire doing a task for the first time. Give outcome, context, limits, approvals and timing. For repeat tasks, a short reminder is enough once it has the rules.
Can I delegate by voice or photo?
Yes. You can send text, voice notes, photos, PDFs or recordings through WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack, Telegram, email or the app. Oraculo reads photos, PDFs and recordings you send.
What if it misunderstands me?
Correct it in plain language and it remembers the correction. Start with approvals on, review early work, and write recurring corrections as standing rules so the same mistake does not repeat.
Should I delegate decisions too?
Delegate execution first. Delegate small decisions inside clear rules, such as rescheduling within a window. Keep pricing exceptions, sensitive conversations and spending decisions with you.
How do I know it did the work?
Ask for a report in your request: a link, a summary, a list of exceptions. It tells you what it did and what it left for you. A weekly review of its activity adds a second check.