--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: The 'Intern Test' for Working with AI image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd69842f9be73aa46/6a57f3bc6a33e5387326480a/charter-kupp.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- The information presented here is created by Charter, independently from the TIME editorial staff.  Time charter * [ai](/partner-content/charter/tag/ai/) ## ai Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The 'Intern Test' for Working with AI by [Brian Elliott](/author/brian-elliott/) Executive-in-residence, Charter Brian Elliott is Charter's executive-in-residence and CEO of Work Forward. Jul 16, 2026 9:30 AM CUT  Art: Charter by [Brian Elliott](/author/brian-elliott/) Executive-in-residence, Charter Brian Elliott is Charter's executive-in-residence and CEO of Work Forward. Jul 16, 2026 9:30 AM CUT In the US, [62% of office workers](https://web-assets.bcg.com/e7/c7/00d913744cccb1e4f65bbf54fe86/ai-at-work-slideshow-june-2026.pdf "undefined") now use AI several times a week. But most of them, in [Helen Kupp](https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenleekupp/ "undefined")'s estimation, are still using it like Google search: type a question, get a paragraph back, repeat. This approach, she says, leaves 90% of the value on the table. Kupp—the founder of [Women Defining AI](https://www.womendefiningai.org/ "undefined"), a nonprofit that runs workshops for building AI skills—joined a recent [Charter Forum](https://www.charterworks.com/forum/ "undefined") session to help close that gap, walking a group of senior leaders through the process of building their own "AI chief of staff." The mechanics for doing that are helpful, but may actually matter less than simply shifting your mindset from what Kupp calls being a “search-mode user” to someone in “delegation mode.” The question Kupp suggested the group to ask: “If I had an intern, what would I tell them to do today?" (Forum events operate under [Chatham House Rule](https://www.chathamhouse.org/about-us/chatham-house-rule "undefined"); excerpts here are shared with permission.) ### **The power of agents to automate tasks** Kupp, my former colleague at Slack and co-author of a [book on the future of work](https://futureforum.com/how-the-future-works/ "undefined"), started with a simple example: A search-mode user might ask, "Who are Slack's top five competitors?" But a delegation-mode user tells AI to create a competitive matrix covering features, pricing, differentiation, and target audience, formatted as a table. While the core question might be the same, the second version scopes a task and hands it off to be completed by AI agents. Sign up for Charter's newsletter to get the handbook for the future of work delivered to your inbox. Email Address You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our [Terms of Service](https://www.charterworks.com/terms-of-service/) and [Privacy Policy](https://www.charterworks.com/privacy-policy/). Agents can break a goal into steps and execute across connected tools. In a chat window, you're still the middleman, copying and pasting between systems. If you’re building an agent with tools like Claude Cowork, OpenAI’s Codex, or Copilot’s Cowork, you hand off the tasks themselves, like reviewing today's meetings and yesterday’s email to generate a morning brief. A recent analysis from Anthropic [of 1.2 million anonymized Cowork sessions](https://claude.com/blog/how-people-are-using-claude-cowork "undefined") found that the largest category of use was for business process and operations tasks, such as pulling scattered updates into a single report and building onboarding checklists. When Kupp asked the Forum group what they'd delegate first, the responses came fast: summarizing KPIs, triaging chat messages, curating newsletters, or capturing meeting action items. These are exactly the coordination tasks that eat leaders' calendars, and every one of them can be done by an agent. ### **People leaders already have the right delegation skills** The good news, Kupp said, is that the capabilities needed to build good agents are ones people leaders already practice every day. Kupp says it’s not dissimilar to managing junior workers—define the goal, the inputs they need, what "good" looks like, and where the output goes. Vague briefs produce mushy results, for interns and agents alike. That framing flips the narrative of HR being behind on AI. Writing role descriptions and defining performance standards is the daily work of people leadership. The managers who do it well are better positioned for agentic AI than solo technologists. Kupp cautioned the group, however, against loading too many tasks onto a single agent. AI models reward specificity—so build one focused agent, get it right, and then add the next, she advised. For example, an executive assistant-type agent that helps organize your day is different from an analyst-type agent that goes deeper on data analytics. ### **Why AI ‘skills’ spread faster than mandates** Kupp argued “the biggest thing you could be doing to drive AI adoption and value in an organization is to get your experts to codify things into ‘skills.’” For example, a marketing leader might document brand-language guidelines into a skill—a reusable standard operating procedure—that the AI agent runs on command. More importantly, a skill can be shared across a team. Kupp gave the example of one that strips AI-generated tropes out of her writing: "Once the output is right, you lock it in. Write down how your best people do the work, and now anyone on the team can run it." That echoes what we've heard repeatedly in [other Charter sessions](https://www.charterworks.com/why-your-ai-adoption-strategy-is-stalling-and-what-to-do-instead/ "undefined"): AI transformation happens at the team level, and one AI champion’s well-designed practice spreads faster than any mandate. Building an AI skills library is what will turn individual fluency into organizational capability. **What to read:** * **How power users build with AI—even when they don’t know how to code**, Kupp’s talk at our Leading with AI Summit [earlier this year](https://www.charterworks.com/how-power-users-build-with-ai-even-when-they-dont-know-how-to-code/ "undefined") * **What it’s like to have AI coworkers**, Charter’s [interview](https://www.charterworks.com/ai-coworkers-replit/ "undefined") with Replit CEO [Amjad Masad](https://www.linkedin.com/in/amjadmasad/ "undefined") * **How AI agents will change the role of management**, Charter’s interview with Linkedin co-founder and Greylock partner [Reid Hoffman](https://www.linkedin.com/in/reidhoffman/ "undefined") --- ## Read more from Charter [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/) [Open article: What AI-Native Companies Do Differently](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/what-ai-native-companies-do-differently/)  ### What AI-Native Companies Do Differently [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/what-ai-native-companies-do-differently/) [Open article: The Two Investments That Helped One Fintech Company More Than Double AI Adoption](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/the-two-investments-that-helped-one-fintech-company-more-than-double-ai-adoption/)  ### The Two Investments That Helped One Fintech Company More Than Double AI Adoption [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/the-two-investments-that-helped-one-fintech-company-more-than-double-ai-adoption/) [Open article: AI Is Pushing Some Workers Back to the Office—and Others Out of It](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/ai-is-pushing-some-workers-back-to-the-office-and-others-out-of-it/)  ### AI Is Pushing Some Workers Back to the Office—and Others Out of It [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/ai-is-pushing-some-workers-back-to-the-office-and-others-out-of-it/) --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/the-intern-test-for-working-with-ai/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/the-intern-test-for-working-with-ai/"},"headline":"The 'Intern Test' for Working with AI","datePublished":"2026-07-16T09:30:00.315Z","dateModified":"2026-07-15T20:58:44.473Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/the-intern-test-for-working-with-ai/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd69842f9be73aa46/6a57f3bc6a33e5387326480a/charter-kupp.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Brian Elliott","jobTitle":"Executive-in-residence, Charter","url":"https://time.com/author/brian-elliott/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd69842f9be73aa46/6a57f3bc6a33e5387326480a/charter-kupp.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"charter-kupp.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Art: Charter","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/the-intern-test-for-working-with-ai/","name":"The 'Intern Test' for Working with AI"}}]}] ```