AI Task Management
We’re building the Task Management part of Actor using the following considerations.
Actor assistant should behave like a real human assistant by understanding:
- The context: Why a task matters.
- The urgency/priority: When it needs to be done.
- User habits and preferences.
You have three types of task-based information sources:
- Existing tasks (from user’s task app): multiple lists, tasks, and subtasks.
- Email follow-ups: tasks arising from user emails.
- Daily reminders: quick tasks created directly in your app.
AI should integrate these seamlessly and intuitively:
- Proactively manage, prioritize, and remind users of important tasks.
- Reduce the user’s mental load by organizing complex tasks and subtasks intuitively.
- Seamlessly manage and unify tasks, email follow-ups, and daily reminders in a single, coherent experience.
How does Actor help with Task Management
Actor becomes the proactive central inbox for tasks, email follow-ups, and reminders.
From a user perspective, Actor should:
| Capability | User Benefit | Example Scenario |
|---|---|---|
| Prioritize Daily Tasks | Helps user focus on high-impact tasks first. | “Your call with John at 3 PM needs prep; I’ve prioritized this task above the others for today.” |
| Intelligent Reminders | Ensure critical tasks don’t slip through. | “Reminder: You promised Alice you’d send the draft by end-of-day. Want me to add it to today’s priority tasks?” |
| Email Follow-Up Integration | Automatically convert important follow-ups into actionable tasks. | “You asked Mark to respond about pricing today. I’ve added it as a high-priority task.” |
| Simplified Daily Overview | Reduce cognitive overload at day’s start. | “Good morning! Today you have 3 priority tasks, 1 follow-up email due, and 2 smaller reminders.” |
| Highlight Forgotten Tasks | Prevent overlooked items. | “This task has been on your list for 10 days without progress. Want to revise or remove it?” |
| Suggest Task Batching | Efficiency boost via task grouping. | “You have 3 tasks related to reporting. Should we group them into a single block this afternoon?” |
| Proactively Check Progress | Keep the user accountable. | “You mentioned you’d finalize your report today—should I mark it as done or push it to tomorrow?” |
3. Product & Feature Recommendations
From a Product Features perspective, the following approach
Feature: Unified Daily Agenda
- Combine Tasks, Calendar events, and Email follow-ups in one daily overview.
- Clearly mark sources (task app, emails, reminders).
- Allow users to quickly mark tasks as complete, reschedule, or delegate from one view.
UX:
Users start their day by viewing a single, consolidated list. Tapping tasks shows quick details with intuitive completion buttons and easy adjustments.
Feature: Proactive Intelligent Reminders
- Detect tasks due soon or overdue.
- Suggest proactive reminders before deadlines.
- Detect ignored tasks and gently nudge user.
UX:
“Hey, you have two important follow-ups from yesterday still pending. Shall we handle those now or reschedule?”
Feature: Automatic Task Extraction from Emails
- Emails frequently require follow-ups (replies, confirmations, or next actions).
- Assistant proactively identifies these and suggests them as tasks or reminders.
UX:
User receives email: “Let’s catch up next week.”
Assistant immediately suggests: “Shall I remind you next Monday to schedule this meeting?”
Feature: Intelligent Task Prioritization
- Automatically prioritize tasks based on deadlines, frequency of reminders, and user habits.
- Highlight tasks requiring immediate attention at the top.
UX:
Important and urgent tasks clearly emphasized visually (bold, highlighted), with explanations like “Due today” or “Overdue by 1 day.”
Feature: Task Context Enhancement
- Assistant can proactively provide relevant information:
- Related emails or messages.
- Last updates, comments, or attachments relevant to the task.
- Enhance user context and reduce friction in decision-making.
UX:
User views “Prepare report for Ana” and sees links to recent emails, attached files, or previous reports automatically included.
Feature: Quick Actions & Intelligent Suggestions
- Easy-to-access quick actions like “Remind me again tomorrow,” “Postpone,” “Mark as done.”
- Intelligent suggestions such as “Set recurring task?”, “Convert to calendar event?”, “Move to ‘High Priority’ list?”
UX:
Users can handle tasks effortlessly in just one or two taps.
Feature: Smart Subtask Management
- Automatically suggest subtasks or checklists based on common patterns or historical user data.
- Simplify creating detailed task structures.
UX:
User creates “Plan quarterly presentation” task, and your assistant suggests relevant subtasks: “Gather data”, “Draft slides”, “Review with team.”
Feature: End-of-Day Digest (Daily Wrap-Up)
- At day’s end, a proactive digest helps the user review and reschedule incomplete tasks.
- Briefly summarizes what’s done, what’s pending, and suggestions for tomorrow.
UX:
“You completed 6 tasks today. You have 3 tasks left—shall I move them to tomorrow’s agenda?”
Can Actor AI Assistant do this?
At the moment of writing this article (25th March), we’ve just started out working on this.
