[mpdehaan2]

I always found this somewhat amusing, encountering it enough.

Email to someone. Suggest meeting.

Someone's email, CC you: assistant, schedule this.

Email to assistant. Let me see when X is free (cc you, person).

Person's reply to everyone, you and assistant: tell so and so, let's do X at 2pm.

Assistant's email (cc you, the person you were talking to): we'll do X at 2pm.

I think somewhat the same about why travel agents are dying out, having to tell them exactly what flights you prefer and where, and how to not screw up your layover (and be able to easily reschedule when they are not around), it's usually far faster to just do it yourself.

[morgante]

That's just the sign of a bad assistant, not a problem with the role itself. Competent assistants have full knowledge of their boss's schedule and will make the appointment without their involvement.

[mpdehaan2]

Sure, they have access to the schedule, but seldom does someone want their calendar being filled up and someone else deciding what their priorities are.

So it ends up being more about having a status symbol.

[morgante]

A good relationship includes a huge amount of trust, including that your assistant understands your priorities and can do some decisions autonomously. That's what you get from paying a full-time assistant instead of a simple AI.