Using AI as your chief of staff: Expanding leadership capacity at work and at home
 | Sara Holtz Chief Marketing Officer Optimal Blue |
Overview
Today’s leaders carry an enormous invisible workload as they juggle constant decisions, planning, communication and the responsibilities of both work and home life. In this talk, Sara Holtz explores how artificial intelligence can act as a digital chief of staff, helping leaders organize complexity, clarify their thinking and reduce cognitive overload.
Drawing from her experience as a leader, working parent and an executive within Optimal Blue’s AI-forward culture, Sara shares practical examples of how she uses AI as a strategic thinking partner in both professional and personal contexts. AI is reframed not as a mere productivity tool, but as a powerful partner that helps leaders think better, make stronger decisions and create the mental space needed to do their most meaningful work.
Session Notes
Key takeaway
Sara Holtz said AI can function like a “chief of staff,” helping leaders organize information, reduce mental clutter and make better decisions at work and at home. Her message: AI doesn’t replace human value, but it can expand leadership capacity when it’s applied intentionally to real problems.
What leaders need to know:
- Prompt with clarity. Holtz said output quality depends on prompt quality. The more context leaders provide — audience, goals, constraints and desired tone — the more useful the results.
- Solve the real problems. Holtz urged leaders to focus less on flashy experiments and more on AI use cases that remove everyday friction.
- Target small, repeatable wins. Holtz said simple workflows — from organizing priorities to meal planning — can add up to meaningful capacity gains when used consistently.
- Use AI to support relationships. Holtz said AI can help leaders communicate more effectively by translating ideas into formats that work better for different audiences and personalities.
- Build decision confidence. Holtz said AI can help leaders compare options, surface patterns and clarify trade-offs when multiple paths are viable.
- AI should support authenticity, not replace it. Holtz said her marketing team uses AI to draft and plan, but human judgment is still required to make the work accurate, meaningful and on-brand.
HousingWire perspective
Holtz’s framing made AI feel practical and personal. For housing leaders, the opportunity isn’t only automation — it’s using AI to create capacity for the decisions, relationships and leadership moments that drive performance. The leaders who benefit most will be the ones who use AI with clear prompts, intentional use cases and enough human judgment to turn output into impact.
Presentation Materials
Using AI as your chief of staff: Expanding leadership capacity at work and at home
Download the full presentation from the session including charts, data visualizations, and key takeaways.
