A human executive assistant costs $3,000 to $8,000 per month. They manage your calendar. They draft and send emails on your behalf. They handle research, bookings, and the thousand small tasks that eat your day.
The promise of an "AI secretary" is to get 80% of that value for 1% of the cost. But does it actually work?
After testing the major tools that claim to act as an AI secretary, here is the honest answer: most AI tools handle one slice of what a secretary does -- calendar, or email, or tasks -- but almost none can do all three, and even fewer can take action without you copy-pasting the output somewhere.
This article covers what an AI secretary can realistically do today, which tools handle which pieces, and what comes closest to replacing the work a human assistant does.
What a Real Secretary Does (The Benchmark)
Before evaluating AI alternatives, define what you are replacing. A good executive assistant handles:
- Calendar management -- scheduling meetings, finding times that work, rescheduling when conflicts arise, blocking focus time
- Email management -- reading incoming email, flagging what matters, drafting replies, sending on your behalf, following up
- Research -- finding information, comparing options, summarizing findings into something actionable
- Bookings -- restaurants, travel, hotels, appointments, events
- Task coordination -- following up with people, tracking deadlines, making sure things get done
- Gatekeeping -- filtering requests, saying no on your behalf, protecting your time
The key word across all of these is action. A secretary does not just tell you what to do -- they do it. They do not draft an email and show it to you for copying. They send it.
The AI Secretary Landscape in 2026
Category 1: Calendar AI
These tools focus exclusively on scheduling.
Motion ($34/month) -- Automatically schedules your tasks based on priority and deadlines. Reschedules when meetings shift. Good at owning your calendar, but does nothing outside of it.
Reclaim.ai ($10/month) -- Blocks focus time, schedules habits, finds meeting times for teams. Budget-friendly calendar AI. Same limitation: calendar only.
Clockwise (Free tier available) -- Optimizes your calendar for focus time. Team-focused scheduling intelligence.
Secretary score: 1/6. Calendar management only. No email, no research, no bookings, no task coordination, no gatekeeping.
Category 2: Email AI
These tools help with email but rarely take full action.
Superhuman ($30/month) -- Fast email client with AI features. Summarizes threads, drafts replies, prioritizes inbox. But you still click "send" yourself.
SaneBox ($7/month) -- Filters your inbox automatically. Moves unimportant email out of sight. Useful but passive -- it sorts, it does not respond.
Shortwave (Free tier available) -- AI-first email client. Summarizes, categorizes, and helps draft responses. Getting closer to AI email management, but still requires you to finalize and send.
Secretary score: 1/6. Email triage and drafting only. You are still the one sending. No calendar, no research, no bookings.
Category 3: Conversational AI (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini)
The big chatbots are incredibly smart. They can draft emails, create schedules, research topics, compare options, and reason through complex problems.
The fatal flaw: they cannot take action. ChatGPT will draft a perfect email. Then you copy it into Gmail and send it yourself. Claude will research five project management tools and write a comparison. Then you read it and make the call yourself.
You are the middleware between the AI's output and the real world. That defeats the purpose of a secretary.
Secretary score: 0.5/6. Excellent at drafting and research. Zero ability to act. You do all the work of executing.
Category 4: Workflow Automation (Lindy, Zapier)
Lindy ($49/month) -- Build custom AI "agents" for specific workflows. Email automation, CRM updates, meeting scheduling. Powerful but requires you to build each workflow explicitly.
Zapier ($20/month) -- Connect apps and automate triggers. "When I get an email with a PDF, save it to Google Drive." Useful automation but not AI-driven and not conversational.
Secretary score: 2/6. Can automate email and tasks, but you build the workflows, not delegate in natural language. No browsing, no bookings, no adaptive intelligence.
Category 5: Personal AI Agents
This is the newest category and the closest to a real AI secretary.
ClawBox ($49/month) -- An AI assistant on WhatsApp and Telegram with its own browser, its own email inbox, and a task scheduler. You delegate tasks in natural language. The AI browses, emails, schedules, and acts.
Secretary score: 5/6. Handles calendar coordination (via email), email management (dedicated inbox), research (dedicated browser), bookings (browser automation), and task coordination (scheduled tasks). The gap: gatekeeping still requires human judgment for nuanced decisions.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Task | Motion | Superhuman | ChatGPT | Lindy | ClawBox |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Schedule a meeting | Yes | No | Draft only | Yes (if built) | Yes (via email) |
Block focus time | Yes | No | No | No | Yes (via cron) |
Draft an email reply | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Send the email | No | You click send | No | Yes (if built) | Yes (from AI inbox) |
Read incoming email | No | Summarize | No | Yes | Yes |
Browse a website | No | No | Limited | No | Yes (dedicated browser) |
Book a restaurant | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Run a scheduled task | Calendar only | No | No | Yes | Yes (full cron) |
Delegate in plain language | No | No | Yes (no action) | No (build workflows) | Yes |
Works on your phone | App | No | App | No | WhatsApp / Telegram |
What an AI Secretary Actually Looks Like Today
The closest thing to a real AI secretary in 2026 is not a single app -- it is an AI agent that can:
- Understand natural language instructions -- you tell it what to do in plain English, not through drag-and-drop flow builders
- Take action -- browse, email, schedule, book. Not just generate text.
- Work on a schedule -- run tasks while you sleep, check things at regular intervals, send briefings
- Be accessible where you already are -- your phone, your messaging apps, not another dashboard
ClawBox is built on exactly this model. It is an AI assistant on WhatsApp and Telegram with three capabilities that most other tools lack:
Its own browser. Your AI can visit any website, fill forms, check prices, monitor pages, and book things. When it needs your credentials, you take over the browser directly -- the AI never sees your passwords.
Its own email inbox. Your AI reads, drafts, and sends email from its own address. Forward it a thread and say "handle this." Your personal email stays private. (For more on how this works, see our guide to AI email assistants.)
A task scheduler. Tell your AI to check something every 30 minutes, send you a daily briefing, or monitor a page for changes. It runs on a schedule, autonomously, around the clock.
The Cost Comparison
Option | Monthly Cost | What You Get |
|---|---|---|
Human executive assistant | $3,000 - $8,000 | Everything, with human judgment |
Motion + Superhuman + ChatGPT | $84 | Calendar + email + drafting (no action) |
Lindy | $49 | Custom workflows (you build them) |
ClawBox | $49 | Browser + email + scheduling + natural language delegation |
Virtual assistant service | $500 - $2,000 | Part-time human, limited hours |
Doing it yourself | $0 (but your time) | Your founder time on $15/hour tasks |
The math is straightforward. If you are a founder billing your time at $100-$300/hour, spending 30 minutes daily on tasks an AI could handle costs you $1,500-$4,500/month in opportunity cost. ClawBox at $49/month is not a cost -- it is a 33x-100x return on time.
Limitations (Honest Assessment)
An AI secretary in 2026 is not a full replacement for a human executive assistant. Here is what it still cannot do well:
- Nuanced gatekeeping -- deciding which meeting requests to accept based on strategic priorities requires judgment an AI does not yet have
- Relationship management -- remembering that Bob prefers morning meetings and Sarah always reschedules, and adjusting accordingly
- Complex negotiations -- rescheduling a multi-party meeting with conflicting priorities and diplomatic sensitivities
- Anticipating needs -- a great human assistant anticipates what you need before you ask. AI is reactive.
- Handling exceptions -- when something goes off-script, humans adapt. AI follows its instructions literally.
For everything else -- the scheduling, the email drafting, the research, the monitoring, the booking -- AI is already good enough. And it is available 24/7, does not take vacation, and costs $49/month instead of $5,000.
Getting Started With an AI Secretary
If you want to try an AI secretary today, the fastest path is ClawBox:
- Sign up at tryclawbox.com (30 seconds)
- Connect WhatsApp by scanning a QR code (30 seconds)
- Delegate your first task -- try "Draft a reply to the last email I forwarded you" or "Check if [restaurant] has a table tonight"
Your AI assistant is set up in under 2 minutes, runs on a dedicated server, and costs $49/month. If it does not change how you work, 100% refund, no questions asked.
The era of AI that just answers questions is ending. The era of AI that does things for you is starting. An AI secretary is not perfect yet -- but it is already good enough to save you hours every week.