Building an Agent that Coaches You as a Leader

Key Takeaways

• AI agent audits leader's digital activity weekly
• Uses Cursor and Zapier MCP for data aggregation
• Generates time‑spend report versus personal goals
• Grades leadership behaviors like coaching and feedback
• Highlights gap between AI‑savvy and average executives

Summary

Zapier’s chief people and AI transformation officer Brandon Sammut built an AI‑driven accountability agent using Cursor and Zapier MCP. The agent scans his Slack, Google Docs, calendar and other work apps each week, then produces a concise report comparing actual time use to personal leadership goals. It also grades his performance on coaching, feedback and other leadership behaviors. Sammut posted the AI‑generated report card on LinkedIn, highlighting a stark divide between executives who build custom AI tools and those who treat AI as a simple search aid.

Pulse Analysis

The rise of AI in the workplace has largely been framed as a productivity enhancer, yet few executives have moved beyond using it as a smarter search engine. At the recent Leading with AI panel, Zapier’s Brandon Sammut demonstrated how a hands‑on approach can transform leadership development. By stitching together tools like Cursor, which excels at code‑level automation, and Zapier MCP, a low‑code integration platform, he created an accountability agent that continuously monitors the digital footprints of a leader’s day‑to‑day activities.

The agent pulls data from Slack conversations, Google Docs edits, calendar events, and other core applications, then synthesizes a weekly snapshot that aligns actual behavior with predefined leadership objectives. It not only visualizes time allocation but also assigns grades to soft‑skill metrics such as coaching effectiveness and feedback quality. This granular, data‑driven feedback loop replaces vague self‑assessment with concrete, actionable insights, allowing leaders to iterate on their management style with the same rigor they apply to product metrics.

Beyond the novelty of a personal AI coach, the broader implication is a shift toward AI‑augmented self‑governance across the C‑suite. As more leaders witness measurable improvements in accountability and performance, demand for customizable AI agents is likely to surge, prompting enterprise platforms to embed similar capabilities natively. The result could be a new standard for executive development—one where AI continuously benchmarks leadership behavior, driving a culture of data‑informed improvement and narrowing the gap between AI‑savvy innovators and traditional managers.