An AI Strategy to Overcome Team Emergencies Fast

And how AI can be your emergency backup plan.

Author

Whitney Stowell
April 22, 2025

Read on: My website

Read time: 2 Minutes

Emergencies aren’t rare—they’re the rhythm of any business.

Today, you could get a VP’s sick call. Tomorrow, it’s a proposal manager’s resignation. Next week, it’s a surprise sales manager’s PTO and an unplanned departure of your pricing analyst. The only thing you can count on? The work doesn’t stop.

A deadline is a deadline. A proposal due date…is a proposal due date.

And you know you have to hit those dates (no matter what it takes).

Was this newsletter forwarded to you?

You know that you can rely on your top performers for a limited amount of time to backfill any specific actions that have burning deadlines and immediate customer requests. However, that is a very limited window.

What can you do with AI to make sure you have coverage until you get the right new support team? AI can help in a time of need. Here are a few examples.

Let’s dance.

First Touch - Why Should I Care?

Proactive planning is critical. When there is suddenly a capability gap in your team, it needs to be addressed. This is not just about open communication and that there is an issue, but also about who will backfill, short/long long-term needs, and being realistic about how long it will take to find the right person.

Stop the Productivity Drain: Backfilling roles costs 50–60% of annual salary per hire—and weeks of lost momentum (Cloudely).

You have three options:

  • Burn out your best people with opportunity and proposals

  • Let deadlines slip - you know you can afford this

  • Or, adapt - leverage AI to support where it can immediately

Let’s Be Real

If there is a gap due to whatever circumstances you find, it can not always play in your favor. I’ve been in situations where we’ve lost our proposal manager, and I’ve had to backfill the writing aspect of finalizing our proposal. There was an assumption from leadership that there would be a replacement to support us. It never came. Just more proposal writing.

Because I could accomplish it, they decided not to replace that role. And I continued to get that work, on top of my other work, which became incredibly draining.

Burnout, exhaustion, not sleeping well, not eating right, the list goes on. There are limits that we hit both physically and mentally.

Segment Down Areas of Responsibility

What do you need to have an individual do, versus what you need a person on your team to do? Segment it down and be prepared for when it can happen.

For example, if a business development manager resigns from their position, what happens to all the followup and touch points to their opportunities? Market research, etc?

Use AI like your own C‑suite analyst

  • Skills‑Gap Detection: AI analyzes your team’s activity patterns and sales outcomes to flag capability shortfalls, guiding where to deploy resources or temporary AI cover (MIT Sloan).

  • Risk & Continuity Analysis: By mining historical and external data, AI predicts where your pipeline is most vulnerable, letting you pre‑emptively allocate AI coverage before a role is vacant (Continuity Insights).

  • Opportunity Scoring: Let AI triage every inbound request, scoring by deal size, fit, and urgency so you focus on winners (Juvare).

  • Short-Term Recovery: AI can support your content, offset hours of content writing, reach back out to customers, social selling, etc.

Have a “Slush Fund” to backfill where needed

  • Have the ability to hire vetted consultants who that backfill in certain positions and can be hired within days, not weeks or months, and can support where you need when you need it

  • The debate will come down to “whose budget does this fall under” and “how much should be allocated here.” My recommendation is to start with a small sample size

    • I.e., Proposal manager backfill for X hours over X number of weeks

  • Not every position can be easily backfilled, a proposal manager might be easier to get backfilled over a subject matter expert, a vice president might be tougher over a business analyst, the list goes on

  • If you have a joint-venture agreement or subcontractor agreement with companies, see if there is any knowledge transfer

Still, keep adding that value and don’t let a gap slow you down from growing your business. Make your recovery effective by utilizing BOTH AI and your team.

Action Item - Let AI Fill The Gap

If there are tasks and day-to-day activities that you cannot lose any momentum on, regardless of whether there is an emergency or not, identify them and market them down.

Can I automate them/AI? Offload to another person (who has the bandwidth)? Can I do it? Or is this for a new hire?

These could be repetitive tasks, writing, engagements, etc.

Break it down so when the unfortunate time comes, you are prepared for the circumstances.

Here are a few resources that I’ve used to help with the process:

This week: Choose one AI tool—whether for prospecting, market research, or proposal writing- and run a week-long pilot.

Run a scenario to see how you can implement a recovery plan when an emergency happens. How to implement, who can do it, and how to communicate. You could even do things such as measure time saved, leads qualified, or meetings booked. Then share results with your leadership team.

Pack Some Additional Punch

Here are a few tips to really hit it out of the park when reaching out

  1. This doesn’t just have to apply to business development. The same can apply to government affairs, marketing, strategy, operations, etc.

  2. Find someone in your team who understands AI (or a little bit of situational awareness of it) and can utilize it effectively. Some will grasp it faster than others. They can help be the bridge

  3. There is a time limit on asking current coworkers supporting other co-workers workload/pipeline/proposals/etc. Respect that time limit and do not abuse it. Or you can lose those coworkers as well

The human touch goes a long way in today's digital landscape.

Build towards it, don’t jump the gun.

What the Internet Taught Me This Week

From new tools, recent trends, and market updates, here is what has been on my mind.

  1. Google released a 58-page Prompt Engineering Guide - Very Cool, and highly recommend checking it out

  2. How the Construction Market is using AI to cut out waste and abuse

  3. Big Tech’s Data Centers Are Draining Water-Stressed Regions

Burnout is real. So is opportunity cost.

Emergencies won’t stop. But your business doesn’t have to stumble every time a key player steps away. Build an AI plan and an effective “slush fund”—a nimble, cost‑effective way to backfill today’s gaps and keep tomorrow’s growth on track.

If you want a business that runs when people are out, don’t wait for the next emergency.
Build for it now.

That’s how you play offense—no matter who’s on the field.

Maybe you can’t do it at scale, but it sure is quality over quantity.

See you next week.

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