By Tamara Munoz
I quit my corporate job, started a business, bought a house, and got married all in the same week.
After nearly a decade running multimillion-dollar operations, I was done. Burned out. Tapped. Over hustle culture and everything that came with it: the late-night emails, the performative productivity, the constant grind in service of someone else’s bottom line.
And I wasn’t the only one.
I watched brilliant, high-performing people burn out under systems that were never built to support them. The glorification of hustle. The hero worship of the “do-it-all” leaders. The endless meetings, late-night emails, missed birthdays, skipped meals that gave way to strained relationships, divorces, literal physical illness.
So I did what felt terrifying and necessary: I started Behind the Screens, a full-service online business management firm. Not to become a “girlboss” or follow some digital success blueprint. I built it to prove there’s a different way to scale—a more human way.
Today, we support multi-six and seven-figure online founders with their business operations. The kind that doesn’t just make your backend run smoothly, but gives you back your time, freedom, and love of business.
And here’s the part that would’ve broken my younger self’s brain: we’re doing it with AI integrated into almost everything we touch.
But make no mistake, AI hasn’t replaced a single person on our team. Not one.
The Real Divide Isn’t AI vs. Humans. It’s People Who Use AI vs. People Who Don’t.
Right now, you’re either watching people panic that AI is coming for their jobs—or preach that it’ll solve every problem with a prompt and a prayer. Both are missing the point.
I’ve watched business owners fire their entire teams and replace them with ChatGPT, thinking they’re being innovative and cutting-edge. I’ve also watched business owners refuse to touch AI at all, convinced it’s going to strip the soul from their work or make them obsolete as leaders.
The businesses that become obsolete won’t be the ones using AI. They’ll be the ones rejecting it entirely.
Because this moment isn’t about AI replacing humans. It’s about humans who leverage AI outperforming the ones who don’t.
The future isn’t AI vs. people.
It’s people amplified by AI vs. people drowning in manual work.
What It Actually Looks Like to Use AI (When You’re Not Being Weird About It)
At Behind the Screens, we don’t use AI to cut corners. We use it to cut through the noise.
- Meeting recaps? AI records, summarizes, and pulls action items so our team can be fully present.
- SOPs? We record once, let AI draft the doc, then optimize it for clarity and different learning styles.
- Content repurposing? AI does the first draft. Our content team layers in brand voice, strategy, and actual resonance.
We’ve even created an internal bot trained on our unique methodology. It acts as an on-demand trainer for our team – handling FAQs, reinforcing systems, and supporting onboarding without overloading leadership.
Here’s what this creates: Our team works more efficiently while delivering better results. They have space to think strategically instead of drowning in administrative quicksand. They show up energized, not exhausted. Focused, not frazzled.
That’s not AI replacing humans.
That’s AI protecting them.
But Here’s the Catch: AI Won’t Save You If Your Systems Are a Mess
Burnout doesn’t just come from working too much. It comes from carrying too much of the wrong work.
That’s where human-first operations come in.
A human-first workplace doesn’t just mean treating your team well (although obviously, please do that). It means protecting their energy for work that actually matters. It means building systems—clear SOPs, strong leadership, values-aligned culture—and then layering in tools like AI that amplify human capability rather than replace it.
AI isn’t a silver bullet. It’s a force multiplier. But it only works when it’s built on solid operational foundations.
What This Actually Looks Like in Practice
I have a personal rule: if AI can do it 80% as well as a human, let AI do it. Then let the human bring it to 100% with their expertise, intuition, nuance, and the thing that can’t be automated – actually caring about the quality of the output.
Our team focuses on the work that actually transforms businesses. AI might surface a timeline conflict across our fifteen active clients, but our project managers strategize the solutions based on each client’s unique reality. It might format the bones of a report, but our team adds the strategic insights that drive decisions. It might generate a communication template, but our team knows when a client needs encouragement, tough love, or space, and adjusts accordingly.
AI handles the scaffolding. Our humans build the architecture.
This isn’t about cutting corners or doing things “good enough.” It’s about protecting what makes our work valuable in the first place: our ability to think strategically, build relationships, solve complex problems, and genuinely care about our clients’ success.
You can’t automate caring.
So What Does Human-First Really Mean in the Age of AI?
Human-first doesn’t mean anti-tech. It means values-aligned.
It means knowing that no automation replaces a real check-in. That no chatbot beats a founder who actually listens. That clarity and care are still the best retention strategy you’ll ever have.
The best leaders I know don’t use AI to shortcut the process. They use it to strengthen it. They build systems that scale with their people, not in spite of them.
The Choice That Will Define the Next Decade
Here’s what I know for sure: the businesses that win in the next decade won’t be the ones that go all-in on AI or the ones that refuse to touch it out of principle.
They’ll be the ones that integrate AI in service of human flourishing.
They’ll be the ones that build lean, powerful operations without sacrificing mental health, creativity, or joy.
Because your business isn’t just about revenue or growth metrics or how many clients you can stack. It’s about the life you get to live. The team you get to build. The impact you get to make. The version of yourself you get to be when you’re not running on fumes.
So yes, use AI. Build the dashboards. Implement the tools. But stay grounded in the truth that your business is only as strong as the humans behind it.
I didn’t leave corporate to recreate the same burnout culture with a different logo. I left to build something where excellence and humanity aren’t at odds. Where my team can have lives they actually enjoy outside of Slack. Where our clients can step back into being the visionary leaders they’re meant to be instead of drowning in the weeds of their own businesses.
That’s what human-first looks like in the age of AI. And the businesses that get this right? They’re not just going to survive. They’re going to thrive while everyone else is still arguing about whether to press “send” on that first ChatGPT prompt.
Tamara Munoz, Fractional COO to some of the world’s leading online businesses and founder of Behind the Screens, is an operations and leadership partner for growth-minded companies. After university, she built an illustrious, decades-long corporate career with iconic brands like Disney and Starbucks, mastering high-stakes operations in organizations with a 24 hour workday.
A human-first leader, Tamara believes results should never come at the expense of people. That conviction was fueled by her corporate experience with moments that mattered: requesting only three to four bereavement days to mourn the grandmother who raised her, leaving Christmas dinner to manage an actual store fire and losing a team member in a car accident only to see corporate leadership respond with chilling detachment. These instances crystalized her mission to design systems that protect both people and performance.
Tamara has spent years serving high achieving founders, proving her signature approach to systems and processes and giving busy CEOs back their lives. She has grown Behind the Screens to a 22-person team of employees and contractors. Seven years in, she is renowned for getting to the heart of operational gaps, building clear roadmaps and designing better systems so no one has to ask permission to grieve, to celebrate or live a full life. Tamara is a first generation American citizen and finds joy in travel and cooking with her husband and three children.
You can follow Tamara Munoz and Behind The Screens both on Instagram, and visit the Behind The Screens website for more.
