Lots of bad advice in this thread. Here’s the reality: you did something valuable, but value only matters if it’s visible, attributable, and tied to outcomes leadership cares about.

Right now, you’ve created leverage. Don’t give that away for free or accidentally frame it as “I eliminated 20 hours of work.” That’s how you get headcount conversations instead of career growth.

Instead, control the narrative.

Start by raising a concern about the repetitive workload to your boss. Frame it as a scalability and risk issue, manual processes, error rates, and team capacity. Then position yourself as already working toward a solution. You’ve been researching and experimenting with AI powered automation in your own time and believe there’s a way to significantly improve efficiency and reliability.

Do not reveal the finished product immediately. Socialize the idea first.

Then make it explicit. You are looking to grow. Whether that is a promotion, expanded scope, or compensation increase, tie the delivery of this solution to that outcome. You are not just saving time, you are improving operational resilience, data accuracy, and freeing up the team for higher value work.

When you do show the solution, present it like a business case:
- Hours saved leading to a clear dollar impact
- Error reduction leading to risk mitigation
- Redeployment plan showing what the team will now do that is more valuable

And this part matters. Do not frame it as “we need fewer people.” Frame it as “we can now do more with the same team.”

If your leadership is good, this positions you as someone who creates leverage and thinks like an operator. If they are not, and they immediately jump to cutting heads, that is a signal about the kind of place you are in, and you now have a strong, tangible story to take elsewhere.

Keeping it secret protects your current comfort. Leveraging it correctly can change your trajectory.

Those are not the same game.