AI Isn’t Coming — It’s Already Here. Are You Using It Right?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a futuristic concept—it’s a practical tool reshaping the way we work, communicate, and make decisions. With tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot becoming increasingly accessible, the question is no longer if we should use AI, but how we can use it more effectively. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just beginning to explore the possibilities, this blog will walk you through simple, everyday ways to use AI to boost your productivity and save time.
Use AI to be More Productive
AI like ChatGPT and Copilot are here to stay, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore it. Much like the introduction of electricity or the internet boom, there is a lot of scepticism, resistance to change and lack of awareness surrounding AI. Experts say the parallels don’t stop there though – much like how electricity and the internet has touched every business and household, AI is set follow in those footsteps. If you’re wondering how AI like ChatGPT or Copilot can help you or how to extract more value out of AI, let’s take a look at a couple of areas and ways to improve results.
AI as a Search Engine
We’re all familiar with search engines. According to Google the average person performs 4.2 searches per day. Have you ever struggled wondering what to Google to find the results you need? AI could help you here. AI is a great alternative to a search engine that allows you to ask a question or explain a problem as you normally would to another person. Instead of being given a list of links like you would get from a search engine, you will get a response that directly answers your question. With Google you might try “fix leaking tap”, but with AI you can try “my kitchen tap is constantly dripping. I have tried tightening it, but this didn’t work. List other things I can try” and directly get an answer. This cuts out the extra work you have to do in visiting several different websites that have various layouts, adverts, cookies, newsletter popups and so on.
So, when you’re not sure what to Google, or Google results aren’t working out, try AI instead.
AI for Writing
If you’re struggling to write an email or a document, AI can help you here. With a short prompt AI can generate text on any topic you’d like. You can dictate the style and direction by explaining to the AI what you want. Or, you can copy and paste existing text in to an AI prompt and explain the edits you require, for example “change the tone of this text to be informal, and add a joke”.
AI is great at proof-checking too. If you have an email or a document, you can ask AI to check the text for errors, inconsistencies or improvements. You can also try asking AI questions like
- is there anything else I should add or mention
- what kind of things might someone get confused about what I have written
- what questions might someone ask about this document/email
- what criticism would you have about this document/email
AI like Copilot in Microsoft Teams is also efficient at taking meeting minutes. This cuts out the need to try and capture everything that is said and also gives you the benefit of being able to use Copilot to ask questions about the meeting afterwards. Copilot also automatically capture any actions that come up and who they’re assigned to as well.
Another place you can save time with AI is having it summarise or pull out key points from a document or email.
AI for Data
If you have data that you feel you could extract more value out of, AI could help you with this. By uploading an Excel file or copy/pasting tables in to AI you can begin asking questions about it.
You can have the AI generate graphs, transform or clean data, look for trends or identify patterns. For example, you could upload some data and prompt the AI with “generate three graphs that would help visualise this data. Also list any trends you can find”.
AI is also great for generating data if required too. This could be randomly generated data or real data. For example, “generate a table with 100 rows of random data that has these columns: first name, last name, username, email, last login date” or it could be real data like “generate a table of countries and their average temperature for the last five years”. It’s immediate to see the time this saves having to manipulate data in Excel or researching real data (but don’t forget to double check results!)
Get Better Results from AI – Prompt Engineering
When we use a search engine like Google to get the results we need, there’s a certain way you put together a search query. It’s often fragmented and driven by keywords, and this is a skill that comes over time. AI is similar in that there are ways to engage with AI that provide better results. This is known as prompt engineering. Let’s look at some examples.
Persona Pattern
The persona pattern has AI take on a role when it responds to your prompt. You can do this by putting at the beginning of your prompt something like “Imagine you are [role]. Now answer the following: [question]”
This is a quick way to get answers that are from different perspectives or tailored to the correct context. Imagine we have the question “How can I use AI to be more productive at work?” and we ask three different people in these roles this question, for example
- productivity coach
- software engineer
- business strategist
You would expect a range of different answers from these people and AI accommodates to this.
Audience Pattern
The audience pattern is similar to the previous pattern, but this time you ask AI to address you in a certain role. To do this you can prompt something like “Imagine I am [role]. Now answer the following: [question]”.
By doing this, it changes the way AI presents the answer to you. It may break it down or increase complexity to match your role. Take the following roles for example
- 5 years old
- Physics teacher
- Physics student
You would expect someone explaining a physics concept to these roles to cater to their experience, and AI can do this.
Question Refinement Pattern
The question refinement pattern is a way to leverage the strength of AI to ask the right questions. Through this method, we ask AI to suggest a better question than the one we asked. This can give you a different perspective or reveal concerns or risks that you otherwise didn’t think of. To do this you can prompt “When I ask a question, propose a better question and confirm with me if I would like to ask that instead”. You can then continue to ask a question and the AI will come up with a better, but related question.
AI is a powerful ally when used with intention and creativity. From enhancing how we search for information, to writing, analysing data, and even structuring better questions—it’s clear that knowing how to ask is just as important as knowing what to ask. As these tools continue to evolve, so too will the ways we can leverage them in our work and daily lives. So start experimenting, stay curious, and you might be surprised at how much more productive—and innovative—you can become.
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