Work smarter, not harder, with AI tools at work or school

While the term “artificial intelligence” may conjure up images of sci-fi movies, it's more commonplace than you think. 

Unlocking your phone with FaceID, asking Alexa for the weather, swiping through Netflix’s personalized recommendations — AI powers many of your daily habits. 

AI is a machine’s ability to perform human work. Does that mean it’s going to perform your work? Not necessarily. Instead, it can be your helpful sidekick. 

AI tools can offload the mundane parts of your job so you can do what’s uniquely human, like interacting with patients, customers, or co-workers.

AI is helping people across industries to be more productive. Whether you’re an employee, a student, or both, chances are you can save time in your day with a few key AI tools. 

Popular, free AI tools to explore

The following AI tools are commonly used by workers and students alike. Bonus: they’re free to use. 

• ChatGPT — Perhaps the most well-known AI tool, ChatGPT generates text from any prompt. 
• Gemini — Google’s Gemini is also a “chatbot” that creates content from prompts. It accesses more recent Internet research, cites sources, and retrieves images (in addition to generating them).
• Grammarly — A popular proofreading AI tool, Grammarly is more than spellcheck. It also analyzes documents for clarity, conciseness, and tone. 
• Otter.ai — Otter.ai transcribes lectures, meetings, and conversations in real-time, so you can focus on listening instead of note-taking,
• Any.do — A to-do list app with a simple interface, Any.do’s AI can analyze your complex tasks (a quarterly review or final exam studying) and break them into smaller, more manageable subtasks.

Ways to use AI to be more productive at work

AI is becoming more widely accepted — and sometimes even expected — in the workplace. It’s not just for white-collar executives. 

Nearly all industries and roles are harnessing AI’s power. How can you?

Using AI for brainstorming at work

You know the saying, two heads are better than one? AI takes that notion to the next level. When it comes to idea generation, AI amplifies your brainpower. 

Ask AI tools for creative ideas for marketing campaigns, team-building activities, or customer service resources. Of course, nothing compares to your brain's creativity, but AI can spark ideas to get your gears going. 

AI prompts for brainstorming at work: 

• Ideas for a restaurant customer loyalty program 
• Sample script for a customer service agent about [common issue]

Using AI for drafting work emails

Tackling your overflowing inbox is easier with AI tools on your side. As essential as it is for 

everyday work, email writing is time-consuming and burdensome. How often have you marked an email as “unread” and promised to answer it by the end of the work day? 

Instead of staring at your cursor and overthinking, pull up an AI tool and prompt it to draft your email. Once you have the foundations of the email, edit it to your tone of voice and add details. 

AI prompts for drafting work emails:

• Compose a conversational email to [X] to schedule a meeting about [X]
• Compose an email under 150 words following up after a job interview

Using AI to prioritize your to-do list at work

The average person has 15 ongoing projects or goals at any given time. To reach these goals, we turn to lists. But how do we know what tasks to start with? 

AI can help you prioritize your to-dos so you know where to start first. Minimizing the time it takes to organize and prioritize your to-do list frees up time for the actual doing. 

AI prompts for to-do lists:

• Create a detailed plan for reaching [specific goal] within [timeframe]. 
• Set a weekly reminder to follow up with [customer/potential lead]

Ways to use AI to be more productive as a student

AI use is not limited to the workplace. Students use AI tools for their coursework to boost productivity and deepen understanding. When used within school guidelines, AI can be a helpful study buddy in the following ways. 

Using AI to summarize long texts

You’ve been assigned pages of reading in preparation for class discussion tomorrow. But you just got off work and are just looking for the TL;DR (too long, didn’t read) shortcut. AI can help. 

Schoolwork comes down to two actions — absorbing information and demonstrating understanding. AI is a pro at just that. 

Ask your AI tool to summarize a long text and watch it boil down to easily digestible main ideas. From there, ask for more detail on specific sections to deepen your understanding. 

AI prompts for summarizing long texts:

• Summarize the following text in a few sentences.
• Provide a summary of the key arguments presented in the text.

Using AI for drafting emails to peers and instructors

At school, work, and home, emails are universal. (And universally cumbersome!) Offload the heavy lifting of drafting an email to AI, and you’ll save time communicating with your instructors and peers (and avoid the pain of writer’s block). You can even ask AI to change the tone from conversational to formal, depending on who you send it to. 

AI prompts for drafting emails at school:

• Compose an email to my instructor asking for more time on [x] assignment
• Draft a casual email to set up a meeting for my group project

Using AI to brainstorm or create assignment outlines

Just like a to-do list helps you compartmentalize a large project, an outline helps you break down an essay's organization. Lucky for you, AI tools are skilled at this. Input your essay topic and main ideas, and AI can generate an outline for you to kickstart your writing. 

AI prompts for essay ideas and outlines:

• Give me five essay ideas about AI use in healthcare
• Outline a 500-word essay about the future of retail work

Using AI to record and transcribe lectures 

Forget frantic notetaking. AI can record and transcribe your class lectures in real time so you can focus on engaged listening. Your sidekick stenographer can also generate summaries so you can easily remember key moments. 

AI prompts for recorded lectures:

• Summarize the key topics of this lesson
• What were the action items from this discussion?
• Give me a multiple-choice quiz based on this lecture

Using AI to cite references according to your school’s preferred format/style 

APA? MLA? Where do the commas go? Is it an italicized title or not? Citing your references in coursework is tedious. Instead of Googling for each citation style and manually changing your sources, ask AI to do it for you. Just ensure you know your school’s preferred style before you start!

AI prompts for citing sources:

• Cite the following website in APA style
• How do I cite this article in MLA style?

Quick tips for using AI ethically

With great power comes great responsibility. It’s not just a comic book mantra. Using AI requires a constant need for cautiousness. Workers and students must be aware of the potential misuse of these tools (especially in academic settings, to prevent plagiarism). 

Even AI tool creators admit it: AI-generated content can be outdated, inaccurate, and biased. Knowing this, here are some tips for using AI responsibly: 

• Always fact-check before using AI-generated information. Bring a heavy dose of distrust when you use AI tools. Instead of hitting copy and paste, pick apart the text and double-check all facts. Because content can be outdated (ChatGPT has “limited knowledge” of the world and events after 2021), deeper research for new sources is necessary. 

• Never use AI-generated content verbatim. Just as you wouldn’t copy and paste from a web source, don’t do the same with AI-generated content. Not only will you avoid plagiarism, but you’ll also prevent sounding unnatural and robotic in your communication. Use AI content as a starting point, then add your voice and insight. 

• Find original sources. While it’s tempting to add “Gemini” to your works cited list, finding original sources for your schoolwork is still necessary. AI scans enormous datasets. It’s up to you to find who or what to credit.   

• Check for bias. Depending on what data the AI tool is pulling from, the content generated can present bias, such as political non-neutrality. Remember, although the text can sound human, AI is not conscious like you. Read the information with a skeptical eye, and infuse your own beliefs. 

Remember: AI is a tool, not a solution, for replacing your efforts and original work.

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