AI can help with many different things at work.
But there’s an important step before you start using it:
Find the right place for AI to help.
Instead of asking:
“How can I use AI at work?”
start with:
“What part of my work could be easier, faster or better?”
That small change in thinking can make a big difference.
Start With Your Work, Not the Technology
Think about a normal working day.
Perhaps you:
- answer emails
- attend meetings
- prepare documents
- organise information
- research topics
- make plans
- communicate with customers
- create reports
- manage projects
Some of these tasks may already work perfectly well.
Others may take more time than they should.
Those are the places worth looking at.
Look for the Friction
Think about the parts of your work that feel repetitive, time-consuming or difficult to get started.
For example:
“I spend 30 minutes every morning sorting through emails.”
“I regularly have to turn meeting notes into an action list.”
“I spend hours preparing the same type of report every month.”
“I know what I want to say, but I struggle to get the first draft written.”
These are examples of friction in your working day.
AI may be able to help with some of them.
Don’t Ask AI to Do Everything
Finding an opportunity for AI doesn’t mean handing the entire task to AI.
Imagine you have to prepare a presentation.
You might still decide that:
You choose the message.
AI helps organise your ideas.
You decide what is important.
AI helps create a first draft.
You check and improve the final presentation.
The goal isn’t to remove yourself from the work.
The goal is to use AI where it can genuinely help.
Look at the Task Step by Step
A task that feels like one big job is often made up of several smaller steps.
Imagine you need to prepare a monthly report.
You might:
Collect information → organise it → analyse it → write the report → check it → share it
You don’t necessarily need AI for every step.
Perhaps AI could help organise the information.
Perhaps it could help create a first draft.
Perhaps you should do the analysis and final checking yourself.
This is the beginning of thinking about AI workflows.
We’ll explore that properly in the next lesson.
A Useful Question
The next time something at work takes longer than it should, ask:
“Which part of this task is taking my time without needing all of my judgement?”
That question can help you spot opportunities.
For example, you may decide:
“I need to make the final decision, but I don’t need to spend 20 minutes turning my notes into a first draft.”
That could be a good place for AI to help.
Let’s Make It Practical
Think about one real task you regularly do.
Write down the steps from beginning to end.
Then mark each step:
Me — I need to do this.
AI — AI could potentially help with this.
Both — AI could help, but I need to guide or check it.
No AI — AI wouldn’t add useful value here.
Don’t worry about getting it perfect.
You’re learning to spot opportunities, not redesign your entire job.
What You’ve Learned
AI can be useful at work, but the best place to start isn’t with the technology.
Start with your work.
Look for tasks that are repetitive, time-consuming, difficult to start or involve information that needs organising.
Then look at the individual steps and decide where AI could genuinely add value.
You’ve now identified where AI might fit.
But one useful AI-assisted step on its own isn’t always enough.
Sometimes the real opportunity is to connect several steps together.
That’s where workflows come in.
Next Lesson