Common Use Cases

You understand what AI is and how to use it. Now you want to know the specific ways AI can help in your daily life. We'll break down the most common and useful applications of AI into four main categories: writing and communication, learning and understanding, problem-solving and decision-making, and saving time on routine tasks.

How This Section Is Organized

Rather than giving you abstract capabilities, we'll show you concrete use cases. Each area includes detailed examples, specific AI prompts you can adapt, and guidance on when these approaches work well versus when they don't.

Writing and Communication

AI excels at helping you communicate more clearly and effectively. Whether you're writing professional emails, navigating difficult conversations, organizing your thoughts, or improving your writing, AI can help you say what you mean with less effort.

We'll cover topics like writing better emails (from drafting to tone adjustment), handling difficult conversations (preparing for tough discussions, writing sensitive messages), organizing your thoughts before writing, and editing and improving your writing.

Writing is one of AI's strongest areas. It can help you draft, revise, adjust tone, catch errors, and clarify your thinking. But the ideas and authenticity need to come from you.

Learning and Understanding

AI is an excellent tool for learning. It can explain complex topics in simple terms, help you learn new skills, answer questions about things you don't understand, and keep you current on topics you care about.

We'll show you how to use AI to explain complex topics in accessible language, learn new skills through structured guidance and practice, get answers to questions with follow-ups for deeper understanding, and stay current on topics by synthesizing information from your reading.

The key is asking good follow-up questions. AI's first answer gives you the overview. Your follow-ups help you understand deeply.

Problem-Solving and Decision-Making

AI helps you think through problems and make better decisions. It's particularly good at generating options you might not have considered, helping you evaluate trade-offs, planning complex projects, and troubleshooting when something isn't working.

How can AI help me solve problems and make decisions? covers brainstorming solutions to problems (generating options, thinking through approaches), evaluating pros and cons of different choices, planning and organizing projects (breaking down complex work, creating timelines), and troubleshooting when something isn't working.

AI won't make decisions for you, but it will help you think through them more thoroughly. It's like having someone to talk through a problem with, someone who asks good questions and offers perspectives you might not have considered.

Saving Time on Routine Tasks

One of AI's most practical applications is handling routine tasks that take time but don't require deep thought. This frees you up to focus on work that actually needs your judgment and creativity.

We'll expand this section to show you how AI can summarize long documents or articles (extracting key points, creating actionable summaries), draft routine messages (emails, responses, updates), help you find information faster than searching manually, and automate repetitive work through templates and processes.

These are tasks where AI's speed and consistency provide clear value. You save time on routine work without sacrificing quality.

Finding What You Need

You don't need to explore every use case. Scan the four areas above and pick the one that's most relevant to what you're doing right now. If you write a lot of emails, writing and communication might help. If you're trying to learn something new, check out learning and understanding. If you're stuck on a problem, try problem-solving and decision-making. If you're drowning in routine tasks, explore time-saving approaches.

Try one specific technique. See if it helps. If it does, explore more in that area. If not, try a different use case. AI isn't useful for everything, and different people find different applications valuable. The goal is to find what actually works for you.

Building Your AI Toolkit

As you explore these use cases, you'll start developing your own sense of when to reach for AI. You'll notice patterns: "Oh, this is like that email situation, I can use AI here too." You'll adapt the prompts you find here to your specific needs. You'll develop shortcuts and templates for things you do repeatedly.

That's exactly how it should work. These use cases are starting points, not rigid rules. Take what's useful, ignore what isn't, and adapt everything to your specific context.

You might also find How do people actually use AI in daily life? helpful — Another page that gives more examples of common things people do.