How are people using AI for work tasks?
People use AI throughout their workday for tasks that used to take significant time or mental energy. From drafting emails to analyzing data, AI helps them work more efficiently without necessarily changing what they do—just how quickly and smoothly they can do it.
Writing professional communications
One of the most common work uses is drafting and refining emails, messages, and documents.
AI prompt: "I need to tell a client that their project will be delayed by two weeks due to unexpected technical issues. Can you help me draft an email that's professional but doesn't make excuses?"
AI helps draft something that strikes the right tone: acknowledging the delay, taking responsibility, explaining what happened briefly, outlining the new timeline, and offering something to mitigate the impact.
You read it, adjust the specifics to match your actual situation, maybe soften or strengthen the tone based on your relationship with this client, and send it. What might have taken 20 minutes of drafting and revising takes 5.
People also use AI to adjust tone when they've written something but it doesn't sound quite right.
AI prompt: "I wrote this message to my team but it sounds too harsh. Can you help me say the same thing but more constructively?"
AI rewrites it to maintain your point but with better framing. You're still making the judgment calls about what to communicate—AI just helps you say it better.
Summarizing and analyzing information
People use AI to process large amounts of information quickly.
AI prompt: "I have meeting notes from five different client calls this week. Can you help me identify the common themes and issues that came up across all of them?"
You paste the notes, AI identifies patterns: three clients mentioned budget concerns, four asked about timeline flexibility, two raised questions about a specific feature. Now you can see trends you might have missed looking at each meeting individually.
AI prompt: "Based on these themes, what should be my priorities for next week?"
AI suggests focusing on creating clearer timeline expectations and preparing better budget justifications. You make the final call, but AI helped you see what matters most.
Preparing for meetings and presentations
People use AI to prepare more efficiently for meetings.
AI prompt: "I have a meeting with a potential client in the healthcare industry. I don't know much about healthcare compliance requirements. Can you give me a quick overview of what I should know before this meeting?"
AI provides context: HIPAA basics, common compliance concerns in healthcare tech, questions this client might ask. You're not becoming an expert, but you're not walking in completely uninformed either.
AI prompt: "What questions should I ask them to understand their specific compliance needs?"
AI suggests specific questions that show you understand their context. You look more prepared, and you actually are more prepared, in a fraction of the time traditional research would take.
Brainstorming and problem-solving
When people hit a roadblock at work, they use AI as a thought partner.
AI prompt: "Our customer onboarding process is taking too long and people are dropping off before completing it. I need ideas for how to streamline it without removing necessary steps."
AI suggests approaches: break it into smaller phases instead of one long process, identify which steps could be automated, see which information could be gathered asynchronously instead of in real-time, or test removing steps to see if they're actually necessary.
You might not use all of these ideas, but they get you unstuck and thinking differently about the problem.
Drafting and editing documents
People use AI to speed up document creation without starting from scratch.
AI prompt: "I need to create a project status report for stakeholders. It should cover progress this month, current blockers, and timeline for next month. Can you give me a template structure?"
AI provides an outline with suggested sections. You fill in your specific information, but you're not staring at a blank page trying to remember what goes in a status report.
AI prompt: "Here's what I wrote for the 'Current Blockers' section. Does this clearly communicate the issues without sounding like I'm making excuses?"
AI gives feedback on clarity and tone. You revise based on what makes sense.
Learning new tools or processes quickly
When people need to use unfamiliar software or follow new processes, they use AI to get up to speed faster.
AI prompt: "I need to create a pivot table in Excel to analyze sales data by region and product category. I've never made one before. Can you walk me through it step by step?"
AI provides instructions in plain language. If you get stuck, you can ask follow-up questions immediately instead of searching through help documentation or watching a long tutorial video.
AI prompt: "I did steps 1-3 but I'm not seeing the option you mentioned in step 4. What might I be doing wrong?"
AI helps troubleshoot in real-time. You solve the problem and keep moving instead of getting derailed.
Managing and organizing work
People use AI to help structure their workload and prioritize.
AI prompt: "I have 12 tasks on my plate this week with varying deadlines and importance. Can you help me think through how to prioritize them?"
You list the tasks with their deadlines and what's blocking other work. AI suggests a prioritization based on dependencies, deadlines, and impact. You adjust based on factors AI doesn't know (like which stakeholder matters most politically), but you have a starting framework instead of feeling overwhelmed.
What people don't use AI for at work
Most people aren't using AI to do their job for them. They're using it to handle the time-consuming parts that don't require their specific expertise or judgment.
People still make the strategic decisions, maintain client relationships, apply domain expertise, and exercise judgment. AI handles drafting, summarizing, formatting, research, and initial ideation—the scaffolding work that takes time but doesn't require deep expertise.
The pattern is: AI does the first pass, the person refines and adds judgment. Not: AI does the work, the person rubber-stamps it.
Important reminders
What you share with AI might be stored or used for training, depending on the tool and settings. Don't paste confidential information, client data, or proprietary material into AI unless you're certain about the privacy policy.
Your company might have policies about AI use. Check before using it for work tasks, especially with sensitive information.
AI helps you work more efficiently, but the judgment, expertise, and relationship management are still yours. Use AI to save time on routine tasks so you can focus on work that actually needs your brain.