How to use AI to save time at work: 8 tasks to start with
4 August 2026 · 3 minute read
Specific jobs, with the brief that makes each one work. Pick two, do them properly, ignore the rest for now.
People do not need more reasons to use AI at work. They need to know exactly which jobs to point it at, and what to type.
So here are eight, with the actual briefing approach for each. Pick two that match your week. Ignore the other six until those two are automatic.
1. The long document you were going to skim
The job: a forty-page report, a policy, a tender, a set of board papers.
The brief: "Summarise this in 200 words. Then list the five things in it that would matter most to a [your role]. Then tell me which pages I should read properly myself."
That last part is the one people miss. You are not replacing your reading, you are aiming it.
Saves: most of an hour, every time.
2. Meeting notes into something useful
The job: turning your scrawl or a transcript into actions people will actually follow.
The brief: "Here are my notes from a client meeting. Pull out: decisions made, actions with owners, open questions, and anything that sounded like a risk. Flag anything ambiguous rather than guessing."
Saves: twenty minutes per meeting, and considerably more when something is disputed three weeks later.
3. The same message for different audiences
The job: one update, three or four sets of readers.
The brief: "Here is the full update. Give me three versions: 100 words for the board focused on cost and risk, 200 words for the team focused on what changes for them, and 80 words for clients that is reassuring without over-promising."
Saves: the hour you would spend rewriting, and it usually lands better because each version is genuinely aimed.
4. The first draft of anything you dread
The job: the proposal, the review, the difficult email, the policy nobody wants to write.
The brief: context, audience, purpose, tone, length, and one line on what you do not want. "Do not open with 'I hope this finds you well'. Do not apologise more than once."
Saves: the twenty minutes of staring, which is often the real cost rather than the writing itself.
5. Preparing for a conversation you are dreading
The job: a negotiation, a difficult piece of feedback, a meeting where you expect resistance.
The brief: "I need to tell my team that the budget has been cut by 15 percent. Give me the six questions they will ask, the two they will not ask out loud, and the weakest part of my position."
Saves: less time, more embarrassment. This one is about quality rather than speed.
6. Turning one conversation into a month of content
The job: marketing, when marketing is not your actual job.
The brief: record five minutes answering a real customer question. Get the transcript. "Here is a transcript of me explaining X. Turn it into a 600-word article, three short posts and one email. Keep my phrasing wherever it works. Do not add claims I did not make."
Saves: the reason your content stopped after three weeks.
7. The recurring enquiry you answer weekly
The job: the same fifteen questions you answer over and over.
The brief: "Here are five replies I have sent to questions about our pricing. Write me a strong reusable version I can adapt in thirty seconds, in the same tone."
Saves: small amounts, constantly, which adds up to more than the dramatic ones.
8. Being your own sceptical reviewer
The job: checking your own work before it goes out.
The brief: "Read this proposal as a finance director who thinks we are too expensive. What are the three weakest points? What would you ask that I have not answered?"
Saves: the meeting where somebody asks the obvious question you had not thought about.
Three rules that apply to all eight
Brief properly or do not bother. One line in, one line's worth of thinking out.
Check every specific. Numbers, names, dates, claims. It is confident in exactly the same way whether it is right or wrong.
Do not paste in what you should not. Confidential material, client data, staff records. Strip the identifying detail first.
Start smaller than you think
Two tasks. The ones that come round every single week and that you find tedious. Do them with the tool three or four times until you have a brief that works, and save it somewhere.
The people who get real value from this are not doing anything sophisticated. They just got two things properly good before adding a third.
Where next
If this was useful, the live sessions are the same thing with your own work in front of you and someone to ask when it goes sideways.