AI. Empowering Action With Confidence
In my last newsletter, we explored the knowledge needed to engage with AI, how it can save you time, spark creativity, and future-proof your skills.
I explained that I am using the ADKAR® model to drive your adoption of AI, and I hope I provided you with plenty of sources of knowledge to explore. In this newsletter, we answer the question, “How do I apply my knowledge?” We are focusing on the ABILITY stage of the model. This is where the fundamental shift happens.
You need to apply what you have learned, try AI in your personal and professional life workflows, and develop confidence through hands-on use.
I have included this quote from Ginni Rometty, former CEO of IBM, in each of my AI newsletters, as it sums up the opportunity that will be missed if you do not adapt and adopt AI. It is not your competitor. It is your partner.
“AI will not replace humans, but those who use AI will replace those who don't.”
Avoid anxiety
Don’t let the speed of AI adoption and its rapid evolution cause anxiety. Time is of the essence, but you still have time. You must act now.
You don't have to be a technical expert to use AI. If you can use Google, you can use AI.
In my previous newsletter, we explored some of the AI tools and platforms available to you, AI literacy and evaluation, and sources of education and knowledge. You are now in a good position to apply your learning.
Remember, you are learning, so it’s ok not to get things right the first time. Setbacks are a learning opportunity. I agree with the quote from former basketball coach John Wooden. "If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes."
Learn by doing
As I previously suggested, explore AI by grabbing one of the free AI tools available. Some AI tools are free or have a free trial before you pay. I provided a list of commonly used AI tools in the previous newsletter.
Start with a low-risk, highly frustrating task to try AI. Identify something repetitive, administrative, and something you would love not to have to do.
When you know what you want AI to do, you can identify the right tool to do the job. The following are some suggestions for reducing the clutter in your day. I have not used all the tools mentioned, so this is not a recommendation; rather, it is a list of tools for you to explore.
Meeting management
Otter.ai is an AI-powered assistant that can automatically join virtual meetings, transcribe them, and take notes in real-time. It integrates with platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. It will summarise key points, action items, and meeting highlights. It offers both free and paid plans, with the free plan providing basic features and the paid plans offering more advanced features, such as longer meeting times and team collaboration.
Zoom AI Companion is a generative AI assistant integrated within the Zoom platform, offering a range of capabilities to enhance productivity and collaboration. It helps you with tasks like generating content for events, summarising meetings, catching up on missed parts of meetings, and answering questions about meetings and documents.
Like Otter.ai, it offers both free and paid plans, with the free plan providing basic features and the paid plans offering more advanced features, including longer meeting times, cloud storage, and unlimited videos.
Microsoft Teams Copilot is an AI tool that uses artificial intelligence to enhance communication and collaboration within Microsoft Teams. It works by analysing chat history, meeting transcriptions, and other relevant data to provide summaries, identify action items, and offer insights. Copilot can be accessed in both chat and during meetings, offering features like meeting recaps, action item lists, and follow-up question suggestions. It also provides a free and premium service.
Email and calendar management.
Fyxer AI is an AI-powered executive assistant designed to help you manage emails and meetings more efficiently. It integrates with Gmail and Outlook to provide features such as inbox organisation, email drafting, and meeting notetaking. It has a 7-day free trial.
SaneBox is an AI-powered email management service that helps you organise your inbox by filtering less essential emails into separate folders. It uses algorithms to learn your email habits and prioritise what matters, helping you focus on the critical emails. It works with various email providers and clients, serving as an email assistant to help you manage your inbox efficiently. It has a 14-day free trial.
MailMaestro is an AI-powered email assistant developed by Maestro Labs, designed to enhance email productivity for professionals. It integrates with Microsoft Outlook and Gmail, offering a suite of features to streamline email composition, management, and organisation. It has a 14-day free trial.
Research
Use AI to scour the internet, saving you hours on Google. AI can find all the latest information on a particular topic and condense it into readable content. It can compare products and services. You can ask it to help with tasks you wish to automate. For example, you could use this prompt. “What are the best generative AI tools for managing my email inbox?”
Document summarisation
Rather than spending time trying to create a summarisation of long meeting notes or extensive reports, let AI do it for you. AI can extract the key points.
Getting started
This is what I love about AI. I use ChatGPT, and it is excellent as a brainstorming partner. If you have been tasked with creating a team charter, consider using AI to generate one, provided you have given ChatGPT clear instructions and context. You can take what AI gives you and customise it or ask ChatGPT to make improvements based on your instructions.
Ask for agenda suggestions for a particular meeting, having provided AI with the reason for the meeting, the desired outcomes, information about attendees, location and duration, etc. The more information and context you provide, the better the results will be.
Ask AI to help with the opening words for a presentation you are giving or to provide you with a catchy title.
Image generation
Here is an example of an image that ChatGPT generated for me, which would have taken a good proportion of my time.
I asked it to generate an image of “10 Things AI Can Take Off Your Plate Today.” I provided the context for this newsletter, and this is what it produced.
ChatGPT then asked me if I would like an AI Task Checklist to include in my newsletter. I said yes.
Checklist: 10 Everyday Tasks AI Can Help With
Use this checklist to identify where AI could save you time, reduce mental load, or improve consistency in your daily work.
Quick Wins
· Summarize long documents, reports, or policies
· Draft meeting summaries or extract action items from notes
· Auto-sort emails and generate first-draft replies
· Coordinate calendars and suggest optimal meeting times
· Create or format recurring reports and updates
· Conduct fast, structured research or competitive scans
· Transcribe voice memos or meetings into formatted notes
· Turn rough notes into FAQs, checklists, or how-to guides
· Brainstorm first drafts for posts, emails, or ideas
· Rewrite communications to adjust tone, language, or length
How to Use This
- Start with one task from the list
- Try an AI tool (e.g., ChatGPT, Otter, Copilot) for that task
- Reflect: Did it save time? Improve output? Reduce frustration?
- Share your results with a teammate or AI buddy
Tip: AI isn’t about replacing you. It’s about amplifying your effectiveness by handling the mundane, so you can focus on the meaningful.
How cool is that?
Rewrites
You can ask AI to rewrite emails or documents if you want them to sound more assertive, diplomatic, inclusive or concise.
Tell AI about your intended audience and ask it to rewrite with that audience in mind.
Learn from each other
Your confidence can grow when you learn from your colleagues and peers.
AI buddy system
Set up a peer-support network where you can try AI tools together. You can share your findings, ask questions and discuss your challenges and successes in a safe environment. Reach out to others across your network (personal and/or professional) and ask if they would like to join a peer-support group to learn more about AI and how to use it effectively.
Discuss and agree on a structure. This might include a weekly 15-30 minute check-in to share something new you tried. You could partner up with others to test a specific AI tool or platform. You could partner up with others to find the best AI tool or platform to perform one specific task you would like to eradicate from your daily workflow. You could troubleshoot and help others who may be struggling. You could jointly do prompt engineering.
Whatever structure you come up with, ensure it is informal and enjoyable. This should be a safe place to share what worked and what didn’t and ask for help. When your buddy system achieves a particular goal they set, however small, ensure you celebrate.
Discussion channels
Use the discussion channels you have in your workplace to share AI wins and setbacks, experiments and innovations, and to ask for help. This could be MS Teams, SharePoint, or Slack, etc.
Demonstrations
When someone or a team have discovered how to eradicate a hated task or automate part of a workflow, invite them to team meetings to share their findings. Get them to explain their process for achieving their outcomes, including their challenges and setbacks, as well as their wins and learnings along the way.
Confidence through action
As you experiment with AI in your personal and professional life, remember ability builds through action. You don’t need to be an expert - you just need to keep on experimenting. Every time you use AI, it builds your confidence, competence, and momentum. The more you integrate AI into your life, the more natural and impactful it will become.
Reinforcement
Reinforcement is the final step in the ADKAR model, and it is the key to lasting change.
At an individual level, this means you should:
Make AI an integral part of your routine, not a one-time tool
Reflect regularly on where it adds value
Share learnings with your team or AI buddies
Sustainable change occurs when new habits become ingrained. Reinforcement ensures that the time you save, the confidence you build, and the workflows you improve with AI become part of your everyday life.
Keep experimenting. Keep learning. And keep moving forward.