Are you using AI at work?

[GoGoJasonWaterfalls]

I work in Comms & Marketing for a tech start up (think SaaS but not quite). I'm 41 so experienced in what I do. Founders are early 30s. I'm in a one person role and, as such, have been 'enthusiastically encouraged' to use AI to increase productivity (writing content, repurposing that content into social and email etc...)

From my cursory - so far - exploration, it seems very much quality in = quality out.

Is anyone here using AI successfully in their roles? How easy are you finding it? Is it really the force multiplier it's being sold as?

Some of these suggestion how to set the tone and content are great and I will be trying them.

I used it to write 3 case studies to use for a practical assessment as part of our case management system training.
i asked chat gpt and it churned out 3 perfectly acceptable drafts which I will then modify (eg I will change the names to make them more diverse and change a few details to fit with what our hospices do) - but it saved me a long time, and also a lot of angst about using my personal writing. If my boss doesn’t like them I’ll just redefine my request and ask again.

No, we're creating a lot of scientific software using machine learning methods though.

I've really been delving in to it this weekend as I have a load of content to write in the next week.

I'm a specialist in organisational change management (the human side of implementing transformations in big corporates) and honestly, I've been shocked at what I've managed to get it to do a good draft of.

It drafted a 'vision for change' for a project today with only brief details from me including considering the perspective of several difference types of stakeholders and what the benefits to them would be and writing content to resonate with people at an emotional level.

I asked it to imagine that it was an expert in organisational change management and transformational leadership and to critique and redraft it's own work and it did (well).

I'd never thought before to ask it whether there was anything else I could tell it that would enable it to give an even better draft...

I honestly thought that would flummox it, but it gave me a list of questions that were spot on and used my (very brief) answers to redraft.

I think I will start using it more on my phone app so I can speak to it via Siri which will be quicker still (you can email the link to the final version to your work account).

I'm planning to spend tomorrow morning writing a prompt that will work well for my training content.

You can even ask it for specific formats like "Make use of main headings for each section of information and split the topic into sub-sections with sub-headings where this would improve the flow of the content.

Use bullet points to summarise where appropriate and include a final section of 'key takeaways'

I've also asked it before to "Give me an easy way to check the references for the facts you've provided on the internet"

And it gives a bullet point list of all references with recommended search terms to copy and paste into Google

Yes this. I work in a comms role and have to write blogs and social media posts. I use to get me started if I'm struggling to get the creative juices flowing or if I want to rewrite something in a more imaginative way. It's not perfect and have to edit content it produces but I see it more as a tool to assist me rather replace me.

DH uses it to help him turn bullet points into text. He also looked into using it to chat to clients, but they decided the risks were too great, because it tells lies!!

I’m similar to you, head of marketing at a tech start up. I use it frequently - I do actually have a content writer but when it comes to start ups, usually the sector is so specific and finding a good writer who has innate understanding in the field is rare.

I’ve used it for blogs, webinar planning, podcast episode planning, social posts - it’s such a time saver not only because it’s easier to tweak something than start with a blank page, but also because it gives you so many ideas and things to include in what feels like the blink of an eye as opposed to spending a few hours researching a topic.

It’s a great tool for getting started with content, getting ideas quickly, and making tweaks quickly.