In the previous lesson, we explored how to use AI to summarize information, turning lengthy documents, meeting notes, or articles into concise, actionable overviews. Summarization is just one way to leverage AI as a professional—it falls under a broader set of use cases where AI helps improve everyday productivity. In this lesson, we'll look beyond summarization and cover more specific scenarios where AI can be seamlessly integrated into your daily workflow.

Most professional AI tasks can be grouped into two main categories:

1. Generating New Content

   • Creating completely new text based on a prompt or instruction.
   • Examples: Drafting emails from scratch, composing reports or proposals, producing marketing materials, generating project ideas, or drafting code snippets.

2. Rewriting, Updating, or Expanding Existing Text

   • Modifying, improving, or restructuring material that already exists.
   • Examples: Summarizing meeting notes, expanding bullet points into process documentation, clarifying poorly written messages, translating or reformatting text, turning transcripts into actionable steps, or converting unstructured information into tables.

Summarization—which we discussed earlier—is a clear example of the second category.

AI is generally more reliable with the second category—rewriting, updating, or expanding existing text—because the anchor material provides context and reduces the risk of generating factually incorrect or off-base content ("hallucinations"). AI especially excels at tasks like reformatting, reorganizing, or structurally modifying text.

This is not a strict binary separation: many tasks are a blend of both (e.g., you may ask AI to reformat and expand content)

For tasks that involve generating new content, AI is often the only practical automated solution, which makes it an excellent efficient tool, but these outputs need more human review and validation, since the risk of hallucinations or misalignment is higher.

Let's explore three practical scenarios.

Category: Mainly Generating New Content (Category 1)

GenAI excels at drafting routine professional communication quickly and efficiently, such as:

• Emails: "Draft a polite follow-up to clients who haven't signed contracts."
• Reports: "Auto-generate weekly team productivity summaries."
• Documentation: "Convert bullet points into process guides." (This straddles both categories: using bullet points as context, but expanding to generate new text.)

Example:
Your Request: "Write a standard 'out of office' reply mentioning backup contacts."
AI Output:
"Thank you for your email! I'm away until June 20th. For urgent matters, contact Maria (maria@company.com) or Liam (liam@company.com)."

Human Input/Validation:
Outputs in this category should always be reviewed for accuracy, tone, and alignment with company communication standards, since AI is generating new material and can sometimes produce errors or awkward phrasing.

Category: Rewriting/Expanding Existing Text (Category 2, with some elements of Category 1)

AI can help transform unstructured or lengthy discussions into clear, actionable next steps:

1. Upload Transcript: "Identify action items from attached Zoom meeting recording."
2. Assign Ownership: "Tag tasks to the marketing team where mentioned."
3. Set Deadlines: "Extract all time references as due dates."

Pro Tip:
AI is less likely to hallucinate since it grounds its suggestions in real meeting content, but it might gloss over implied nuances, priorities, or tacit decisions. A human review for context and accuracy is still needed.

Category: Mainly Generating New Content (Category 1)

Quickly build project outlines and timelines in plain English, such as:

• Basic Request: "Create a 3-month product launch timeline with design, testing, and marketing phases."
• Detailed Prompt: "Develop a Gantt chart for website migration, including dependencies: content audit must finish before CMS setup."
• Real-World Scenario: "Plan a 6-week social media campaign promoting our new app. Include content creation days, review periods, and platform-specific posting schedules."

Human Input/Validation:
Since much of the output is newly generated, carefully review timelines for accuracy, realistic deadlines, and alignment with your team’s constraints. Use the AI-generated outline as a draft and adapt details as needed.

Translating text is a more nuanced example. Let's break it down.

Category: It is blend of both categories. From one hand, AI uses existing text and is asked to work only with information from it (Category 2). On the other hand, AI generates a completely new text based on it, so it might make a lot of mistakes.

AI can quickly translate documents, emails, or messages between languages, making cross-language communication far more efficient.

• Simple Request: "Translate this announcement from English to Spanish."
• Enhanced Translation: "Convert this technical report into French, keeping the terminology precise and formal."

However, be very careful. AI should not be blindly relied upon for translations, especially when dealing with specific, nuanced, or complicated terminology. If you don’t know the output language well, it’s risky to trust AI’s translation—subtle errors, mistranslations, and cultural misunderstandings can easily slip through.

If you’re proficient in the output language, AI becomes a powerful tool for efficiency. Use AI to create a draft translation in minutes, then review and refine the text to ensure accuracy and appropriateness. This hybrid approach is much faster than translating or writing from scratch, leveraging human expertise to polish the AI’s initial output.

• Customization: Tailor AI outputs to match your organization's workflows and tone.
• Verification: Always double-check dates, content, and assignments, especially with tasks involving new content generation.
• Transparency: Clearly identify any AI-assisted content so colleagues understand how drafts, tasks, or timelines were created.

AI can take care of the busywork, letting you focus on creativity and strategy—provided you understand what the technology does best, and where your expertise and judgment are most needed.