Using AI for Everyday Work

AI is best at the first draft and the tenth edit. You stay responsible for what gets sent, so treat every draft as a starting point.

The tool is only as good as the habits

A hammer can build, break, shape, and refine. If you only ever swing it one way, you only ever get one kind of result. That isn't the hammer's fault. AI is the same. When people say "AI is useless," the problem is usually how they are using it, not what it can do.

A friend once told me AI was still "so stupid." After a week in one chat, it would get slow and forgetful, and he would have to open a new one. Every time, he had to retype his role, his territories, his responsibilities, and his strengths and weaknesses. He had stayed with one work tool only because it remembered him better.

I asked him: "Can your AI tools read a file you upload?" He said yes. "Then why not write all of that down once in a file, and upload it at the start of each new chat?" He had never thought of it, and it solved his biggest complaint. That was a habit problem, not a tool problem.

Make your own "about me" file. Write it once, keep it updated, and attach it whenever you start a new chat:

# About me
Role: [job title, company or type of work]
What I'm responsible for: [territories, clients, projects, duties]
Who I work with: [team, manager, customers]
My strengths: [what I'm good at]
What I want help with: [weak spots, tasks I dislike]
How I like answers: [short and direct / detailed / bullet points]
Current priorities: [this month's top 3 goals]

Attach it and start with: "Read the attached file about me first, then help me with [task]."

Give it a format, examples, and your material

The single biggest improvement you can make is to stop asking AI to invent the shape of your work. Give it three things, in this order:

1. The format. Title, subject line, sections, headings, and length. "A one-page report with these four sections: Summary, What happened, Numbers, Next steps. Under 400 words."
2. Past examples. Two or three pieces of the same kind of work that you or your team already liked. This shows the tone, detail, and style far better than describing it.
3. Your current material. The notes, numbers, or draft that need to be turned into that format.

Then ask: "Using the format above, and following the style of the examples, turn my notes into this month's version."

Example: a monthly sales update.

• Format: subject line, 3-sentence summary, a table of numbers by territory, 3 bullets of wins, 3 bullets of risks.
• Past examples: last month's and the month before's updates, pasted in.
• Current material: this month's numbers and your rough notes.

The result will look like your past work, not like a generic AI answer. This works for emails, reports, meeting notes, proposals, and slide decks alike. Save your best formats and examples in a file, so you can reuse them next time.

The four-part recipe, in detail

Almost every good request has four parts. Leave one out and the AI fills the gap with a guess.

Two extra tricks make a big difference:

• Show an example. Paste something you liked and say "match this style."
• Ask it to ask you. End with "Ask me any questions you need before you start." This is the easiest way to avoid a generic draft.

Emails and messages

Use AI for the messages you dread: asking for something, saying no, following up, or delivering bad news.

Try this: "Write two versions of an email to [person] about [situation]. One gentle, one direct. I want to [goal]. Keep each under 120 words."

Getting two versions lets you pick the tone instead of arguing with one draft.

Other useful requests:

• Reply help: paste the email you received and say "Draft a reply that agrees to X but pushes back on Y."
• Tone check: paste your own draft and ask "How might this come across? Make it warmer without making it longer."
• Shorten: "Cut this in half without losing the request."
• Translate: "Translate this into Spanish for a family member. Keep it casual."

Before sending, read it out loud. If a sentence does not sound like something you would say, change it.

Reports, documents, and presentations

For anything longer than a page, build it in stages. One giant request gives one generic result.

1. Outline first. "Give me an outline for a report on [topic] for [audience]. Five sections, one line each." Fix the outline before anything else.
2. Write one section at a time. "Write section 2. Use these facts: [paste notes]." Your notes keep it accurate.
3. Edit for the reader. "Rewrite this for a busy manager who will read only the first paragraph."
4. Check facts and numbers. Anything the AI added that you did not give it needs a source.

For presentations: ask for slide titles and three short points per slide first. Then ask for speaker notes. Many tools, including Claude, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot, can now build the actual slides for you. Change the design to match your organization afterward.

For meetings: paste a transcript or your rough notes and ask: "List the decisions made, who owns each next step, and any open questions."

Sounding like you, and what not to hand off

AI writing has a recognizable sound: lots of adjectives, the same sentence shapes, and phrases like "I hope this finds you well." To make it sound like you:

• Paste two or three things you wrote and say "Learn my style from these, then write in it."
• Tell it what to avoid: "No buzzwords. No exclamation points. Short sentences."
• Edit the first and last sentence yourself. Those are what people remember.

Keep these in your own hands:

Found this helpful? Raya.ai is built on the ideas in this series. Learn more at raya.ai ↗ (opens in a new tab), or download the app on iOS ↗ (opens in a new tab) or Android ↗ (opens in a new tab).