It has been a while since I wrote a post about how I have been using AI, and there are new ways I have been thinking about it and using it that I want to share. However, AI is evolving so fast that anything I write about it risks becoming outdated quickly. So as a disclaimer, I’ll note that it is possible something will change between the time I write this and the time you read it!
Using AI for Project Management: Slide Deck Consolidation
First, I want to share some practical tips that fall under the umbrella of day-to-day project management. By project management, I do not mean the official field of project management, but rather the various tasks that must be done to keep work organized.
To help with this work, I have been primarily using the Co-Work feature from Claude.
One practical example is that I was asked to send a slide deck for a project I had created eight separate small slide decks for. I had recorded videos with each deck and kept them separate, not thinking I would need to combine them. When I was asked for the slide deck in its entirety, I first sighed and thought I would need to manually copy and paste everything together.
Then I realized I could upload all the decks into Claude and ask it to take care of combining them for me. I gave Claude the order I wanted the decks arranged in, and it handled the task exactly as I had hoped, saving me at least 20 minutes.
This felt like exactly the way I want to use AI. I wasn’t outsourcing judgment or brain power and was saving time on a rather simple task so I could focus more of my energy on work that required my direct involvement.
For more on this topic, watch Lauren’s on-demand webinar: How Special Librarians Can Put Generative AI to Work
Using AI for Admin Work: Calendar Management
A second practical way I recently used AI was to update my calendar with conference sessions that came to me in a PDF. I was not looking forward to updating my calendar with the specific times and links to each conference session, and I really did not want to have to flip back and forth between multiple apps to find the schedule on the day of the event. Therefore, I uploaded the PDF to Claude, gave it the link to my calendar, told it what time zone I am in, and asked it to put all the sessions on my calendar. Again, it worked just as I wanted it to. I double checked the sessions and times, and nothing was incorrect.
Again, this saved me time and felt like an excellent use of AI. My calendar is now current, and I had time to focus on things that required more of me.
The Full Impact of AI is Still Emerging
The other thing I want to share about AI is how I have been thinking about it in the workplace. Anthropic’s Economic Index sent me down a rabbit hole of trying to understand how AI may impact various jobs.
Of course, this data is limited, and we are still early in the timeline of AI reshaping the economy, but the research coming out of Anthropic is very interesting and worth reading. I hope it sparks ideas for you and helps you consider new ways to approach using AI, or inspires new conversations with others at your place of employment.
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