Ways I Have Been Using Generative AI

Now that generative AI is less of a novelty, I want to share three ways I have been integrating it into my daily work.

1. Editor: I find myself often staring at a sentence knowing what I want to say, but unable to find the exact words I want to use. I have found AI to be incredibly useful in helping me reword sentences. To do this, I will type in the prompt: “reword: (and then I paste the sentence)”. I may decide to edit the reworded sentence, but often, just seeing another way to approach the work is enough to help me get unstuck.
2. Examples: I am always trying to come up with examples to teach a concept or skill, but creativity has never been my strong suit. Therefore, I frequently ask generative AI to create an example for a particular topic that I can use in an instruction session.
3. Images/Logos: When I am planning an event and need an image to include on the flyer or on social media, I have found myself using generative AI tools to create the image or logo. This saves me a lot of time.

These are just three of the ways I have found to fit generative AI my workflow. I continue to experiment with generative AI tools that provide research support, but at this time, my ability to use library databases and Google Scholar exceed what I feel like generative AI can do.

Additionally, I have tried asking generative AI to summarize sources, and while beneficial, I still find myself reviewing the abstract and deciding whether or not to read the full source myself—typically, I end up reading the full source. In the future, I can see circumstances where getting additional summaries, apart from an author generated abstract, is something I’ll want more often. For now, though, the process of obtaining the summaries is not enough of a timesaver for it to be of much benefit.

There are two things on my radar about generative AI that I am looking forward to trying:

1. My workflow involves many Google products so I am looking forward to using Gemini in Google Workspace and seeing how that may change how I work.
2. I create many video tutorials, and am interested in trying a generative AI video creation tool to see if I can upload a transcript and a picture of myself, and get AI to generate the video in a professional way.

Of course, with any technology tool, I am aware of ethical concerns, and try to stay current on issues related to copyright, privacy, and bias.