By the time Alex sits down at his desk, there are already 17 unread emails, three meetings in the calendar, and a report that is due soon.
It’s a fairly normal morning.
Alex grabs a coffee and starts to work through his to-dos. The first task is something he’s done countless times before: turning a long document into something his team can actually digest.
Rather than starting from scratch, Alex opens an AI tool and asks it to summarise the key points.
The answer comes back quickly. However, it also gets a few things wrong, leaves important information out, and adds details out of context. Alex edits the prompt - adding more context and details - and gets a new result.
This time, it’s much closer to what he needs, but it still requires a lot of editing and is taking more time than he was expecting.
It’s a small reminder that AI can be incredibly useful, but using the right prompts could be the difference between saving time and spending more of it. It isn’t necessarily a case of asking a question and getting the perfect answer. Knowing what to ask, how to ask it and when to question the response can make all the difference.
And Alex isn’t the only one figuring this out.
For many professionals, AI has quietly become part of the working day. It might help with writing, brainstorming, research, analysis, presentations, or simply getting past the dreaded blank page.
But using AI and feeling confident with AI aren’t necessarily the same thing.
Later in the morning, Alex has another task to tackle: drafting a presentation for an upcoming meeting.
He turns to AI again. This time, instead of simply asking it to “create a presentation”, Alex explains the audience, provides some background, outlines the key messages, and asks for a particular structure.
The result is noticeably better. Alex has started to learn that the quality of the output often depends on the quality of the interaction.
It makes sense. We wouldn’t expect a new colleague to understand exactly what we need without giving them any context. Why would AI be different?
By lunchtime, the conversation shifts from how to use AI to a much bigger question.
Where is all the sensitive information going, and what happens to confidential information?
Suddenly, the conversation has moved well beyond productivity. While AI is an incredible tool, there are lots of questions around the security of the information we provide. How much information is too much, and how can we protect ourselves and our information?
By the end of the day, there is no clear answer. Alex hasn’t automated his entire workload, discovered the perfect AI tool, or suddenly found an extra three hours in the day.
But he has started to build something arguably more useful: the confidence to understand AI, experiment with it, question it, and think more strategically about where it belongs in his work.
And that’s increasingly what being AI-capable looks like. It isn’t about knowing every new tool that appears or keeping up with every new development. It's about having enough knowledge to ask better questions.
- What can AI do?
- What should I use it for?
- How can I get better results from it?
- And how do I make sure I'm using it responsibly?
For professionals across industries, these are becoming everyday workplace questions.
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