{"id":624369,"date":"2026-04-23T23:52:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/624369\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T23:52:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:52:20","slug":"three-pathways-to-help-you-figure-out-what-tasks-to-start-using-ai-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/624369\/","title":{"rendered":"Three pathways to help you figure out what tasks to start using AI for"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interested in more careers-related content? Check out our new weekly Work Life newsletter<\/a>. Sent every Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

If you have been told to experiment with artificial intelligence but, like many people, aren\u2019t quite sure what to do or what task would be a good fit, consultant Al Dea has a solution. After watching people struggle with adapting AI to their work he has come up with three practical pathways to consider that will make learning experiments more natural:<\/p>\n

Your fourth priority: Most people, he observes have three priorities they are attacking in a quarter. But usually there is also one more thing they would like to tackle but never get around to it. Identify what that was in the most recent period and now apply AI to dealing with the item. <\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, it\u2019s real work, something that genuinely matters. Second, it isn\u2019t mission-critical. If it were, it would have been one of the top three. That distinction creates psychological safety knowing you won\u2019t disrupt business as usual,\u201d he writes<\/a> on his Substack blog.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest barriers to AI experimentation is the fear of disrupting core operations. The fourth priority project sits in the perfect middle ground: It matters, but the stakes are lower.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Friday afternoon project: If you had two hours free on a Friday afternoon, what would you tackle? Usually there is something small but meaningful you would try to get done. Do that and use it as an opportunity to experiment with AI. Because the time window is short, it lowers the risk, offering an ideal chance to try something new. <\/p>\n

The expanded timeline project: Pick any project you\u2019re currently working on and extend the timeline by 20 to 30 per cent. So something you planned to complete in four weeks is now allotted five weeks.<\/p>\n

That gives you some space to experiment. Without extending the time period, you would be inclined under pressure to default to normal procedures. You have now created room to explore. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an important safety net built in as well: If the AI-enabled approach doesn\u2019t pan out, you still have enough buffer to revert to your original method without missing the finish line,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n

In whatever option you choose, keep this tip from Amazon senior leader Polina Russell in mind: Stop typing and start dictating. <\/p>\n

When you type, you edit your thoughts before they reach the page. When you dictate, the AI gets the full texture of your thinking. <\/p>\n

\u201cSpeaking is also three to four times faster than typing. It feels effortless. The AI gets more to work with, faster, and the output improves. It feels like magic,\u201d she writes<\/a> on her blog. <\/p>\n

But make sure you are using dictation mode rather than voice mode, so it dutifully transcribes what you are saying rather than offers advice and information prematurely when you pause. <\/p>\n

She shares a second tip: Create a work context document so your AI assistant remembers context for your requests. Her five pager, which was developed by asking AI to interview her, captures who she is, what she works on, her goals, team, stakeholders and how she collaborates with them. Attaching the work context to every chat dramatically improved the output.<\/p>\n

Ottawa productivity consultant Chris Bailey, whose most recent book, Intentional, stresses the importance of knowing your intention and sharing it with AI whenever you work together. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou need a north star for why you\u2019re doing what you\u2019re doing. And here\u2019s what\u2019s wild: We\u2019re not just guiding our own intentions anymore. We\u2019re guiding the intentions of agentic systems. Understanding intention and how it works has never been more critical,\u201d he writes<\/a> on his blog.<\/p>\n

Ironically, having his Claude Code interview him \u2013 something he enjoys and does often \u2013 completes the circle of guidance and intention. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe guide our robots into performing actions for us, and our robots can also guide us so they can extract optimal insights for the best approach,\u201d he writes. <\/p>\n

Quick hits<\/p>\n

To use AI for growth, author Mark Manson says<\/a> you must stop asking it to help you. Instead, give it specific prompts to challenge you, such as this one: \u201cYour goal is to help me deeply understand a recent challenge or failure and extract the most valuable lessons from it. You will guide me one question at a time, asking only what is essential to uncover key insights.\u201dInstead of finding an excuse to skip a forthcoming meeting that seems boring, recent research suggests<\/a> you should attend. In a series of experiments, the researchers found that people consistently underestimate how enjoyable and engaging expected boring conversations will actually be. Topics that sounded dull often turned out to be absorbing, useful and relationship-building. It\u2019s rare to find your purpose for life, so author James Clear recommends<\/a> instead looking for your purpose for this season: \u201cWhat lights you up right now? What\u2019s a good thing to dedicate this season of your life to?\u201d<\/p>\n

Harvey Schachter is a Kingston-based writer specializing in management issues. He, along with Sheelagh Whittaker, former CEO of both EDS Canada and Cancom, are the authors of When Harvey Didn\u2019t Meet Sheelagh: Emails on Leadership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Interested in more careers-related content? Check out our new weekly Work Life newsletter. Sent every Monday afternoon. If…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,4081,61],"class_list":["post-624369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ordid20000","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}