From Hobbies to Habits: How AI Helps

Ever since OpenAI debuted the public version of ChatGPT, I have been learning and using various AI tools both personally and professionally. AI has made me more efficient and has significantly helped with my creativity. 

Professionally, I use Microsoft CoPilot as my primary tool so I can be sure my data is secure. The obvious use for work is to assist with grammar or general tone of correspondence. CoPilot is built directly into Outlook for e-mail assistance and Word for general document help. It can handle your entire block of content or help with segments that you might be stuck on. The beauty is that whether you use the output 100% or just steal some nuggets,  there is no longer a need to spend hours or days thinking of the perfect word!

Another way AI can help at work is with legal documents. From writing something as simple as a basic agreement or reviewing something from a vendor, AI will make quick work of it. I have used AI to write complete documents and have had great success. I have also reviewed agreements via AI to quickly scan for specific red flags. AI’s ability to quickly review data is a huge time saver. 

In addition, CoPilot is fantastic is taking meeting notes. If you are like me and find yourself on Teams calls 75% of the day, AI will be your best friend. It does a great job of taking notes and providing a summary. This allows you to focus on the meeting rather than trying to multitask. 

My last professional example is Excel formula assistance. Unless you are a master Excel formula writer then, like myself, you use Google to find the proper syntax to accomplish your goal. That works, but it is very slow and can be frustrating searching for the information. Between the ads and overall content that Google provides, this search can become a great way to waste profitable time. Using AI, you can speak with an assistant and ask for the answers you want. And if the first output isn’t quite what you need, just let AI know specifically what didn’t work and voila, you have a new formula to try. In addition, AI can explain why the formula works!

At home, I use a vast array of AI tools for my hobbies. I am an avid maker using 3D printing and laser engraving. I have an active YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/justinmcclung) that brings it all together to try and help others as well. Below are some of the tools I use for my hobbies!

• Midjourney to help with visual content with their text-to-image tool. 
• Elevenlabs for voice-over features, when needed. 
• Adobe has some built-in AI tools with its Creative Cloud suite. 
• Vectorizer.ai is a crazy fast way to take a raster image and convert it to a vector. 
• And if you need to create some one-off music, Suno.ai is a great tool. 

These are all fun tools to experiment with but the tools I utilize every day to really speed up my productivity are ChatGPT and Perplexity.ai. 

I rarely use Google to search anymore. By using a good large language model (LLM) like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok etc. you can speed things up and reduce the noise of ads while weeding through the other info. AI has provided us with a solution to simply find the answers we want… when we want them!

I hope my journey can help you become more efficient. The best advice I can give is to not be afraid of AI, embrace it! If you have any questions or if there is any help I can offer, please reach out.