How to Use AI at Work: A Practical Guide for Executives

Just a few years ago, most conversations about artificial intelligence centered on whether businesses should adopt AI and if it would replace jobs. Today, the discussion has shifted to how to use AI effectively. Executives are asking much more practical questions: Which AI tools are worth using? Which functions in my business can AI help optimize? How do I protect confidential information? Where does AI genuinely save time, and where does it fall short?

My best use for AI tools

Like many professionals, I have spent the past couple of years exploring where AI adds real value in my work and where it doesn’t. I have found that the greatest benefit to me isn’t that AI writes faster or summarizes documents in seconds, but that it frees up my time to think, analyze, and focus on work that requires my judgment and critical thinking. I am not just handing it a task and accepting whatever comes back. I use it as an intelligent collaborator across many of my daily processes.

Instead of spending an hour organizing notes, I can spend that hour deciding which ideas matter.

How to use AI in writing and research

When I am developing an article, I often use AI at several stages. First, I will ask it to identify questions my audience is likely to have about the topic. Next, I will ask it to organize recent research into common themes and suggest several ways to structure the article. Once I have written a draft, I’ll ask AI to check my work: I’ll ask it to point out areas that seem repetitive, identify arguments that need stronger evidence, highlight places where another example would increase clarity, and find contradictions or faults in my reasoning.

My first prompt rarely gives me a final product. I typically ask follow-up questions, request examples, challenge assumptions, and refine the output. That interactive conversation is where I get most of the value from using AI in my work.

The writing is mine. The expertise is mine. The editorial decisions are mine.

AI simply accelerates the parts of my workflow that once consumed much more of my time, freeing me to work on more important tasks.

How to use AI for meetings and presentations

I use the same approach when preparing client presentations. Using my draft, AI can suggest a logical structure, recommend supporting examples for different audiences, and identify questions my clients are likely to ask during a meeting. This way, I begin with ideas I can evaluate, improve, or discard, and make sure I proactively cover the points my clients may ask about. That’s where AI has proven most valuable for me—not as a quick and easy replacement for my experience, but as a tool for better thinking.

For example, last month, a client asked me for advice on executive succession planning, and I created a presentation for our meeting. Before I wrote a word or designed a slide, I asked AI, “What questions would my client and its board members have in this meeting?” Some of the questions centered on governance and board oversight rather than succession itself. Answering these questions proactively in my deck made my presentation much stronger.

What has surprised me most is not that AI produces answers I haven’t considered, but that it consistently helps me ask better questions before I ever walk into a meeting.

How to evaluate AI tools

Of course, not every AI application deserves a place in your workflow. New tools appear almost daily, each promising to revolutionize productivity. Before I spend any time learning another platform, I find it helpful to ask a few practical questions:

• Does it solve a real problem I have today, or is it just interesting?
• Will it save enough time to justify the learning curve?
• Can I verify the accuracy of its output? (This step is especially important, and I explore this point below.)
• Does it integrate with the software I already use?
• Does it securely store confidential or proprietary information?

If the answer to any of those questions is no, it’s probably not the right tool for me—at least not yet.

The prompts I use for successful results

One of the biggest misconceptions about AI is that it does your work for you. While that can be true (we have all seen the proliferation of low-quality, AI-generated content, especially on LinkedIn), the real value of AI comes from using it interactively by asking better questions.

When I am drafting an article, developing a presentation, or preparing for a meeting, some of the prompts I have found most useful include:

• What important perspectives am I overlooking?
• Challenge my thinking: What would someone who disagrees with my position say?
• Rewrite this paragraph for an executive audience while preserving my tone.
• Am I providing value, or is my writing too broad or high-level?
• Which examples would make this point more persuasive?
• What questions is my audience likely to ask after reading this article/presentation?
• Where is my reasoning weakest, and how can I improve it?
• What are a few alternative headlines that are compelling and answer the questions people are searching for?

Notice that none of those prompts asks AI to think for me. Instead, they help me think more critically about my own work.

Other ways AI improves my workflow

The same principle applies beyond writing and design. AI can summarize lengthy reports before I read them; organize meeting notes and recordings into summaries with action items, deadlines and responsible parties; compare proposals; identify trends across large volumes of information; and help me prepare for difficult conversations by suggesting questions and viewpoints I may not have considered. In these ways, AI has become another tool that helps me make better decisions.

Although I use AI most often for writing and presentations, it also adds value in other areas. Because I work with executives across many functions, I often see practical uses in finance, HR, operations, and legal, for tasks like comparing budget scenarios, summarizing engagement surveys, analyzing production reports, and evaluating contract language.

How to use AI the right way: trust but verify

Though AI is a great productivity tool, I do not trust it unquestioningly. Anyone who has spent time with these systems knows they occasionally produce information that is incomplete, outdated, or just incorrect. It can invent sources, misunderstand context, or present weak reasoning with remarkable confidence (known as “hallucinations”). In fact, I have found that AI can be especially persuasive when it’s wrong. It can present inaccurate information with complete confidence, which makes verification essential. That’s why every statistic, quotation, recommendation, and conclusion still requires my thorough review before I publish.

Getting started with AI tools

In my work with executives and organizations, I have noticed that the leaders who embrace AI most successfully aren’t necessarily the most technically savvy people in the room, but they are the ones who are curious. They experiment with new tools, evaluate them using questions like those I suggested above, and adopt the tools that create real value for their business and teams.

Many executives are still wary of AI, often for good reasons. If you have been hesitant to use AI in your work, here are a few steps you could take this week to see how it might improve your productivity. Try asking an AI tool like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude to do one or more of the following:

• Summarize a lengthy report before you read it in full.
• Analyze a spreadsheet and point out trends or patterns.
• Turn meeting notes or a recording into an action list with next steps, assigned owners and deadlines.
• Generate three alternative outlines before drafting an article or presentation.
• Role-play a difficult conversation, a job interview, or a one-on-one with your boss.
• Critique an important email before you send it.
• Act as a devil’s advocate before you make a recommendation to your team or leadership.

You don’t need to worry about finding the “perfect prompt.” It’s an iterative conversation, and the first response is just the starting point. Instead of just asking AI to “summarize this report” or “write this article,” try saying something specific about your perspective, such as “Act as if you were a financial services professional writing for CFOs of Fortune 1000 companies. Summarize this article into five executive takeaways, highlighting strategic implications and risks rather than operational details.” Then go back and ask it some of the questions I mentioned above.

Conclusion

Technology will continue to evolve, of course. The competitive advantage will come from developing the ability to evaluate new technologies critically and integrate them into your work to improve your decision-making and productivity. AI’s strength is that it can reduce hours of preliminary research to minutes. Deciding which ideas deserve to move forward, earning the trust of clients and colleagues, exercising sound judgment, and leading teams are still distinctly human responsibilities.

AI does not replace talent. It allows talented people to accomplish more.

AI will continue to become faster, smarter, and more capable. The professionals who thrive won’t necessarily be the ones who know the most about AI. They will be the ones who remain curious, keep learning, and know when to rely on technology—and when to rely on their own judgment.

In future articles, I will share some of the specific AI tools I have found most valuable, along with more use cases and practical prompting techniques that consistently produce better results. Follow me on LinkedIn so you don’t miss them!

Meanwhile, if I can help you with leadership strategy or career development, let’s connect.