NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Artificial intelligence is permeating workplaces, changing the nature of jobs of every stripe.
Teachers are using it to create lesson plans and . Marketing professionals are harnessing it to work a room and learn about the needs of potential clients. Product managers are asking AI to serve as an interpreter when technical conversations went over their heads in meetings.
Some people who employ AI tools are concerned that widespread use of the technology could erode critical thinking skills, . They also caution that AI-assisted work needs to be checked carefully because the tools have been known to and .
Here are some ways that people with a range of jobs to save time and generate ideas.
Unpacking jargon
One creative way Kristin Moore, a technical product manager at PERQ, a digital marketing platform for property management companies, uses AI is to help ensure she understands her colleagues鈥� technically advanced conversations. If she鈥檚 in a meeting and engineers talk through a topic in a way that she doesn’t grasp, she can upload the recorded conversation through Claude, AI assistant built by , and ask it to summarize what she needs to do to follow up.
鈥淚t picks up on all of that terminology that I don鈥檛 understand, and it can simplify it into something that I can consume,鈥� Moore said.
She also asks the AI tool to read through emails, support tickets, recorded meetings and conversations to determine what her clients would like her company to build.
鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely freed up hours and hours of my week,鈥� Moore said.
Grading papers
Kyle Weimar, an elementary school teacher for Charter Schools USA, serves as coordinator of a Florida school鈥檚 multi-tiered support system, a position that involves creating plans to help children performing at the bottom 20% of the student population.
In that role, he uploads test scores, report cards and health information into his school district’s AI tool. Then he asks it before meetings to help brainstorm what the district can do to help each child.
Weimar has also used AI to grade papers. He says he can upload 100 to an AI agent, give it a scoring guide, and let it grade and give students instant feedback. 鈥淚 can do that in 30 minutes, whereas it would have taken me a week before,鈥� he said.
are really overwhelmed with work, 鈥渟o any tools that we can use to make that a little bit more viable, we鈥檙e really excited about using,鈥� Weimar said.
Working a room
Ashley Smith, head of marketing at HireQuest, a staffing and recruiting company with about 400 franchises, used Claude to build a dashboard that analyzes website traffic data and social media trends. It reports what the HireQuest鈥檚 followers are reacting to or ignoring, and Smith uses the information to inform franchisees about how to win more business, she said.
When members of her sales team attended a huge manufacturing trade show recently, she asked them to take screenshots of the companies they wanted to pursue. She uploaded the images to an AI platform and prompted it to build a list including company names and, based on press releases and stock reports, insights on what their staffing needs might be over the next 18 to 24 months.
The hours Smith said she saved by handing off that research task to AI let her spend more one-on-one time with her franchisees.
鈥淎I has not replaced anything. It鈥檚 only expanded what we鈥檙e able to offer to our franchisees,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淚t allows us to do things that, candidly, we just weren鈥檛 able to deliver even as short as two years ago.鈥�
Rebranding the Brawny paper towel man
A design leader at Georgia Pacific, the pulp and paper company that makes Dixie cups, Quilted Northern toilet paper and other consumer products, says he uses AI to create quick visuals. When brainstorming how to modernize the Brawny paper towel brand, for example, Andrew Markle said his team asked AI to depict what the man shown on their packaging would look like with a longer or shorter beard.
Using AI helped people on the team review ideas more quickly, and the tool also offered predictions for how target consumers might respond, Markle said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not replacing the creative eye of what鈥檚 good and what鈥檚 appropriate for our business,鈥� Markle said. 鈥淯ltimately, we knew we were going to partner with our ad agency. We have an illustrator that鈥檚 going to do the final vision.鈥�
Creating quizzes to help learn material
Kenneth Lynch, a special education coach in Tulsa, Oklahoma, teaches developmentally disabled students life skills to help them live independently. He uses AI to develop quizzes as learning materials. For example, when he was working with a student who wanted to pursue automotive work, Lynch uploaded a book of mechanical instructions to an AI tool that generated quizzes for each chapter.
He is more reluctant to trust AI when it comes to soliciting guidance on psychological conditions. 鈥淲hen I look up different types of diagnosis and try to connect comorbid diagnoses together, it really struggles with understanding how those fit together,鈥� Lynch said.
Preparing for meetings and drafting emails
Ravi Pendse, the University of Michigan’s chief information officer, has used AI to prepare for meetings by asking the tool to predict what questions he might get asked.
鈥淚t has made me a lot more efficient,鈥� Pendse said. 鈥淚t gives me more time to focus on my own mental health and wellness.鈥�
The University of Michigan also created an AI tutor that professors can tailor to help students with coursework material around-the-clock, he said. But Pendse is mindful to use AI responsibly.
鈥淲e all should be thinking about how we ensure that AI does not erode our critical thinking skills, especially those of our children,鈥� Pendse said. 鈥淎s we grew up, we learned from our mistakes. We wrote bad papers, and we got better.鈥�
One way that Bob Jones, the university’s assistant vice president of emerging technology and support services, uses AI is making sure his emails are succinct enough for the intended audience.
鈥淚f I’m communicating about a particularly sticky topic, I want to make sure that I鈥檓 neutral and thoughtful,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淪o the idea of really assessing how I鈥檓 presenting myself, AI is really good at that.鈥�
Understanding customer needs
The marketing director at SumnerOne, a company that delivers printers, copiers, and IT services, asks her AI tool to help create email campaigns, social media posts and slide decks. Natalie Blythe said she also uses it to help understand her ideal customers.
For example, when aiming to sell printing services to universities, she asked chatGPT, an AI tool created by OpenAI, to create a probable demographic profile of an admissions director at a university. Then she asked it to predict what the director’s top five problems might be and to identify ways her company’s products could help solve them.
鈥淲hen it first started up, I was in the camp of, 鈥極h my God, this is the end for us,’鈥� Blythe said about the early days of AI. But rather than just fear it, she dug in and started learning.
鈥淭he efficiencies gained out of it have been tremendous,” she said.
__
Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP鈥檚 Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
