Key points at a glance
- Getting started requires no programming skills, just a clear use case.
- Recurring tasks involving text, research or summaries are best suited.
- Personal and confidential data only belong in business versions of AI tools with suitable contracts.
- A human checks every result before it goes out.
Why getting started is easier than you think
AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude or Microsoft Copilot are operated in plain language. You write what you need and receive a draft. The most important step is therefore not technology but the question: which task regularly costs us time?
Ten ideas for everyday work
- Drafting emails: preparing and adapting replies to standard enquiries.
- Revising texts: formulating offers, website copy or posts more clearly.
- Summarising: shortening long documents, minutes or reports to the essentials.
- Research: getting an overview of a topic, a market or a company and checking sources.
- Generating ideas: developing topics for social media, the blog or a newsletter.
- Translating: transferring drafts into other languages and having native speakers review them.
- Preparing meetings: collecting questions, agenda and arguments.
- Analysing tables: recognising patterns in numbers and having them explained.
- Creating templates: checklists, processes and instructions for the team.
- Practising conversations: training sales calls or difficult conversations with AI as the counterpart.
Getting started in four steps
- Choose a task that occurs often and can be described clearly.
- Choose a tool in its business version.
- Write good instructions: role, goal, context, desired format.
- Check results, improve them and save good instructions as templates.
Data protection and confidentiality
Only enter personal data of customers or employees and confidential company data into versions designed for businesses, with a data processing agreement and without your inputs being used for training. Agree within the team which data may go into AI tools and which may not.
Where the limits are
AI can make mistakes and give answers that sound convincing but are wrong. Facts, numbers and legal statements must be checked. AI is suited to drafts and groundwork; responsibility stays with people.
When your own AI agent pays off
If a task occurs daily, has several steps and needs access to your own data, such as pre-sorting enquiries or transferring information from documents, your own AI agent can pay off. It is tailored to your processes and can be run locally on request.
Conclusion
The best start with AI is small and concrete: one recurring task, a suitable tool, clear rules for data and a check of every result. That way you save time without taking risks.
Frequently asked questions
AIMelanie Dincdemir
Marketing, digital business and business model development at Optivanta
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal, tax or investment advice. It does not replace advice on your individual case. Despite careful research, we accept no liability for accuracy, completeness or timeliness; use is at your own risk. Articles bearing an author's name reflect that author's opinion. The provider of and party responsible for all content is Optivanta Solutions LLC. More in the imprint
An AI agent for your process?
We build any AI agent you need on request, hosted locally if you wish.