A recent HBR article reported that AI can outperform human CEOs. But from my speaking engagements and coaching, I know that today’s reality is very different.

Business leaders everywhere hear about AI, but they often ask how to use AI for work and "Where does it fit in my daily workflow?"

In a recent webinar for over 200 executives, I detailed the ten daily use cases of AI that can transform your workday, enhance productivity, and unlock more time for strategy and creativity. 

In this guide, I’ll break down which AI websites to use, explain how they fit into your workflow, and give you everything you need to know to start today.

Rather watch? A replay of the webinar is available here.

Why Learning AI Now is Critical

Before we dive into the details, let’s look at why this matters right now by reviewing key AI statistics. 

According to the 2024 KPMG U.S. CEO Outlook Study, 68% of CEOs are now prioritizing AI investments, with 21% expecting returns in just three years. 

Gartner’s Future of Work Hype Cycle has already moved past the peak excitement for generative AI, and now leaders are looking at practical ways to use it. 

The Microsoft Work Index study even shows that many employees are bringing their own AI tools to work, often in secret, creating a fragmented and insecure data ecosystem in organizations.

And according to Capgemini, only 15% of managers consistently use Gen AI, but 40% of business graduate students do.

So how do we, as business leaders, not just catch up but stay ahead? 

Here are the ten AI use cases that can make an immediate impact on your daily tasks and decisions.

Ten Daily AI Use Cases for Business Leaders

1. Email Management: Simplifying Communication with AI

It’s no surprise that email is a top productivity killer. 

A staggering amount of time is spent drafting, reading, and responding to emails—tasks that AI can handle much faster. 

Microsoft Copilot for Outlook

With Microsoft Copilot for Outlook, you’ll get summaries of every email before you even open them. Copilot will also generate draft replies based on the context of the conversation, saving you from having to craft responses manually.

How It Works:

• Outlook Integration: Copilot integrates into your Outlook, automatically summarizing long emails and suggesting replies based on the context.
• Summarization: When you open an email, Copilot provides a concise summary above the text. Just click ‘Copilot summary’ to retrieve it.
• AI Replies: Copilot can generate multiple draft responses, allowing you to pick the one that fits best. You can then edit the draft email and send. 

Pro Tip: Visit Copilot in Teams or on the web, and ask Copilot to highlight only the most important emails before opening your inbox.

Gemini AI for Gmail

With Google Gemini, Gmail and Google Workspace users gain access to a range of AI-powered tools designed to manage and streamline email communication. 

Whether you need a summary of a lengthy email thread or a brand-new email draft, Gemini offers a simple and intuitive interface that minimizes the time you spend on email-related tasks.

How It Works:

• Summarizing Emails: Like Copilot for Outlook, Google Gemini provides instant summaries of your emails, allowing you to scan through long emails quickly.
• Drafting Replies: Gemini also offers multiple draft reply options, which you can review and send in seconds. The drafts are customized to fit the tone and content of the conversation.
• Composing New Emails: You can prompt Gemini to write a completely new email from scratch. Simply input the type of email you need, and it will generate a complete draft based on your prompt. 

Grammarly

Grammarly’s AI plugs into most email platforms, offering email replies and drafting in seconds – even if you don’t (want to) pay for Gemini or Copilot.

It’s still my go-to email assistant, although that may change once Gemini for Gmail rolls out more broadly. 

Other AI Email Assistants

If these three platforms don’t fit your needs, you can additionally check out Spoke, Clean.email​, Concisely.ai​, or AI Mail Assistant. Please be very aware that you’re giving these tools access to all your business data.

2. Meeting Management: Maximize Your Time

Meetings are a major productivity drain. Studies show that the average executive spends about 23 hours weekly in meetings, with at least a third being unnecessary.  

AI Productivity Tools like meeting assistants are perfectly suited to help streamline this process, making meetings more efficient or even eliminating the need for you to attend altogether.

Otter.ai

According to our AI for Work Top 100, Otter.ai is the leading AI-powered meeting assistant that automatically transcribes and summarizes your meetings, 

This makes it easier to stay on top of discussions without needing to be present for every minute.

How It Works:

• Meeting Attendance: Otter joins your meetings as a "silent participant," recording the discussion, creating a transcript of what was said, and even taking screenshots.
• Summarization: After the meeting, Otter provides a concise summary, including key points, action items, and any relevant screenshots.
• AI Querying: After the meeting ends, you can ask Otter questions about it, such as "What are the follow-up tasks?" or "What was said about [specific topic]?" Otter will retrieve the relevant details.

Pro Tip: If you’re double-booked or just too busy, let Otter handle the meeting. Use the meeting summary to get all the necessary details in a fraction of the time.

Microsoft Copilot for Teams

Copilot for Microsoft Teams offers a deeper level of integration into your Microsoft Office 365 suite, allowing you to interact with the AI during meetings for real-time insights and assistance.

How It Works:

• Real-Time Engagement: Copilot can be used during the meeting to ask questions like "What are the action items so far?" or "Can you recap the discussion?" This makes it a powerful tool if you join late or need an instant overview.
• Live Assistance: Copilot also helps you think strategically during the meeting. For example, you can ask, "What question should I ask to move this discussion forward?" or "Is there a flaw in the argument being made?"
• Meeting Summary: Once the meeting ends, Copilot provides a full transcript and a summarized version, including key points and follow-up tasks.

Pro Tip: If you’re coming back from a holiday or need to catch up on multiple meetings, you can ask Copilot, "What did I miss in the meetings last week?" and get a full update on key decisions, actions, and mentions of your name.

Other AI Meeting Assistants

Aside from Otter.ai and Microsoft Copilot, other AI meeting assistants like Zoom AI Companion (which will let you send your “AI Twin” to meetings), Granola (which runs locally on your computer), and Fireflies.ai offer similar features to enhance your meetings by taking notes, generating summaries, and facilitating follow-up actions.

Action Tip: Use AI to drastically reduce the time spent in meetings, either by having the AI handle unnecessary ones or by using its summaries and action items to catch up quickly without losing key information. (See also my guide to effective team meetings.) 

3. Research: Streamlining Information Gathering

Gone are the days when you had to sift through endless Google search results. Instead of clicking links and reading content, AI provides answers, in-depth analysis, and context. 

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is likely already your general-purpose AI assistants, but is underestimated for its research capabilities. (If you’re using Copilot, you also use the ChatGPT model.) It can quickly answer questions, summarize articles, or provide high-level overviews on any topic.  

Using ChatGPT for research:

• Prompt it Like a Colleague: Prompts are the input you give ChatGPT to get an output. You’ll get the best results when you think of the prompts as a query you'd give a colleague to investigate a problem. For example, "Summarize the latest trends in AI for recruiting" is more effective than a vague "Tell me about AI."
• Always include CO-DO: Well-crafted prompts result in better outputs, so you should always include CO-DO. (You can use our free ChatGPT prompt generator.)
  - Character: Please imagine you are: [Who or which role should AI take on?]
  - Objective: I need to: [Task at hand]
  - Do’s and Don’ts: You should: [Do's], and Please avoid: [Don'ts]
  - Output: The final output should be a (an example or starting point is helpful.)
• Use ChatGPT o1 Model: ChatGPT’s latest "o1" model (originally thought to be ChatGPT 5) brings reasoning capabilities to the forefront. It generates answers and goes through a reasoning process (called “chain of thought”) before delivering responses, making it particularly effective for strategy, data analysis, or problem-solving.

• Prevent AI Hallucinations: Sometimes ChatGPT generates plausible-sounding but incorrect information—these are known as AI hallucinations. Always validate the outputs to prevent AI hallucinations.

Pro Tip: Use ChatGPT for initial research to explore new markets or business trends. Remember to fact-check, especially when dealing with critical business decisions.

Perplexity AI

Perplexity is a hybrid of Google and ChatGPT, offering comprehensive and sourced research results. Unlike Google, which forces you to click through various links, Perplexity gathers information and presents it in a summarized format, complete with citations.

How It Works:

• Search Results: Perplexity searches the web for relevant information, presenting a ChatGPT-style answer, links, and sources for verification.
• Focused Search: You can use Perplexity’s “Focus” feature to narrow down your research to specific sources like social media, video platforms, or academic journals.
• Detailed Reports: Ask Perplexity to generate a detailed report, and it will provide comprehensive information with references to the original sources.

Pro Tip: Use Perplexity when you need verified research backed by sources, like when conducting competitive analysis or product research. The focus feature is particularly useful for zeroing in on specific types of content like Reddit forums or scholarly articles.

Consensus AI

Consensus is an AI tool explicitly built for academic research. It pulls information only from peer-reviewed papers and provides a “consensus” on a given topic, showing where the research community agrees or disagrees.

How It Works:

• Scientific Research: Input your question, and Consensus pulls data from scientific papers, summarizing findings and highlighting areas of consensus.
• Detailed Insights: Beyond just summarizing, Consensus lets you dive deep into the academic data, previewing sections of relevant papers.

Pro Tip: Use Consensus when you need academic backing for business decisions, such as presenting research on industry standards or scientific developments in your field.

Other AI Research Tools

In addition to ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Consensus, other AI-powered research tools such as You.com, SciSpace, or Humata for valuable, well-sourced insights.  

4. Writing: Crafting Documents, Plans, and Reports

Whether drafting a proposal or preparing internal reports, AI can take over much of your writing. It’s one of the areas where Generative AI truly shines, as it helps you never start with a blank page again.

Start at 80% with tools like Copilot in Word or Grammarly that can craft initial drafts based on your prompts. ChatGPT’s Canvas feature even allows for detailed AI writing in an editable environment, giving you an AI writing assistant right where you need it.

Microsoft Word with Copilot

While there may be ‘better’ AI writing tools, Microsoft Copilot for Word offers seamless integration within your document. It allows you to generate polished, professional content from scratch, but more importantly, based on previous documents you’ve created. 

How It Works:

• Document Creation: Input a prompt (e.g., "Create a go-to-market strategy"), and Copilot generates a draft based on the topic.
• Referencing Existing Documents: You can reference another document in your prompt, allowing Copilot to build on existing content.
• Editing and Refining: After generating the first draft, Copilot allows you to edit in real-time, adjusting tone and structure as needed.

Pro Tip: Use Copilot to quickly turn meeting notes or bullet points into a formal document, saving time on initial drafting.

Google Gemini for Docs 

Google Gemini is similar to Copilot, bringing AI directly into your workflows while being able to take your previous content into context. Whether you need help brainstorming, drafting, or editing, Gemini works directly within Google Docs to simplify content creation.

How It Works:

• Document Drafting: Google Gemini helps you quickly draft documents by providing AI-generated content based on a prompt or previous notes.  
• Editing and Refining: Once a draft is created, you can ask Gemini to edit the document in real time. You can request tone adjustments, structural changes, or content expansions to ensure the document meets your requirements.
• Contextual Writing: If you’re working on a specific project, you can instruct Gemini to reference other related documents stored in Google Drive, cutting additional time.

Grammarly

If you don’t have, or don’t want to pay for, Google Gemini or Microsoft Copilot, then Grammarly is likely your best choice. 

One of the most popular free AI tools, it has its own dedicated website and can also be plugged into Google Docs or Microsoft Word (online).  

How It Works:

• Prompt to Write: Start with an empty document and prompt Grammarly to write your first draft, rewrite existing content, or write in partnership with its AI. As in my example (an excerpt from our Lead with AI lesson on “Writing with AI”), it can easily expand on your content:‍

• Grammar and Clarity Checks: Grammarly provides real-time suggestions for grammar, sentence structure, and word choice to ensure your writing is clear and professional.‍
• Tone Adjustments: Grammarly can suggest tone adjustments and rewrite content to match the intended audience, whether it's formal, casual, or somewhere in between.

Pro Tip: We use Grammarly to refine final drafts before submitting them, ensuring that every document is polished and error-free. It is easier, cheaper, and more accessible than a human editor. 

ChatGPT Canvas

ChatGPT newest feature, Canvas, takes AI-powered writing to another level, providing a dedicated word processor environment where you can interact with the AI to generate and edit documents. It’s ideal for brainstorming, drafting, and refining content in one place.

How It Works:

• Document Drafting: Provide a prompt or upload notes, and ChatGPT generates a full draft based on your instructions. (For example, I uploaded a 50-page PDF and asked for an executive summary to present to my leadership team.) The twist? Add “Open in Canvas.”
• Interactive Editing: In a new ‘Canvas, you can now ask follow-up questions, refine specific sections, or even change the tone and complexity of the writing in real-time using the slider. 
• Brainstorm with AI: By selecting a particular paragraph or sentence, you can ChatGPT to help you write by providing more examples on the topic, steelmanning your argument, or anything else you’d use a writing assistant for. 

Pro Tip: Use ChatGPT Canvas to brainstorm content ideas for presentations, reports, or marketing materials. You can also ask it to expand, simplify, or summarize sections for different audiences.

Other Writing Tools

These three writing tools are definitely not the only ones. Depending on your needs, other specialized tools could be a perfect fit for your AI team.

Writesonic is excellent for SEO writing, Canva Magic Write offers writing help right as you’re editing marketing materials, and Copy AI is a powerful (but expensive) AI marketing tool.

5. Presentations: Building Decks at Lightning Speed

As an ex-consultant who made PowerPoints for a living, I’m saddened that AI presentation generators didn’t exist in those days. 

Crafting presentations is often a time-consuming task that can pull you away from more strategic work. Whether you’re preparing for a board meeting, investor pitch, or internal review, AI Powerpoint generators can now create professional slides in minutes.

These tools streamline the entire process, from structuring your presentation to selecting design elements, allowing you to focus on the content rather than formatting.

Microsoft Copilot for PowerPoint

Microsoft Copilot for PowerPoint is designed to create professional presentations based on minimal input. You provide the data or topic, and Copilot will draft slides, organize them, and even suggest design improvements. 

It understands that a good presentation isn’t just words on a slide but a tool to convey critical information and drive change. This is why Copilot starts with brainstorming on the presentation outline before writing a single word. 

How It Works:

• Automated Slide Creation: You can start by entering a simple prompt like “Quarter 4 Sales Overview,” and Copilot will generate a complete slide deck with relevant charts, data points, and visuals. You can reference any Word or PDF file on your OneDrive.
• Design Suggestions: Copilot works with Microsoft Designer to offer design recommendations to ensure your slides are informative and visually appealing. Presentations can be created with your company slide template as the starting point. 
• Customization: While Copilot drafts the presentation, you can easily edit the content and tweak the designs to suit your preferences. 

Gamma AI

If you’re not a Microsoft 365 user with Copilot access, Gamma AI may be the presentation-building platform for you. 

Similar to Copilot, it uses AI to automate content and design, making it easy to turn ideas into polished decks, and available to anyone regardless of which presentation software you normally use for work.

How It Works:

• Prompt your presentation: Input your key points, and Gamma generates an outline you can edit. You can create presentations from a prompt, web page, or another document.
• Watch it Write Your Powerpoint: Gamma will create full slides based on your inputs. After generating your presentation, you can give follow-up prompts to refine and improve the content. 
• Design Automation: Gamma applies consistent branding and aesthetic design choices based on your input, so your presentation looks professional right from the start. You can now also use your brand or company template as a starting point. 

Pro Tip: Instead of downloading as a PDF, send people a link to your Gamma creation. This creates a more engaging experience. 

Other AI Presentation Tools

Beyond Microsoft Copilot and Gamma AI, tools like Beautiful.ai and Tome also help generate slides quickly with automatic layouts and design suggestions. 

These platforms ensure that you spend less time formatting and more time refining your message.

Image Creation, Data Analysis, Brainstorming, Q&A, and Time Management

The above five use cases are just the beginning of where you can apply AI in your daily workflow. 

Watch the full “10 Daily Use Cases for AI” webinar to additionally learn about:

• Image Creation: From Stock Photos to Unique Visuals (Midjourney, Dall-E)
• Data Analysis: Turning Raw Data into Insights (Copilot for Excel, Rows.com)
• Brainstorming and Strategic Planning (NotebookLM, ChatGPT’s Custom GPT)
• Customer Q&A and Support (Slack AI, Microsoft’s Agent Studio)
• Time Management: Your own AI Executive Assistant (Reclaim, Clockwise, Motion)

Register here for the full presentation. 

Want to keep learning? Join our AI leadership program, “Lead with AI” and read the weekly free Lead with AI Newsletter.