Are robots coming for your job? It’s tempting to think AI is reserved for the software developers and robotic engineers among us- and that “normal” jobs like ‘accountant’ or ‘sales rep’ are safeguarded against the rapidly evolving technological landscape. But in our hearts (and in our LinkedIn feeds) we see that’s not the case. AI is here to stay and the impact will be major.

It's not just Big Tech — employers across most industries are starting to see artificial intelligence have an impact on their business. In a survey of LinkedIn's Top Companies, nearly 70% said that AI is already helping them be faster and smarter. Another 32% said its impact is small now, but larger gains are expected in the next few years. 

Don’t let that freak you out. In fact, you’re probably already using AI to make you more effective, and you don’t even know it. Spam filters, autocorrect, and predictive email text have become so integrated into our everyday work habits, we hardly even realize they’re there.

You don’t worry about a spam filter taking your job, right? You harness the tool to save time and energy, so you have more (human) brainpower to devote to your most important work.

According to George Anders, Senior Editor at Large for LinkedIn, “A lot of current AI excitement relates to rapid breakthroughs in large language models. These are the underpinnings of popular, widely accessible tools such as ChatGPT, which can spin up surprisingly plausible text answers to almost any question.”

Here are 4 ways to make your job easier with AI:

Brainstorm ideas. Do you ever ask someone for help, they give you a suggestion, and you immediately think ‘no, not that!’ But somehow, their terrible idea crystallized exactly what you should do. That’s me and ChatGPT. When ChatGPT gives me a bad idea, it makes the good ideas more obvious (and they come more rapidly). Next time you feel stuck, try asking ChatGPT for some ideas. Will you get something amazingly original? No. But it will jumpstart your unique thinking. 

Enhance your writing. Flagging a basic typo is nice, but that’s the ‘floor’ of what AI can do for your writing. Want to appear more polished? Be more concise? Or strike a collaborative tone? You can, with a simple browser extension. I personally use Grammarly. Last week it pointed out to me that an email I was writing could’ve sounded friendlier…and it was right.  (Thank you for saving me from my terse self.) 

Summarize text. Have a mountain of material to review? Want to know the most important parts of the book your CEO is reading? Let AI pull out the most crucial bits of information. You can skip through any redundancies with a few clicks using a tool like Jasper. Better yet, you can use AI to provide a summary of a lengthy report you’re sending out. Trust me, your boss will thank you.    

Do your homework. Will this dig up every piece of dirt on what your high school sweetheart has been up to? No… At least, not yet. But, if you have a meeting with a prospective customer, AI can help you prepare by uncovering the company’s history, identifying their competitors, and sourcing details about their customer base. Plus, unlike a chaotic foray of Google searches, the answers to your queries will appear on a nice and neat, easy-to-skim page.

Digging your heels into the sand and resisting technological tools never ends well…ask the sales reps still using phonebooks, or the accountant still using an abacus. Many have said, AI isn’t going to take over jobs, it’s going to take over tasks.

Leveraging these tools can make you even more effective at the uniquely human aspects of your role.

By Lisa Earle McLeod

Keywords: AI, HR, Sales