Things I wish I knew my first day using AI at work (A letter to my past self)🕰️

Dear 2023 Me,

You’re probably sitting at your desk, half curious and half skeptical, wondering what all the AI fuss is about. Maybe you’ve just opened ChatGPT for the first time. Maybe someone on your team said, “Copilot will change everything.” Maybe you’re worried you’ll be replaced by a robot that writes better emails than you.

Let me save you a little time — and a few headaches. Here’s what I wish you knew that very first day.

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☕ First of all, make coffee
The real kind. Flat white. Freshly ground beans. None of that capsule nonsense.
While your machine whirs and steams, take a breath. Hydrate. Look out the window.
Because once you open the AI tab, the dopamine rush is real — and the distractions are louder than you think.

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🤖 AI isn’t magic — it’s just extremely confident autocomplete
You’ll quickly see it can write emails, summaries, outlines, and even help you prep for tricky conversations. But it doesn’t “think” — not really. It just predicts what words should come next based on patterns. Still, when you feed it the right context? It’s powerful.

Talk to it like a teammate. A very fast, slightly weird intern who read the internet but still needs your brain.

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🧠 The real power? How you ask
You’ll be tempted to say “Write a report” or “Draft this email.”
But future you learned that good prompts are more like creative briefs.

Say things like:
“Help me explain this proposal to a skeptical stakeholder who hates buzzwords.”
Or
“Summarize this email thread like someone who actually respects my time.”

The results are wildly better.

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🗂️ Use your own messy stuff — that’s where the magic happens
It’s cool that it can write a fake blog post about any topic.
But the real gold comes when you give it your rough notes, your voice memos, your rambling thoughts.

Paste in a clunky Teams chat or an awkward draft.
Then ask:
“Can you rewrite this to be clearer and more confident — like something I’d actually send?”

You’ll feel the productivity glow instantly.

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🛑 Please, please don’t copy-paste and send without checking
Future you did this once. The AI made up a product name.
Another time, it misquoted someone in a meeting summary.
And once — painfully — it drafted a reply that sounded helpful… but actually came off passive-aggressive.

Read it. Tweak it. Make it yours.

Also, try this:
“How might someone misinterpret this?”
It’s weirdly insightful.

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📧 Email triage is your secret weapon
You’re working in a different time zone — by the time you open your inbox, half your team’s already on their second coffee.

Use the AI to help scan for what matters.
Ask:
“Find me the latest information on a topic in the past 3 months and summarize what has been happening?” (AI will dig through SharePoint )
Or
“Summarize this entire meeting like I’ve just walked in halfway.”

It’s a mental time machine. You’ll love it.

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🪞 AI won’t steal your voice — it sharpens it
You might feel guilty letting a tool write your first draft. That’ll pass.
Over time, you’ll see it actually helps you sound more like you — faster.

It clears the noise so your actual thinking can shine.

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🚨 Also: Don’t overthink it
There will be new tools. New mega methods of prompting . New updates.
But you don’t have to master everything, keep an open mind and a look out for other people’s tips and tricks.

Just focus on building a habit of asking better questions.
Because when you treat AI like a thought partner — not a magic wand — you’ll start working smarter, not louder.

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☁️ You’ve got this
Keep your coffee strong, your prompts thoughtful, and your inbox under control. I love collaborating with AI on posts and other projects, it truly is the assistant who never tires and is bursting with enthusiasm.

And hey — you’re not being replaced by AI.
You’re being amplified by it.

With hindsight,
—Future You ✨