What AI can do
What it is
AI is the software behind apps that write, talk and make things when you ask. The app you chat with, such as Gemini, ChatGPT, Copilot or Claude, is your AI app, and it can do far more than chat. A job is one piece of work you want done. Each different sort of thing AI can do for you is a kind of help, and these are the seven.
- Words and talk. Everyday help includes writing, fixing what you wrote and replying; reading your documents and pulling out what matters; learning and understanding; finding things out; advice and thinking a decision through; planning and organising; ideas and choices; rehearsing what to say; working from a photo or file; and talking things through, meaning discussing a worry or decision, for company and support, never instead of people or professional help.
- Making pictures. AI can make and edit pictures from a sentence you write.
- Sound and video. You can speak to your AI app and hear answers back, or ask for voices, music and short video clips.
- Building things. Describe a game, website or app in plain words and AI builds a small working version.
- Acting for you. AI can do a job's steps for you, such as preparing a summary of last week's emails every Monday.
- Built in. AI also sits inside apps you already use, such as email and documents, and drafts or suggests.
- Behind the scenes. A support request reaches the right team because some AI quietly picks the team from a set list; this AI never chats.
A slip is when AI gets a job wrong or does part of it badly. Your AI app does some jobs very well and slips on others that look just as simple. The same AI app that rewrites your email well can quote an overseas rule when you ask about a rule where you live. So try a new kind of help on a small piece you can check.
Tips
- Before a long job, ask whether your AI app can help, because your AI app offers far more kinds of help than most people think to ask for.
- Try a new kind of help on a small piece you can check, because your AI app does well at some jobs and slips on others that look no harder.
- When you hear about a new kind of help from AI, ask whether your AI app can do that yet, because what each app offers changes month to month.
Try it
- Pick one job from this week that you have never given to your AI app; if nothing fits, pick a long message you want summarised.
- Pick a kind of help you have not tried: words and talk, making pictures, sound and video, building things or acting for you (Built in and Behind the scenes work without you asking, so they are not on this list).
- Ask your AI app whether it can do that kind of help.
- Ask your AI app for one small piece of that job, using the kind of help you picked, such as a picture or a trip plan.
- Check one thing against the real thing, such as a number, a date or what a picture shows, and keep the result if it is good.
Parts of the result are often right, and one part may slip. Finding a slip is useful, because it shows you where that kind of help falls short. Finding none is a result too. If your AI app says it cannot do that kind of help, pick another kind from step 2. What an app offers differs by app and by whether you use the free or paid version. If you have no way to check an answer, do not rely on it.
Risks
- A good result from one kind of help does not show that your AI app will do another kind well. Before you rely on a new kind, try one small piece you can check.
- AI can quote a rule from another country when you ask about a rule that depends on where you live. Say your state or country when you ask, then check the official page.
- Following health or money advice from AI without a second source can go wrong. Use AI to help you prepare and understand, then let a professional make the decision.
- A photo or document with private details in it goes to the company that runs your AI app, and that company may keep it for weeks. Take out names, numbers and passwords the job does not need before you send it.
Why it matters
Many people use AI for a few things and miss work it could take off their plate. Knowing the seven kinds, and where AI slips, is how you find jobs worth handing over.