It's not just for writing books no one wants to read and making music no one wants to listen to.
Almost two years into the "AI revolution," you're probably sick of hearing about all the ways artificial intelligence will either transform the world into a utopia, or replace you at your job and ruin the environment. The fear and anxiety are exhausting, but so is the hype -- and so far it's a lot of just that, hype. Sure, many AI-powered apps are useful, but those are tightly focused pieces of software, and far from the loose, ask-me-anything platforms like ChatGPT or Gemini.
And if you've used one of those AI platforms, you already know that AI frequently gets things wrong, sometimes in hilariously public ways. Often, AI-powered gadgets that promise to revolutionize the way you interact with the world don't seem to do much of anything. The fact is, aspects of AI can be useful, but AI is hardly all-powerful. And when it seems that AI isn't doing much more than generating music no one wants to listen to and books no one wants to read, you're not wrong to wonder whether the technology has any real, practical uses.
As it turns out, it does, provided you limit the scope and keep your expectations in check. Here are nine ways AI platforms actually can make your life just a little easier right now.
Menu planning
If you're trying to keep your grocery costs low or need to create recipes and shopping lists for specific dietary needs, you know that it can be an overwhelming job that eats up a lot of time, between chasing down the best prices, sourcing coupons, and picking ingredients. AI can really help out here (there are even specific grocery AI bots out there you can use, like Buzzfeed's Tasty): You can literally tell it your dietary restrictions, food preferences, and budget, and ask it to create meal plans and make shopping lists for you. Alternatively, you can feed the contents of your pantry into these tools and ask for recipes you can make without shopping for anything else. You'll still want to gives the recommendations a once-over to make sure they actually make sense to you and meet your needs, but it's easier than starting from scratch.
Managing your schedule
Are your days less organized and more an anxiety-filled rush? AI may be able to help. You can give an AI platform your to-do list, your basic schedule (work hours, meetings, lunch plans, etc.) and ask it to create a schedule for your day. This way, instead of having to puzzle out how much time each task should take, a machine can do it for you, and you can always tweak it by modifying your prompt with requests for more down time or by adding background tasks for peak efficiency. For a bonus, throw in a tool like Reclaim, which analyzes your calendar and schedule to find ways to claw back more free time.
Handle simple correspondence
AI tools like ChatGPT can't always be trusted to write long, research-heavy documents -- they have a tendency to blatantly lie and make up sources -- but they are actually very good at short, boring stuff like emails, especially the template-friendly stuff like customer service contacts, thank you notes, or RSVPs and the like. These kinds of messages aren't hard to write and don't take much of your time, but that also makes them well within AI's limited skill set, and every one you offload to ChatGPT is five to ten minutes of your life back.
Start brainstorming
This is perhaps one of the greatest strengths of AI, because it's where all that weirdness that makes an AI bot think there are only two "Rs" in the word strawberry becomes a positive. AI is great at just throwing suggestions at you in response to a prompt. Whether it's ideas for activities to keep kids busy, party planning ideas, new shows to watch, or gift ideas, AI can save you some time by dumping a long list of suggestions in just a few seconds.
Build a packing list
If you're going on a trip, especially to a destination you've never been to before, you can provide an AI Chatbot (or a specific app like PackPoint) with where you're going, how long you're staying, and a brief list of probable activities and it can generate a packing list for you. Not only can AI help you choose what you'll need to bring, it can even suggest things to pack that you might not have otherwise considered.
Calculate the cost of a DIY project or renovation
When you're renovating your home, the math can get kind of difficult faster than you might think. While there are plenty of calculators online to help you figure out how many tiles, gallons of paint, or deck planks you need, AI can be a lot more accurate and flexible, because you can feed all the specifics into the prompt, including all the weird corners and features of your floor or room -- plus, it can show you its math so you can check it against reality and adjust your prompts if things don't look quite right. It can then also help you estimate costs and create lists of tools and materials you'll need for the job.
Summarizing anything
The age of the quick, pithy podcast or the YouTube video that immediately showed you what you want to know is long gone -- and the age of the four hour podcast or video is here. Even if you watch or listen to something at 2X speed, that's a lot of time to invest. Well, your favorite AI Chatbot can summarize it for you very effectively, so if all you want out of a podcast or video is the information it contain, serve it up to AI and get a clear, bulleted summary in return -- with time stamps included, so you can jump to specific points to listen for yourself.
Handle everyday math
Math is mysterious (to many of us -- and to AI Chatbots), yet it's how the universe works. If you struggle with any math beyond a grade school level, you already know that there are tons of calculators and other tools online to help you do math -- but those only help if you know the calculation you need to do in the first place. For example, I asked ChatGPT the following:
I have 300 books and a bookcase with five shelves that is 30 inches wide and 80 inches tall. Can I fit all the books on in the bookcase?
And it responded with:
Let's assume each shelf is evenly spaced, and we can use all the height available for books.
Estimating Space Occupied by the Books:
Therefore, 300 books would require approximately 300 linear inches of space.
Conclusion:
Since the space required (300 inches) is much greater than the space available (150 inches), you will not be able to fit all 300 books in the bookcase.
As you can see, while AI is famously not always great at doing math, what makes it useful despite that deficiency is the fact that you can ask it to perform calculations based on your description of a problem, telling you what math you need and walking you through the process. This allows you to take AI's work and check it using other available tools, because now you know the right question to ask.
Practice for an interview
Trying for a new job can be a nerve-wracking (and seemingly endless) experience these days. If you actually get to the interview stage, you know you need to practice. While having a real, live person throw questions at you might be the best way to prepare, AI can step in and help you practice for those interviews very effectively. And AI tools have one advantage over your buddy: They won't get tired of going over the same question over and over again.
