AI tools save the most time on routine work that you can check quickly, such as email, first drafts, and summaries. They save far less when you hand them a judgment call and accept the answer without review.

The research supports both halves of that statement. In an experiment published in Science, Shakked Noy and Whitney Zhang found that professionals using ChatGPT finished mid-level writing tasks 40% faster, and their work was rated 18% higher. In a study of 758 Boston Consulting Group consultants, Fabrizio Dell'Acqua and colleagues found that AI sped up work on suitable tasks. On a task beyond its abilities, consultants using it were 19 percentage points less likely to reach the correct answer.

The goal, then, is to give AI the right jobs. These 10 uses are a good place to start.

1. Clear your inbox faster

Person managing a busy email inbox on a laptop
Summaries and draft replies can reduce the time you spend on email.

Email has some of the strongest real-world evidence. In a six-month field experiment across 66 firms, Eleanor Wiske Dillon, Sonia Jaffe, Nicole Immorlica, and Christopher Stanton studied 7,137 workers. Those given Microsoft 365 Copilot spent 1.3 fewer hours a week on email on average, and regular users spent 3.6 fewer hours.

Try it: Ask AI to summarize a long thread, list what needs your reply, and draft a response. Then edit the draft so it sounds like you.

2. Write first drafts of routine documents

A blank page often takes longer than the editing that follows. Use AI to produce a rough version of a memo, proposal outline, or job description. This is the kind of writing that Noy and Zhang tested.

Try it: Give the tool your audience, purpose, key points, and preferred length. The more context you supply, the less you will need to rewrite.

3. Turn meetings into notes and action items

AI can record decisions, owners, and deadlines so that you can focus on the discussion. Keep your expectations realistic, though. The Copilot experiment found no significant drop in meeting time, even though meetings were where workers used the tool most often.

Try it: After each meeting, ask for three lists: decisions made, tasks with owners, and open questions. Check them against your own memory before you share them.

4. Summarize long documents

Reports, contracts, and policy updates can take an hour to read before you know whether they matter to you. A summary helps you decide where to focus.

Try it: Ask a specific question, such as "What changes for our finance team?" Ask for the section each point came from, then read those sections yourself.

5. Generate ideas and options

Brainstorming is a strong fit. The BCG study's successful task involved developing a new product, including market segments and launch plans. Consultants using GPT-4 completed 12.2% more of the work and finished 25.1% faster.

Try it: Ask for 15 options, then ask the tool to argue against your favorite three. You make the final choice.

6. Speed up spreadsheet work

AI can write formulas, explain inherited ones, and suggest ways to clean messy data. This can replace a long search through help forums.

Try it: Describe your columns and the result you want. Test the formula on a few rows where you already know the answer before you apply it to the whole sheet.

7. Automate small coding tasks

You can use AI to write short scripts that rename files, reformat data, or combine reports. In a controlled experiment, Sida Peng, Eirini Kalliamvakou, Peter Cihon, and Mert Demirer found that developers using GitHub Copilot finished a coding task 55.8% faster. That was one self-contained task, so results on large, established codebases may differ.

Try it: Start with a low-risk job, run the script on a copy of your files, and ask the tool to explain each step.

8. Build a library of reusable prompts

Rewriting the same instructions wastes much of the time AI could save. Once a prompt works, keep it.

Try it: Save your best prompts in a shared document, with blanks for details such as client, audience, and deadline. Weekly reports and customer replies are good first candidates.

9. Get a head start on research

AI can explain an unfamiliar topic, define key terms, and suggest what to look up next. Treat its answer as a starting point, because these tools can state errors with confidence.

Try it: Ask for sources, open each one, and confirm that it says what the tool claims. Do this before any fact reaches a client or manager.

10. Connect repetitive steps into a workflow

Once a single task works well, look at the steps around it. For example, a form submission could trigger an AI summary, which is then sent to the right person for review.

Try it: Map one process that you repeat every week and automate only its most tedious step. Keep a person responsible for approving anything that leaves your team.

Make sure the time you save is real

Employee reviewing a document for accuracy at a desk
Always check AI output before you share it.

AI only saves time if its mistakes don't create more work later. Researchers from BetterUp Labs and Stanford, writing in Harvard Business Review, use the term "workslop" for AI output that looks polished but doesn't move the task forward. Other people then have to fix it, and the researchers estimate each incident costs nearly two hours.

The risk is common. In a 47-country survey led by Nicole Gillespie and Steve Lockey, 66% of employees who use AI said they had relied on its output without checking its accuracy, and 56% said AI had led to mistakes in their work. Almost half admitted to using it against company policy, including uploading sensitive information to public tools.

Three habits protect you from most of these problems:

  • Review everything you send. If you can't explain or defend the output, don't use it.

  • Protect sensitive data. Follow your employer's AI policy, and keep confidential information out of unapproved tools.

  • Measure the result. Time a repeated task with and without AI for two weeks, and include your editing time.

Start with one task

The easiest way to begin is to choose the task you most dislike from this list and use AI for it this week. If it saves time after you've checked the output, make it a habit and move on to the next one. In Microsoft's 2026 Work Trend Index survey of 20,000 AI users, 66% said AI gave them more time for high-value work. Spending your saved time that way is the real benefit.

References

  • Dell'Acqua, F., McFowland III, E., Mollick, E., Lifshitz-Assaf, H., Kellogg, K., Rajendran, S., Krayer, L., Candelon, F., and Lakhani, K. Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier. Working paper first posted in 2023.

  • Dillon, E. W., Jaffe, S., Immorlica, N., and Stanton, C. Shifting Work Patterns with Generative AI. arXiv, version 3, July 2025.

  • Gillespie, N., and Lockey, S. Trust, attitudes and use of Artificial Intelligence: A global study 2025. University of Melbourne and KPMG.

  • Microsoft. Work Trend Index. Annual report, May 2026.

  • Niederhoffer, K., Rosen Kellerman, G., Lee, A., Liebscher, A., Rapuano, K., and Hancock, J. T. AI-Generated "Workslop" Is Destroying Productivity. Harvard Business Review, September 2025.

  • Noy, S., and Zhang, W. Experimental evidence on the productivity effects of generative artificial intelligence. Science, 381(6654), 187-192, 2023.

  • Peng, S., Kalliamvakou, E., Cihon, P., and Demirer, M. The Impact of AI on Developer Productivity: Evidence from GitHub Copilot. arXiv, 2023.