What you can actually do with AI
A practical capability track for the same staff. Less about research findings, more about what is possible and how to do it responsibly. Each section carries a one-line guardrail that points back to Part 1.
Everyday work
- 1
Everyday assists that save time
The most useful AI for agency work is ordinary and low-stakes. It helps you write and reshape text faster so you spend more time with clients. Everything here works from text you paste, with client identifiers removed first.
- 2
Research and deep research
AI can speed up looking things up. It runs from a quick answer to a multi-step deep research task that reads many sources and returns a written report with citations. Both are a first draft you verify before anyone acts on it.
- 3
Working across languages day to day
AI can help you move between languages for everyday, low-risk tasks, with a qualified person always finishing the job. Use it to understand and to draft, and let a human own anything that matters.
- 4
Meetings, notes, and reporting
Turning rough notes and long recordings into clean writing is where AI saves the most everyday time. It drafts the structure and you own every fact.
Level up your use
- 5
Build a reusable prompt library
The prompts that work are worth keeping. A shared library means nobody starts from a blank box and a good prompt written once spreads across the whole team.
- 6
Build a custom assistant
Instead of retyping the same instructions every time, you can save a configured assistant for a task you do again and again. It remembers how you want the work done, so you never start from a blank box.
- 7
Agentic AI in plain words
Newer tools do more than answer. They take multi-step actions on your behalf. That power is useful and it also raises the stakes.
Manage it well
- 8
Version control and keeping track of changes
When several people edit the same file, you need a way to see what changed and to undo a mistake.
- 9
Choosing a tool responsibly
Before your team adopts an AI tool, run it through a short checklist and get clear answers before any client information goes near it.
Writing and plain language
- Paste a dense policy paragraph, with no client details, and ask for a plain-language version at a sixth-grade reading level.
- Draft a routine appointment-reminder message, then edit it yourself before sending.
- Rewrite a formal denial notice as a short explanation a client can understand, then check every date and amount.
- Turn a page of policy into a one-page client handout with a short list of next steps.
- Draft a referral or cover letter from a few bullet points about the situation, with no names.
- Ask for a short intake question bank for a first meeting on a topic you name.
- Draft a friendly voicemail script and a follow-up text for a missed appointment.
- Set up a saved assistant that rewrites anything you paste at a sixth-grade reading level, loaded with your agency's style guide.
Working across languages
- Paste a flyer written in another language and ask for the gist in English so you know what it covers.
Notes, meetings, and reporting
- Turn your rough notes from a call into a clean, ordered checklist.
- Turn your rough session notes into a structured case note, then correct anything it got wrong.
- Summarize a team meeting into decisions and action items with an owner for each.
- Draft an outcome narrative for a grant report from a short list of numbers and wins.
- Recover an earlier version of a shared document to see how version history works.
- Set up a saved assistant that turns intake notes into the same summary format every time.
Finding and checking information
- Summarize a long guidance document into the key points before a meeting.
- Set up a saved resource-finder primed with your local referral list, then verify each name before you share it.
- Ask a research mode to list the documents a benefit application requires in your state, with an official source for each, then confirm them.
- Ask a research mode to compare eligibility rules across two programs and cite an official source for each rule.
- Ask whether a form or rule you use has changed and when, with a link to the official source for each change.
- Ask for a first-draft list of local organizations that offer a service you name, then check each one against its official page.
- Ask a deep research mode for prior reports and studies on a topic to seed a grant narrative, then open and read each source.