AI at work: writing, research, spreadsheets and meetings

Use an AI assistant safely for writing, research, spreadsheets, slides and meetings, and measure how many hours it saves you.

You have probably read that AI saves people hours a week. Many people try it, get a bland email or a wrong formula, spend longer fixing it than the task would have taken, and go back to their old habits. Others do save time, but they paste client data into a personal account to do it. This course goes through the jobs that fill a typical office week: email, research, spreadsheets, slides, meetings and learning. For each one you learn to get output that sounds like you, uses sources you can check and stays inside your company's rules. You time your tasks before and after, so you know how much time AI is saving you.

What you'll be able to do

• Audit your working week and pick the tasks where AI is most likely to save you time
• Decide what you may paste into an assistant under your company's policy and the PDPA, and redact everything else
• Draft and edit emails and documents that sound like you, using your own voice guide
• Produce a research brief where every claim is traced to a source you have opened and read
• Write, explain and test spreadsheet formulas, and run a basic data analysis with an assistant
• Turn rough notes into a slide deck with a clear storyline and speaker notes
• Turn a meeting transcript into a checked summary that lists owners and deadlines
• Measure the time you save, including the time spent checking, and report it in a form your manager can use

Syllabus

Module 1: Find the hours worth handing over

Look at how you really spend your week, pick the tasks where AI is likely to save you time, and record a baseline so you can measure the difference later.

• 1.1 Start with your week, not with the tool
• 1.2 Which tasks pay back and which cost you time
• 1.3 Record a baseline before you change anything
• 1.4 Audit your working week

Module 2: Know what you can paste in and what you cannot

You will learn where your text goes when you paste it into an assistant, what counts as confidential or personal data, and how your company's AI policy applies. You will also learn to redact a document so you can still get help with it.

• 2.1 Where your text goes after you press enter
• 2.2 Confidential data, personal data and the PDPA
• 2.3 Read and apply your company's AI policy
• 2.4 Redact a real document so you can still get help

Module 3: Draft emails and documents that sound like you

Build a personal voice guide, draft from your own bullet points instead of from nothing, and use editing passes so what you send reads like you wrote it.

• 3.1 Build a voice guide from your own writing
• 3.2 Draft from your bullet points, not from a blank page
• 3.3 Use AI as an editor, not a ghostwriter
• 3.4 Draft a week of real correspondence

Module 4: Research with sources you can check

Use assistants with search and research features to gather information quickly. Then check every claim against sources you have opened yourself, using Singapore primary sources where they exist.

• 4.1 Search answers, research reports and plain recall
• 4.2 Trace every claim back to a source you opened
• 4.3 Use AI to read sources faster, not to replace them
• 4.4 Write a sourced one-page research brief

Module 5: Get spreadsheet work done faster and right

Use an assistant to write and explain formulas, clean messy data and run analysis. Test every result on a sample before you trust it.

• 5.1 Describe the result and get the formula
• 5.2 Understand and fix a formula someone else wrote
• 5.3 Clean and analyse data with an assistant
• 5.4 Rebuild a slow spreadsheet task

Module 6: Turn notes into slides people follow

Build the storyline first, then turn your notes into slide text and speaker notes. AI design tools can do some of the work, but you decide what the deck says.

• 6.1 Get the storyline right before any slides
• 6.2 Slide text and speaker notes from your notes
• 6.3 Design tools, charts and your company template
• 6.4 Build a deck from a page of notes

Module 7: Get decisions and actions out of every meeting

Record and transcribe meetings within the rules, turn the transcript into a summary of decisions, owners and deadlines, and check that summary before anyone else sees it.

• 7.1 Record and transcribe with permission
• 7.2 From transcript to decisions, owners and deadlines
• 7.3 Check the summary before you send it
• 7.4 Run a meeting with AI notes from start to finish

Module 8: Learn a new topic with AI as your tutor

Use an assistant to explain an unfamiliar topic, question you and quiz you on it, plan your practice, and check what you learn against reliable sources.

• 8.1 Ask it to teach you, not just to tell you
• 8.2 Quiz yourself and space your practice
• 8.3 Check what you learned against a reliable source
• 8.4 Plan and start a two-week learning sprint

Module 9: Prove the time saved and make it stick

Compare your results with your baseline, counting the time you spent checking and fixing. Then report the outcome to your manager and keep the habits that worked.

• 9.1 Count the time honestly, including checking
• 9.2 Report results your manager can act on
• 9.3 Assemble your AI work kit

Frequently asked questions

How long does the course take?

About ten hours across nine modules, including the exercises. Several exercises use your real work over a week or two, so most people finish in four to six weeks.

Can I take this if my company has not approved any AI tools?

Yes. Module 2 shows you how to find out what is allowed, and you can do most exercises with public or redacted material in a personal account. Do not put work data into a tool your company has not approved.

How is this different from Working with AI assistants?

Working with AI assistants: prompting that gets usable output teaches the general skill of briefing an assistant and checking its work, and this course applies that skill to specific jobs and measures the result. If you are new to prompting, take that course first.

Does it cover automating tasks between apps?

No. This course covers work you do yourself with an assistant. Connecting apps so tasks run on their own is taught in Automate your work with AI and no-code tools.

Do I need Excel or PowerPoint?

Any spreadsheet and presentation app will do, including Google Sheets and Slides. The formula lessons point out where Excel and Google Sheets differ.

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