This month’s Everyday AI article will focus on using AI to draft emails. This example comes from Andrea Taylor, Principal Supervisor of Administrative Services for Advanced Light Source, who manages a variety of projects with multiple stakeholders each day. In an effort to save time while still delivering quality work, Andrea often incorporates AI into her daily tasks.
Andrea’s Challenge
As the key coordinator to an upcoming conference, Andrea was juggling input from multiple stakeholders including scientists with their own vision for the event, different speakers, and the conference venue’s event organizer. One of the major challenges of coordinating such an intricate event is ensuring all the key contributors are on the same page while managing different expectations.
The situation grew more complicated when, after a full day of planning meetings, the scientists added additional new insights and questions overnight. Andrea needed to take all the notes, feedback from multiple sources (e.g. email, in-person and phone conversations), and additional details and transform them into a clear, coherent email for the venue representative. This email needed to bridge the gap between technical input from scientists and the practical considerations of the venue staff.
How Andrea used ChatGPT
Andrea uploaded key points from the scientist’s notes along with particular instructions to highlight what would be essential for an event planner to know to ChatGPT, which consolidated the info into a structured and professional email.
While Andrea didn’t rely on AI to write the final draft, she did use it as a starting place for consolidating multiple inputs, which she then refined. With ChatGPT’s help, she ensured the message was clear, accurate, and aligned with her goals to communicate the necessary info the venue coordinator needed.
“Rather than spend 30 minutes laboring over how to phrase everything, ChatGPT gave me a sanity check by ensuring all disparate info was covered and saved me nearly an hour,” Andrea explained. “Since I had been in the meetings and understood all the details, I could guide the AI’s output to match the team’s vision.”
For Andrea, the AI wasn’t about replacing her role but enhancing her efficiency. The result was an email that communicated effectively and elevated the planning process for everyone involved–all while saving her time.
Andrea’s Top Tips for Using ChatGPT
- Review and Refine: Always review the AI-generated content to ensure it reflects your voice and aligns with the message you want to convey.
- Use AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement: ChatGPT is great for organizing thoughts and saving time, but it doesn’t replace the value of your expertise or understanding.
- Focus on Clarity: Use AI to turn complex or disorganized information into a clear and digestible format that everyone can understand.
By blending her own insights with AI’s capabilities, Andrea successfully tackled the challenge of crafting an email that worked for all stakeholders.
To get started using ChatGPT and other LLMs, visit cborg.lbl.gov and learn about all our AI tools to support science, coding, and operations at go.lbl.gov/ai. You can also continue to check the monthly IT Newsletter for info on the latest AI workshops and webinars offered at the Lab. Andrea is also always happy to discuss the multiple other use cases for which she uses this tool; feel free to reach out to her at altaylor@lbl.gov if you’d like to pick her brain!
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