Still Not Using AI Tools? 10 Use Cases
We’ve reached a point where ChatGPT and Gemini can do all kinds of things. They help make everyday life and work more efficient, and even tasks that used to be difficult can now be done with ease. So in this post, I’d like to share 10 ways these tools have made my work easier. I’d like to share 10 useful ways to take advantage of AI tools.
(1) AI Translator & Explainer
I’m currently studying English and I often use ChatGPT when I want to look up how to translate something or explore different ways to express a phrase in English. What I find especially helpful about using ChatGPT is that it can suggest similar expressions. Of course, you can translate words without AI, but when it comes to understanding the nuances or finding alternative ways to say something, I think AI is incredibly useful. Tools like ChatGPT or Claude remember the context of the conversation, so from the second time onward, you can just type a word and they’ll still give you a detailed explanation — I find that really convenient.
(2) Overview of the materials
File like PDFs, Word documents, and text files are easy to use with AI, but you can also summarize content by simply providing a link to a website. I find this feature especially useful when reviewing company financial reports. I have the AI summarize the report first, and then I ask follow-up questions about anything I don’t understand or want to explore further. For summarizing, I usually use tools like NotebookLM or ChatGPT.
(3) Browse Products & Research Something
When there’s a sale on an e-commerce site like Amazon, it’s pretty easy to search for good deals within Amazon itself. But if you want to compare prices across other websites as well, it can get time — consuming. That’s where AI-powered search tools come in handy — they can quickly show you how much as item is selling for on different sites, making comparison shopping much easier. This feature is especially useful during big sale events like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, when multiple stores have overlapping deals.
AI-powered search also makes it easier to explore unfamiliar topics or learn about new fields. With AI search, you can quickly get a big-picture understanding of what you’re looking into, and it helps you identify what you already know and what you don’t. Since it’s easier to ask questions about things you don’t understand, AI makes learning new information much more approachable compared to traditional browser searches.
(4) Plan out a schedule
When planning out my morning, afternoon, or even an entire day, it’s much easier to decide on a schedule by talking through with an AI chatbot. Compared to before, I’ve found that using AI makes it easier to adjust plans once they’ve made. For example, if I forget to add something and need to revise the schedule, I used to have to manually adjust the other events too — but now, the AI handles that for me. It might seem like a small thing, but it’s made the process so much more convenient.
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Also, when I have some free time while planning my schedule, I ask the AI something like, “I’d like to do something like _ — any suggestions?” and it usually comes up with some great ideas. You can go with one of the suggestions as-is, or tweak them to suit your own style. In my case, I often like to make a few adjustments and try things my own way.
(5) Brainstorming
AI is also helpful when you’re brainstorming ideas for something you want to do or create. If you already have a somewhat specific idea in mind, you can use AI to dig deeper into it or look at it from a different angle. By adding these new perspectives, you’re more likely to come up with refined or even entirely new ideas.
(6) Create email templates
Email formats are usually pretty standard, so if you tell the AI who the email is for, what it’s about, and how you want it to sound, it can draft the message for you. After that, all you need to do is review the draft, make any necessary edits, and send it — when saves a lot time and effort.
(7) Build a travel itinerary
Planning a trip is so much easier with AI! That said, I highly recommend using Google Maps along with AI when making your travel plans. AI can suggest popular tourist spots in the area, but it’s not always great at showing what’s nearby — especially when it comes to places to eat. You can ask AI for restaurant recommendations, but chances are, those are the same spots everyone else is going to. Going where everyone else goes isn’t always fun, relying solely on AI can feel a bit bland. That’s where Google Maps really shines. It lets you see what’s around, how far things are from each other, and helps you imagine which places you might want to check out.
(8) Create formulas in Excel or Google Sheets
When working with Excel or Google Sheets, formulas and functions are incredibly useful for boosting productivity. They left you do things you normally couldn’t with a basic table — like changing a cell’s background color based on its value or filtering only the rows that meet certain conditions. They’re especially helpful when you want to do more advanced tasks quickly and efficiently. Also, when you need to modify a complex formula written by someone else, having AI explain it to you makes things instantly clearer. Since formulas are usually written in a single line and it’s often hard to see which parentheses go with which parts, AI explanations can really help you understand the structure in no time.
(9) Summarize YouTube videos
We can create summaries of YouTube videos and review the content in text form. To generate a summary, you can simply paste the link to the YouTube video and let the AI create it for you. If you want a more detailed summary, you can copy the transcript of the video and have the AI summarize that instead — this usually results in a more specific and accurate overview.
(10) Proofread and edit writing
The tenth method is reviewing and refining your written content. You can ask the AI to improve documents you’ve created for presentations or reports. It’s also possible to start with a rough draft — even something quickly written — and have the AI turn it into a more polished version, which you can then revise as needed.
Conclusion
AI has made it easier to handle both work and everyday tasks. As more and more people gain access to the same capabilities through AI, the real difference lies in how you use it.
