Artificial intelligence is showing up in workplaces in ways that workers say help them move faster and handle more complex tasks—from classrooms and marketing teams to corporate research and university administration. In reporting published by the Associated Press, employees described using AI tools to summarize technical discussions, grade assignments, prepare for meetings and draft communications, while emphasizing that the outputs still need verification because the tools can make mistakes.
Teachers and education staff described some of the most direct changes. Kyle Weimar, an elementary school teacher for Charter Schools USA who serves as coordinator of a Florida school’s multi-tiered support system, said he uploads test scores, report cards and health information into his district’s AI tool before meetings. He also described using AI for grading: he said he can upload 100 papers to an AI agent, add a scoring guide, and have the agent grade the work and give students instant feedback in 30 minutes, compared with what he said would have taken him a week before.
In other parts of education, workers said AI can help them interpret material they may not otherwise grasp. Kristin Moore, a technical product manager at PERQ, a digital marketing platform for property management companies, described using Claude when colleagues discuss technical topics in ways she said she does not understand. She said she uploads recorded conversations to Claude and asks for summaries that she can then use to determine follow-up actions, adding that the tool “picks up on all of that terminology that I don’t understand, and it can simplify it into something that I can consume,” according to Moore. Moore also said she asks the AI tool to read through emails, support tickets, recorded meetings and conversations to determine what clients want the company to build.
Marketing and recruiting workers described using AI for analysis and targeted research. Ashley Smith, head of marketing at HireQuest, said she used Claude to build a dashboard analyzing website traffic data and social media trends, which she said reports what followers react to or ignore. She said the information helps inform franchisees about how to win more business, and she described using AI in a separate research process tied to sales outreach: she said her sales team photographed companies they wanted to pursue at a large manufacturing trade show, then she uploaded the images to an AI platform that produced a list of company names and, based on press releases and stock reports, “insights on what their staffing needs might be over the next 18 to 24 months,” Smith said.
Smith said the time savings from delegating that research to AI allowed her to spend more time on one-on-one work with franchisees. She said in the AP report that “AI has not replaced anything. It’s only expanded what we’re able to offer to our franchisees,” adding that it enables work she said the company could not deliver even “as short as two years ago.”
Other examples showed AI being used in product and content work. A design leader at Georgia Pacific, the pulp and paper company that makes Dixie cups and Quilted Northern toilet paper, described using AI to generate quick visuals during brand work. Andrew Markle, who said he uses AI for quick depictions while modernizing the Brawny paper towel brand, said his team asked AI to show what the Brawny man on packaging would look like with different beard lengths, and he described faster review of ideas. Markle said in the AP report, “It’s not replacing the creative eye of what’s good and what’s appropriate for our business,” and he said the company would still work with an ad agency illustrator for the final vision.
In learning support, the AP report included an example from special education. Kenneth Lynch, a special education coach in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said he uses AI to develop quizzes as learning materials, including by uploading a book of mechanical instructions to an AI tool that generated quizzes for each chapter for a student interested in automotive work. Lynch also said he is more reluctant to trust AI when it comes to guidance on psychological conditions, saying that when he tries to connect comorbid diagnoses, the tool “really struggles with understanding how those fit together.”
University leaders described using AI to prepare for administrative tasks and communications. Ravi Pendse, University of Michigan chief information officer, said he has used AI to prepare for meetings by asking what questions he might be asked. Pendse also said he views the approach as a way to be more efficient and free up time, telling AP that it “has made me a lot more efficient,” and that it gives him more time to focus on “my own mental health and wellness.” In the report, Pendse also urged responsible use, saying “We all should be thinking about how we ensure that AI does not erode our critical thinking skills, especially those of our children,” and he added that, as he said people learned in the past, “We wrote bad papers, and we got better.”
The AP reporting also described a role for AI in communication tone and customer-focused planning. Bob Jones, the university’s assistant vice president of emerging technology and support services, said he uses AI to help make emails succinct for the intended audience and to check the tone on sensitive topics. Jones told AP he wants his communication to be neutral and thoughtful, adding that “AI is really good at that” when assessing how he is presenting himself.
Other workplace examples included using AI to create marketing materials and model customer needs. Natalie Blythe, marketing director at SumnerOne, which delivers printers, copiers and IT services, said she uses her AI tool to help create email campaigns, social media posts and slide decks and to help understand ideal customers. For example, she said she asked chatGPT to create a probable demographic profile of an admissions director at a university, then asked it to predict the director’s top five problems and identify ways the company’s products could help solve them. Blythe said that when AI first became widely available, she was alarmed, telling AP, “When it first started up, I was in the camp of, ‘Oh my God, this is the end for us,’” but she said she responded by learning how to use the tools.
Across the examples, workers described a balance between speed and caution. The AP report said some employers and employees are concerned that widespread AI use could erode critical thinking skills—especially among children—and that AI-assisted work needs careful checking because the tools have been known to hallucinate and make mistakes.