There are lots of tasks that would normally be left undone due to prioritizing other tasks and a lack of capacity. For a corporate example, take transcribing a meeting — an intensive task that requires a skilled typist present in every meeting. For a more causal example, take adding alt text and descriptions to photos on social networks, something many users neglect.

This is the kind of task that can add value (especially the accessibility of adding description to photos) and are easier to find people to accept this change. And yet, is this actually a good use of AI?

Take transcribing a meeting — most of us don’t do this as we don’t need a transcription most of the time. There are probably some exceptions where making sure you can see exactly who said what help, but for 99% of the rest of the time, that could be a significant energy expense for negligible benefit.

I’m thinking about all this as one of my tasks this year is to find some ways to use AI in our workplace that are meaningful and actually useful. A mental model I’ve adopted is to focus on the areas that aren’t where I drive core value as these are the parts of work I like the least (and are usually less skilled in). By focusing on these areas, I hope that I can make more time to do the work that really matters.

And these kind of tasks that would normally be neglected feel like the prime opportunities.