AI in 2024: Practical Applications and Tips
If you’re here, it’s probably because you’re either using AI or eager to integrate it into your daily routine. Good news: you’re in the right place.
The buzz around AI tools like Sora, GPT-2, Claude Team Plan, and ChatGPT’s Memory is deafening. Tutorials are everywhere, guiding you on how to use these tools. But here’s the catch: no one breaks down the methodology. Why should you use AI? When is the right time? And most importantly, how do you use it effectively?
Let’s dive in.
Quick Note: While I’ll focus on ChatGPT, the principles apply across the board — whether you’re using Claude, Gemini, Mistral, or any other large language model (LLM).
Why Use AI?
AI is synonymous with enhanced productivity and creativity — for a good reason. More and more professionals are jumping on the AI bandwagon, and if you haven’t yet, now’s the time. You’ve likely heard, “AI won’t replace you, but someone using AI will.”
You might not know that even AI users often need to use it more effectively. That’s where your opportunity lies.
Take content creation, for instance. You might ask ChatGPT, “Write me an article giving five good reasons to start writing on Medium.” ChatGPT-4 will churn out something decent, but it’ll have two major flaws:
- Generic Arguments: The content may read like countless other articles online, offering little value to your readers. Remember, when you share content, your goal should be to add value.
- Lack of Authenticity: The ease of AI-generated content means anyone can produce an article in minutes. To stand out, your work needs a personal touch. This advice has always been relevant, but it’s crucial in the AI era 2024 (and beyond).
The key to success with AI lies in changing your perspective and understanding how it works.
Without delving into the technicalities of deep learning and algorithms, think of AI as a brilliant, freshly graduated intern. They’re smart, but they need guidance to be effective.
So, why use AI? Because you don’t want to miss out on a tool that can handle tasks for you — especially when you’ve trained it well.
When to Use AI?
This one’s easy: AI is most helpful in two scenarios — when you want to automate or save time on daily tasks and when tackling something new.
For daily tasks, AI can handle things like drafting emails or generating ideas, potentially replacing 75% of your brainstorming meetings — think of the hours saved each week! With tools like Make, you can even automate complex tasks, like fetching information from the internet or social media and creating content without lifting a finger (not to mention the amazing things AI can do for coding).
When you’re venturing into new territory, AI can help you learn or achieve things in a fraction of the time it used to take. Take Midjourney and DALL-E, for example — they’ve made it possible for anyone to become a graphic designer in moments.
Case in point: This article was initially written in French. I used ChatGPT to translate it, saving hours I would have spent doing it manually. With a well-optimized prompt, ChatGPT preserves my writing style (without taking creative liberties), making the process seamless.
Another example: When I started my business, I needed a financial plan — a daunting task since finance isn’t my forte. I uploaded my company’s outline to ChatGPT, which guided me through structuring the plan. After a few iterations and extra research, I had a solid financial document ready to support my project’s next phase.
How to Use It?
Every request you make, and every prompt you write should have your unique touch. Look at LinkedIn’s AI experts — love or hate them; their methodology is solid. They’ve created hundreds of posts with ChatGPT that don’t sound robotic.
Their secret? Before generating content, they feed ChatGPT a detailed persona of their typical client, a PDF about their business, personal information, a post structure (like a hook, body, and CTA), and a copywriting framework.
It’s a bit of work upfront, but the payoff is enormous: a well-crafted prompt might take an hour or two to create, but it can generate hundreds of posts — leading to countless prospects and substantial revenue.
This is just one example, but the key takeaway is this: to excel with AI, you need to train it on your skills and expertise.
What you’ve just read are my guidelines for using AI. These methods will evolve as new models emerge (I’m betting ChatGPT-5 will be revolutionary). But for now, they help me save twice as much time on everything I do. I hope you find something here to apply to your daily life.
Thanks for reading!
