How I Use AI in Real Work (Without the Hype)

Everyone talks about AI like it's magic. It's not. It's a tool – and like any tool, it's only useful if you use it to solve real problems.

Where AI actually helps me

Here are a few places where I use AI regularly:

1. Analysing call notes at scale

Admissions teams make hundreds of calls every day. Reading through notes manually is impossible. So I use simple AI models to categorise outcomes, extract key objections, and flag urgent follow-ups.

2. Cleaning messy data

CRMs are full of duplicates, typos, and inconsistent formats. AI-powered fuzzy matching helps me clean data faster than any manual process.

3. Automating routine responses

For common queries – status updates, FAQs, simple follow-ups – AI can draft responses that a human reviews and sends. This saves counsellors hours every week.

What I don't use AI for

I don't use AI for strategy. I don't use it for final decisions. And I don't trust it with anything where a mistake would be costly or embarrassing.

AI is a copilot, not a pilot. Keep it that way.