AI for Document Work
Learning Outcomes
- Summarise long reports into the points that actually matter
- Draft first versions of memos, emails, and proposals in minutes, not hours
- Edit AI text so it sounds like you, not a generic robot
- Reformat content between styles, lengths, and audiences on demand
- Run a quality check that catches errors before anything leaves your desk
Lesson Plan
| Segment | Duration | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Intro | 3 min | Why documents are where AI saves the most time |
| Summarising | 7 min | Long documents into usable summaries |
| Drafting | 7 min | First drafts that don't sound generic |
| Keeping your voice | 6 min | Editing AI text so it sounds like you |
| Edit & reformat | 7 min | Changing length, tone, structure, and format |
| Confidentiality | 5 min | Working safely with sensitive documents |
| Quality check | 3 min | A repeatable review workflow |
| Wrap-up | 2 min | Key takeaways and what's next |
Before You Begin
Pre-work:
- Complete Lesson 3: Your First AI Conversation so you're comfortable structuring a request
- Pick a real document to practise with — a report to summarise, or an email to draft
- Skim the AI Prompting Rules supplemental for the clarity-and-context patterns we lean on
Shopping List:
- Any AI chat tool open in your browser (Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini — free tier is fine)
- One document you're happy to experiment with (nothing confidential for your first try)
- A blank document alongside it for your polished results
The biggest time-saver in document work is summarisation — turning a 20-page report into the three things you need to know. The trick is telling the AI who it's for and what it should help you decide. Paste the document into the chat, then ask:
> Summarise this report in five bullet points an executive can act on. Focus on decisions and risks, not background. Keep each bullet under 20 words.
Notice the constraints: who it's for, what to focus on, and a length limit. Vague requests get vague summaries; specific ones get useful summaries. Match the prompt to the purpose:
| You need to... | Ask for... |
|---|---|
| Brief your boss | "A 3-sentence summary plus the one decision needed" |
| Prep for a meeting | "The key points organised by agenda topic" |
| Pull out actions | "Every action item, with owner and deadline" |
Here's the next section, add to the summary. It keeps building one running summary.What did you leave out that I might care about? first.The blank page is where most of us lose time. AI is brilliant at producing a first draft you can react to, and reacting is far easier than starting. The secret is the raw material: don't ask it to invent facts, supply the facts and ask it to shape them.
> Draft a status update email to my project sponsor. Here are the facts:
> - We're two weeks behind on the data migration
> - The cause was a vendor delay, now resolved
> - We can still hit the final go-live date
> - I need them to approve one extra contractor
> Tone: calm and confident, not defensive. Keep it under 150 words.
Ask "write a status email" with nothing else and you get generic filler full of placeholder brackets. Supply facts, audience, tone, and length and you get a near-final draft. The same works for memos, proposals, and briefs.
The most common complaint about AI writing is that it all sounds the same — formal, bland, full of phrases nobody says out loud. You can fix this, and you should: your name is on it.
Show it how you write. Paste two or three things you've written, then ask it to match them:
> Here are three emails I've written. Notice my style: short sentences, no jargon, a bit of warmth. Now rewrite this draft to sound like me.
Or describe your voice, then strip the tells. No samples handy? Name the qualities and ban the giveaways:
> Rewrite this in plain English with shorter sentences and no corporate clichés. Remove filler like "delve into" and "leverage". Say it the way I'd say it to a colleague at lunch.
Editing is where AI quietly shines. Most of us spot problems more easily than we fix them — the AI flips that. Give it the text, say what to improve, and protect what stays:
> Cut this to half the length without losing any facts, keep my key points, and make the tone a little warmer. Then proofread for spelling and grammar.
Other useful asks: "explain this so a new starter understands it", "make this suitable for a board paper", or "make the opening line grab attention".
Make it shorter but don't drop the budget figures protects what matters.Reformatting is the same skill pointed at structure. One source rarely serves one purpose:
> Take this two-page proposal and give me three versions: a one-line summary for a chat message, a short paragraph for an email, and five bullet points for a slide.
It also orders a wall of text and shifts between audiences:
> Reorganise this into clear sections with headings, most important first. Then rewrite for a non-technical stakeholder, replacing jargon with plain language.
Give me this as a table I can copy into Excel. It will format so it pastes cleanly instead of as one messy block.This is the step people skip, and the one that can cost a job. Before you paste anything, ask: would I be comfortable if this appeared outside my organisation? A traffic-light rule:
| Document type | Safe to paste? |
|---|---|
| Public (published reports, marketing copy) | Yes |
| Internal, non-sensitive (a draft agenda, general notes) | Usually — check your policy |
| Personal data (names, contacts, HR records) | No — remove or anonymise first |
| Confidential (contracts, financials, legal) | No — approved enterprise tool only |
When you must work with a sensitive document, redact before you paste. Replace real names and numbers with placeholders, do the work, then swap the real details back in.
> I'll use placeholders. Draft a contract summary where "Party A" and "Party B" are the two companies and "the Fee" is the payment amount. I'll fill in the real values myself.
AI is fast, confident, and sometimes wrong. The most important habit in this lesson is checking output before you act on it. Run every document through four checks:
| # | Check | How |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Facts | Did it invent a number, name, or date, or state something merely plausible? Check the source. |
| 2 | Completeness | Did it drop anything important? Ask what's missing. |
| 3 | Tone | Sound like you and suit the audience? |
| 4 | Confidentiality | Anything here that shouldn't be shared? |
You can ask the AI to help review — but treat it as a second opinion, not the final word:
> Before I send this, check it against the source document I gave you. Flag anything not supported by the source or that you're unsure about.
The golden rule: you are the editor, the AI is the assistant. Your name goes on it, so the final read is yours.
Facts? Tone? Anything confidential? on a sticky note catches most problems before they reach someone.Questions & Answers
Key Takeaways
- Constraints make summaries useful — say who it's for, what to focus on, and how long, or you'll get bland filler.
- Drafting beats blank pages — hand over facts, audience, tone, and length, then refine what you get back.
- Voice is directed, not given — show samples, name your style, and strip the tell-tale filler.
- Editing is AI's superpower — say what to change and what to protect; it tightens and reformats in seconds.
- Confidentiality comes first — never paste sensitive material into anything but an approved tool; redact if unsure.
- You are the editor — check facts, completeness, tone, and confidentiality before anything is shared.
Next Steps: Lesson 5: AI for Data & Analysis