25 AI requests to try at work this week

Most people use AI for a fraction of what it can do. Usually that is not because they lack ideas. It is because a blank message box makes it hard to picture what a good request looks like. So here are 25, grouped by the kind of work they cover. Copy one, change the names and details, and send it.

Each one follows the same pattern: what you want, the background, what done looks like, and what to leave alone. Where it helps, there is a note on what to check before you rely on the result.

Research and comparison

Research is where an agent pays off fastest. Ask for the job the way you would hand it to a small team, not one person.

1. A shortlist with sources

Try saying:

Find six commercial cleaning companies that service our suburb. Give each one to a separate helper, working at the same time. For each, find prices, minimum contract length, insurance and recent reviews, with a link for every figure. If a price is not published, write “not published”, do not estimate. Put it all in one table and save it as a spreadsheet.

Check: open two or three links and make sure the figure is really there.

2. Two opinions on the market

Try saying:

Have a Claude helper, a GPT helper and a Gemini helper research this separately, without seeing each other’s work: what do businesses like ours charge for after-hours IT support, and what is included? Then show me where they agree and where they differ, with sources.

The places they disagree are where a source is old, from another country, or a guess.

3. Options against your must-haves

Try saying:

We need booking software for 12 staff. Must-haves: online payments, text reminders, works on phones, under $200 a month. Compare these three against those must-haves only, show what each costs for us, and tell me what would change your recommendation.

4. One helper per option

Try saying:

Research the three best accounting packages for a 20-person firm. Give each one to its own helper, then compare them in a table with your recommendation.

Writing and editing

5. A tricky no

Try saying:

Draft a reply to the email below. They have been a customer for nine years and pay on time. We cannot discount the price, but we can offer free delivery for the next three orders. Warm, short, no corporate phrases. Draft only, do not send anything.

Check: any promise in the draft that you did not give it.

6. A report from rough notes

Try saying:

Write this month’s operations report from my notes and the attached spreadsheet. Follow the layout of last month’s report, also attached. Every number must come from the spreadsheet. Save it as a Word document.

Check: pick three numbers and find them in the spreadsheet.

7. A proposal from a past winner

Try saying:

Use the attached winning proposal as the model for structure and tone. The new client is a 40-person accounting firm moving offices. Before you write, ask me the questions you need answered.

Check: leftovers from the old proposal, such as the old client’s name, dates or prices.

8. Options to choose from

Try saying:

Give us five subject lines for the spring launch email. Short, no exclamation marks. Then pick the one you think is strongest and say why in one line.

Documents and data

An agent does not get bored on row 400. It can still make mistakes, so ask it to check its own work and keep your originals safe.

9. Reconcile two lists

Try saying:

Match every payment in the bank export to an invoice in the invoice list. Then list what does not match, on both sides, with amounts and dates. Do not change the original files. Save the results as a new spreadsheet, and check your totals a second way before you report.

10. Pull data out of a pile of PDFs

Try saying:

Read every PDF in the Invoices folder. Split them between four helpers working at the same time. Put supplier, invoice number, date, amount and tax in one spreadsheet. Add a column marking any invoice you could not read clearly.

11. Clean a messy list

Try saying:

Clean up the customer list: merge duplicates, put phone numbers in one format, fix capitals. Save it as a new file and keep the original. Then tell me how many rows you started and ended with, and list every merge you made.

Check: two customers with the same name are not always the same customer.

12. Find the clause you half remember

Try saying:

I remember a contract that mentioned a 90-day notice period. Find it and quote the clause.

Meetings and follow-up

The work after a meeting is often more than the meeting. Ask for all of it in one go.

13. Notes to actions

Try saying:

Here are my notes from today’s planning meeting. Give me: the decisions, the actions with owner and due date, and the open questions. Mark any owner or date that is not in my notes as “unclear”. Then draft the follow-up email to everyone who attended. Draft only, do not send.

Asking for “unclear” matters. A guessed due date looks just like a real one.

14. A brief for tomorrow

Try saying:

Summarise what we decided about the office move in my earlier chats and notes, list the open questions, and give me a one-page brief for tomorrow’s client meeting.

15. Every follow-up after a call

Try saying:

From my call notes below: update the customer notes file, draft the email to the customer, and write a three-line update for the operations team. Show me the update before you post it.

16. Prepare for tomorrow

Try saying:

What’s on tomorrow? For each meeting, pull together the emails and files I need to read first.

This one needs your calendar and email connected to the tool you use.

Email and repeat work

These are the best jobs to hand over, because you only have to teach them once.

17. Work an enquiries inbox

Try saying:

Go through the enquiries inbox, archive the spam-like ones, and draft replies to real customers for me to check.

18. Turn a weekly job into a one-liner

Do the job once, correct it until it is right, then:

Try saying:

We have this right now. Write the steps, the format and the checks as instructions for a skill, so next week a one-line request does the whole job.

In Interweave OS, save that as a skill and the agent picks it up by itself whenever a request matches, for you or the whole team.

19. Forty of the same thing

Try saying:

Write a renewal letter for every customer in this spreadsheet, using their name, plan and renewal date. Save each as a Word document, then list any rows with missing details.

Ask for all forty at once, not one per message.

20. A summary that runs itself

Try saying:

Every weekday at 4 pm, summarise what happened in the sales team chat today and post it here.

Interweave OS saves a request that starts with a time as a schedule that runs by itself, as you, with your access.

Decisions and thinking

Agents are good thinking partners. They will argue the other side without getting tired or offended. Your judgement still makes the call.

21. The case against your plan

Try saying:

Here is my plan for a four-day roster. Make the strongest case against it, as someone who wants it to fail would. Then tell me which objections I can answer and which I cannot.

22. Rehearse with a tough audience

Try saying:

Play the finance director of a mid-sized firm reading this proposal. Push back hard on cost and risk, one question at a time. Afterwards, tell me what would have won you over.

23. Think it through first

Try saying:

I need to restructure how we onboard new staff but I am not sure what is wrong with it. Ask me five questions first, then suggest two approaches.

24. A second opinion before a big call

Try saying:

Have a GPT agent weigh these three office locations on its own, without seeing your answer. Then show me where you agree and where you differ, and why.

If the first answer came from GPT, ask for a Claude, Gemini or Grok helper instead. Models from one family tend to share blind spots.

Checking the work

25. Assume there is a mistake

Try saying:

Assume there is at least one mistake in this. Add up the totals a second way, confirm every link opens, and tell me anything you could not verify.

Check in proportion to the stakes. A brainstorm needs a read. A figure in a contract needs its source.

How Interweave OS does it

You can send any of these in Interweave OS. Each chat’s agent can hand parts of a job to helpers in any model family, connect to your files, email and calendars with exactly the access you allow, and save your best requests as skills or schedules. And when you want a request checked, Second opinion has a reviewer from another family read the answer and say what it would change.