AI at Work Quiz: Are You Getting the Most From AI Productivity Tools?

What is the most effective first step when asking an AI to write a professional email on your behalf?

Provide the context — who the recipient is, what the goal is, and what tone is appropriate — before asking for a draft Write the email yourself first, then ask AI to make it longer Ask for the email without context and then copy it directly Use the AI's default style so it doesn't sound AI-generated

Which of these tasks represents the BEST use of human professional judgment rather than AI?

Drafting a meeting follow-up summary Generating three options for a marketing tagline Translating a document to another language Deciding how to handle a sensitive interpersonal conflict on your team based on the history and relationships involved

A law student submits a legal brief that was substantially written by an AI, without disclosure, for a law school assignment. The professor discovers it. What is the most likely consequence?

No consequence — there are no rules about AI in academic settings yet Academic integrity violation — most law schools have explicit AI use policies, and submitting AI work as your own without disclosure violates them The student receives partial credit since the AI wrote it, not the student The brief is automatically rejected for technical reasons

What does SOC 2 certification indicate about an AI tool vendor?

The vendor has undergone an independent security audit verifying their security controls, data availability, processing integrity, and confidentiality The vendor stores data in the US and is subject to US law The vendor's AI models are certified as bias-free The vendor is approved by the US government for handling classified data

You use an AI tool to draft a client proposal email. The AI includes a specific statistic — '73% of companies in your industry report cost savings from this approach.' What should you do before sending?

Remove all statistics since AI cannot know current data Verify the statistic independently — AI tools frequently fabricate specific data points and percentages Send it — AI models only include verified statistics Add a disclaimer that the email was AI-generated

What does 'chain-of-thought prompting' mean?

Instructing the AI to reason through a problem step by step before giving its final answer — which improves accuracy on complex tasks Providing several examples before the main task Sending multiple messages in sequence to build up a long conversation Asking the AI to repeat your question back before answering

A marketing team asks AI to generate 10 example customer personas for their advertising campaign. After reviewing the output, all 10 personas have similar demographic characteristics. What should the team do?

Replace AI with manual persona creation to avoid bias entirely Add a disclaimer to the campaign noting AI was used Accept the default output — AI generates representative samples of actual customer data Explicitly prompt the AI to generate diverse personas across age, gender, background, and geography to ensure more inclusive representation

What is the biggest risk when an AI produces a confident-sounding analysis of your business?

AI analysis is too long — it always produces 10+ pages AI may accidentally leak your business data to competitors AI doesn't know your actual organizational context — it analyzes the concept you described, not the specific realities of your situation The AI may refuse to complete an analysis if the business is in a regulated industry

An employee sends a client email that was AI-drafted and contains incorrect information. Who bears professional responsibility?

The employee — they are responsible for the accuracy and appropriateness of anything they send, regardless of how it was drafted The employer — they allowed AI tool usage at work The AI tool provider — they provide the drafting service No one — errors from AI tools are treated as force majeure events

A sales team writes a different prompt every time they need to generate a follow-up email after a meeting. What is the highest-leverage improvement?

Create a reusable prompt template with clearly marked variables for meeting date, client name, key discussion points, and next steps Only the most senior team members should use AI — it causes quality variance Each salesperson should develop their own unique prompting style Switch to a more powerful AI model

What is the MOST important mitigation when an AI system is used to make decisions that affect people's opportunities (hiring, lending, parole)?

Use the newest, most capable AI model available Maintain meaningful human review and oversight of individual decisions — automated consequential decisions require accountability Add a disclaimer that AI was used in the decision Increase the volume of decisions made by AI to reduce human bias

A product manager wants AI to identify weaknesses in a business case. Which prompting technique is most effective?

Persona assignment — 'Act as a skeptical CFO reviewing this business case. Identify the three weakest financial assumptions.' Ask for a step-by-step summary of the document without specifying the feedback goal Ask the AI to 'improve' the business case without specifying what type of feedback is wanted Tell the AI the business case is strong to encourage positive framing

Which of these professional tasks is LEAST reliably handled by current AI tools?

Summarizing a long email thread Generating a first draft of a project status update Making final strategic judgment calls that require understanding organizational politics and relationships Translating a document into another language

Which AI tool is purpose-built to automatically transcribe and summarize meetings, extracting action items?

Adobe Acrobat AI — designed for PDF document review ChatGPT — by manually typing what was said in the meeting Perplexity AI — which is designed for web research Meeting transcription tools like Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, or Microsoft Copilot in Teams

A manager wants AI assistance woven into their daily Outlook + Word + Teams workflow without adopting a separate application. Which tool fits best?

Claude API — requires developer integration Notion AI — requires migrating content to Notion Perplexity AI — a standalone research tool Microsoft 365 Copilot — AI integrated directly into Outlook, Word, Excel, and Teams

A manager asks AI to 'rewrite this paragraph to sound more empathetic.' The AI produces a warm, caring-sounding response. What is the remaining risk before sending?

The AI doesn't know the actual relationship — the rewritten tone may not match what the recipient expects from this person No risk — tone adjustment is a task AI handles reliably The AI will have removed all the key information from the paragraph Empathy-based language is prohibited in business communications

Which prompting technique best helps a professional use AI to identify blind spots in their own analysis?

Ask AI to summarize the analysis back in its own words Ask AI to list the critical assumptions the analysis relies on, then ask what would happen if those assumptions were wrong Ask AI to score the analysis out of 10 Ask AI to write a better version of the analysis

A manager asks an AI to recommend which of two job candidates to hire. What is the correct role for AI in this decision?

AI can make the recommendation, but a human must type it into the HR system AI can help structure the evaluation criteria and surface considerations, but the hiring decision should be made by the human hiring manager AI is too risky to use in any hiring process AI can make the final hiring decision based on the resume data provided

An employee's organization has not published any formal AI use policy. What is the safest assumption about AI use at work?

Treat sensitive client data, confidential business information, and employee data with the same protection you'd apply to any third-party tool — assume AI APIs are external services No policy means AI cannot be used at work under any circumstances No policy means the employee is personally liable for any AI-related incidents No policy means all AI tools are approved for any use

A financial analyst uses an AI tool to draft a client investment report. The report contains an inaccurate statement. The analyst submits it without review. Who bears professional responsibility?

No one — inaccuracies in AI-generated content are treated as errors outside human control The client — they requested the report The AI tool provider — they provided the drafting capability The analyst — they are accountable for work they submit, regardless of how it was generated