How I Get the Best Out of Generative AI (And Why I Talk to It Like a Colleague)

I still remember sitting in my Year 12 English class, yapping to ChatGPT on my laptop while annotating Station Eleven. I was asking it for quotes, pulling analysis, and seeing how far I could push this weird new tool no one had really heard of yet. My friends beside me would glance over, exclaim, and immediately jump on it too, and let’s just say our hands went up a lot more than usual.

Then, of course, AI blew up. Suddenly, everyone was using it to rewrite the same sentence fifty times, draft emails that sounded a little less passive, or figure out what they could cook with one egg, rice, and the random assortment of sauces in the fridge. And while most people moved on after the novelty wore off, a few of us kept experimenting.

Fast forward to now, and I spend most of my workdays talking to AI like it’s my colleague. I bounce ideas off it, rewrite paragraphs, plan campaigns, and occasionally tell it that its tone is “a little too LinkedIn influencer for my liking.” (It usually apologises and promptly removes its excessive use of em dashes, plus any mention of the words “thrilling” or “synergy.”)

These days, I use Microsoft Copilot for most of this, partly because of the security, but also because it integrates directly across the Microsoft suite. 

The trick isn’t asking what AI can do. It’s learning how to talk to it. I see people use it like Google and honestly… It pains me a little. If you treat it like a search bar, you’ll get search bar answers, generic and shallow. But if you treat it like a creative partner, it starts to surprise you. It thinks with you, it will become a mirror and reflect you. 

Since using generative AI, I’ve learned more than I ever expected to; from dabbling in beginner CSS coding, to figuring out how to explain complex tech concepts without sounding like a robot myself. It even entertains my niche special interests — arguably its most important function (to me, anyway). one minute we’re deep-diving into the Roman Empire, the next we’re unpacking Greek mythology or analysing the symbolism in White Nights. It’s basically the world’s most patient conversation partner, though it’s still not great at sarcasm.

That’s why always remind yourself that this is Generative AI, not Genius AI. It’s an ANI; Artificial Narrow Intelligence, which basically means it’s great within boundaries. It can write, reason, and ideate, but it doesn’t think. It doesn’t feel the pulse of your brand voice or know when a sentence is “too much” only you do.

It’s tempting to rely on it completely, especially when it nails a paragraph or saves you from a creative rut, but that’s where people slip. The power of AI isn’t in letting it do everything for you, it’s in knowing when to step in. The magic happens when human intuition meets machine efficiency.

A great example is this very blog. Unfortunately, AI still can’t be funny without being extremely cringe. But it’s helped me tighten sentences, sharpen phrasing, and stop myself from writing the occasional 50-word marathon sentence that runs out of breath halfway through. It’s my second pair of eyes, not my ghostwriter.

And honestly, the key is to force yourself to use it until you get better at it. Like any tool, it takes practice. This is the future of work and if you don’t learn how to use it, you will get left behind. AI won’t replace you… but people who know how to use it might.

So no, I don’t let it run wild. I fact-check, rephrase, and bring my own perspective to the table. It’s not here to replace me; it’s here to amplify me (pun not entirely unintended).

How to Get the Best Out of Generative AI

If you’re just starting out (or you’ve opened a blank chat window and immediately panicked) here’s what I’ve learned along the way:

1. Talk to it like it’s a colleague, not a search bar.
Give it context, tone, purpose, and tag documents, it’ll mirror your energy. Treat it like a lax intern and you’ll get lax intern work. Treat it like a collaborator and it’ll surprise you.

2. Be specific; painfully specific.
Tell it exactly what you want, from structure to style. “Write this for a corporate audience that secretly hates corporate jargon.” will get you much further than “make this sound better.”

3. Don’t accept the first answer.
Push back, refine, re-ask. The magic happens in the back-and-forth. 

4. Keep your brain switched on.
Fact-check everything. AI is confident, not always correct, you will discover that occasionally it likes to lie for literally no reason at all. You’ve been warned! 

5. Remember: it’s brilliant but it’s not human.
Use it to escalate your thinking, not replace it. The best results come when you bring the curiosity, and it brings the speed.

So yes, I talk to AI like it’s my colleague. It’s quick, reliable, and doesn’t try to book a meeting about something that could’ve been an instant message. Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

If this article made you realise your workplace might need a little more than my commentary, hit Learn More to see how IComm’s Amplify can help your team turn curiosity into capability.