Five Practical AI Habits for Executives’ Own Work
Over the past three weeks, we’ve supported more than 10 executives across public and private sectors as they explore AI. The broader aim is responsible, secure adoption across their organizations, but engagements often begin with one-to-one conversations about how leaders can use AI in their day-to-day work. A few practical themes have come up in those conversations.
This article focuses on what executives can try in their own workday. It is not a guide to organization-wide adoption, culture change, or workforce enablement; those are important, separate parts of the work. The five points below are practical observations for leaders exploring AI in their own roles, not a prescription.
A personal-use cheat sheet
1. Talk it through, don’t just type
When you type a prompt, it can be tempting to edit it down to a short request. In doing so, you may leave out the background that explains what you are trying to accomplish. Speaking naturally can make it easier to describe the situation, what you have already considered, what matters, and what you want the response to help you do. It can feel less like composing a perfect prompt and more like explaining a task to a colleague.
Microsoft 365 Copilot supports voice conversations that can be redirected and continued with follow-up questions. Microsoft also advises reviewing transcribed or generated content, since speech may be misinterpreted and AI responses can contain errors [2]. Voice is a useful option to try when it fits the task and setting; it is not the right choice in every situation.
2. Lead with the goal, then share the context
A helpful starting point is to say what you want to accomplish, then explain the background, priorities, constraints, and source material that could shape a good answer. Microsoft describes four useful prompt elements: goal, context, expectations, and source [1]. You do not have to write a long prompt every time, but it is worth including the details that could change the answer.
This matters when working with Copilot and documents. Access to work information is not the same as knowing which document you want to guide this particular task. If a policy, project brief, spreadsheet, or email thread should be central, name or reference it. Microsoft 365 Copilot offers ways to reference specific files and other work content in chat, depending on the account and organizational settings [3]. In practice, a clearer statement of the goal and the material to prioritize can make the exchange more useful.
3. Bring AI into the process
It can be tempting to use AI for one discrete request, take the answer, and close the window. Another approach is to keep it alongside the work as it develops. You might ask it to help organize your notes, suggest questions to test an idea, shape an outline, draft a section, compare two options, and then revise the draft after you have reviewed it.
You remain responsible for the purpose, judgement, and decisions. AI can contribute at different points, but it does not remove the need to understand the work or check what comes back. If a response misses the mark, a follow-up can explain what is missing or change the direction. Microsoft’s prompting guidance also describes the interaction as an iterative conversation [1].
4. Bring it into everyday work
Using AI regularly on appropriate tasks can help you notice where it may be useful. A meeting preparation task, a first outline, or a routine piece of analysis can be a manageable place to try it. The aim is not to send every task to AI. It is to get enough hands-on experience to recognize what it can help with, what needs closer review, and what is better done another way.
A simple learning loop can make each use more valuable: try it, review the output, correct what needs correcting, and note what context or direction might improve the next attempt. With repeated use, you can build a more practical sense of where AI fits in your work. That judgement develops through using the tools on tasks you understand.
5. Set up your desktop for chat-based work
You may have learned to work with one main application filling the screen. With AI conversations, Teams, and working documents open at the same time, that pattern can mean a lot of minimizing, restoring, and finding the right window again. It may be worth arranging your desktop around the task rather than around one application.
For a focused work session, one possible layout is Teams in a narrow area on the left, Copilot on the right, and the documents or other task windows in the middle. The exact arrangement depends on the work and the screen. Try a layout that keeps the things you need visible, then adjust it to suit your own habits. The useful idea is simply to make the workspace fit the way you are working now.
A note on scope
These five points are about an executive’s own use of AI. They are not a staff-adoption plan, and they do not replace the separate work of culture change, workforce enablement, workflow redesign, or one-to-one support for employees. Those efforts need their own attention. The starting point here is more modest: executives can explore how AI fits into their own work, learn what helps, and bring that experience to broader leadership conversations.
If one of these ideas sounds useful, try it on a task already on your calendar and see what changes. That is the kind of practical learning that has come up in recent executive conversations.
Sources
- Microsoft Support, “Get started writing prompts in Microsoft 365 Copilot” — https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/get-started-writing-prompts-in-microsoft-365-copilot
- Microsoft Support, “Use your voice to chat with Microsoft 365 Copilot” — https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/use-your-voice-to-chat-with-microsoft-365-copilot
- Microsoft Support, “Refer to specific files and more in Microsoft Copilot” — https://support.microsoft.com/en-US/Microsoft-365-Copilot/refer-to-specific-files-and-more-in-microsoft-365-copilot