How to Use AI for Enhanced Productivity and Efficiency

Our AI usage survey shows that 88% of people use AI tools at work. However, only 12% actually use AI features built into productivity tools.

Why? Because these standalone AI tools lack the context to help you do your work.

In simple terms:
❗️They are isolated from the workflows and data that define daily tasks
❗️This disconnect results in fragmented experiences and limited practical value

Brain, ’s AI assistant, is designed to tackle these all-to-familiar situations. It takes care of the busy work so you can focus on decisions instead of tiny details. 

Need a project brief based on the discussions from that meeting last week? Done in seconds. Messy meeting notes? Organized without effort. Are tasks piling up? Prioritized instantly. All without having to open up another tab and explain your work all over again!

Want to learn how to use AI to make your workday feel like a win rather than a slog? This blog post has you covered. 

What is AI?

AI, also known as Brain, is your built-in productivity assistant, designed to make work faster and easier—without the hassle of standalone AI tools. Since it’s fully integrated into , it understands your team’s tasks, documents, and workflows, giving you smarter suggestions in real time.

With its automated summaries and workflow automation, you’ll spend less time on busy work and more time on what actually matters. In short, AI adapts to the way you work. Whether you’re drafting marketing content, brainstorming ideas, or summarizing complex projects, it provides tailored insights to keep you moving.

also brings you Brain MAX, the next-generation AI-powered desktop companion designed to help you work smarter, not harder. As part of ’s suite of AI features, Brain Max brings advanced search, automation, and voice-to-action capabilities right to your fingertips—making it a must-have for anyone looking to boost productivity and efficiency.

Key Features of AI

AI powers every aspect of , from your Custom Fields to automation. But if we have to pick three top capabilities, here is what we recommend:

1. AI Writing Assistant 

Stuck on a draft? Brain helps you write, edit, and translate different types of content, such as meeting notes, emails, or blog posts. It can also: 

• Fix spelling and grammar, adjust tone, and generate ideas when you’re out of them
• Summarize long documents instantly
• Format content to keep it clear and structured
• Create tables for structured data 
• Generate reusable AI templates to maintain consistency across projects

2. AI Knowledge Manager 

Brain is like a digital memory bank. It quickly scans your workspace and retrieves the right information, such as project details, meeting notes, or client requests. 

Let’s say you’re in a meeting: 

• Ask Brain to retrieve key decisions and relevant data from past discussions without switching tabs
• When a client asks for an update, you can ask Brain to fetch the latest project status and key milestones quickly 
• Use Brain to summarize complex documents automatically

3. AI Project Manager 

Would you rather have a personal project manager who keeps your projects moving without manual effort? ’s AI Project Manager revolutionizes productivity by automating project management tasks and simplifying workflows. From generating standups, task updates, and subtasks to creating detailed project plans and tracking progress, it ensures nothing falls through the cracks.

It can help you with:

• Task assignment: Leverage the AI assign feature to suggest and assign subtasks
• Task prioritization: Use AI Prioritize to organize and manage tasks effectively based on the priority levels of your tasks or to generate insights for better decision-making
• Timeline predictions: Assist in creating detailed project plans and timelines using prompts and historical data 

How to Use AI? 

Ready to make your workday productive? Here’s how ’s AI assistant helps: 

1. Launch from anywhere in  

Brain is integrated throughout the platform. This means you can access AI from virtually any part of the platform. Here’s how:

• Toolbar access: The AI icon is always in the toolbar, ready to assist instantly
• Ask AI button: Available in Tasks, Docs, Comments, and  Chat, so you can ask AI questions right where you need them
• Floating AI icon: When you’re not in a task or Doc, look for the AI icon in the lower-right corner for quick access without switching screens

2. Create and manage tasks   

Brain generates tasks instantly from Docs, Comments, Inbox comments, Chat messages, and even whiteboards. 

Hover over any comment or message and select the AI icon. Then, click Create a task with AI. 

Brain can help you:

✅ Create the task within the right List and Space

✅ Write a clear, context-rich title and description

✅ Link it to the original comment thread

Brain also drafts task descriptions so your team knows exactly what to do. 

Plus, it breaks down large tasks into subtasks. Just open the task and click the generate substacks option below the task title. You can rename any subtask and unselect unwanted ones by clicking the checkbox next to them.

3. Ask questions about tasks and Docs 

Instead of digging through endless tasks while managing multiple projects, teams, or stakeholders, Brain enables project managers to get instant, real-time answers based on task data. 

It’s the perfect feature for balancing urgent work with big-picture goals. 🔭

4. Summarize tasks, Docs, and Comment threads

Long tasks, endless documents, and never-ending comment threads make it hard to find what matters. Brain instantly summarizes key points so you get the most important updates—without the scroll.

For example, a project update drops, and suddenly, there are 30+ comments debating a roadblock. Deadlines, decisions, and action items? Critical details like deadlines and action items get lost in the process. To fix this, click Summarize with AI, and within seconds you get:

You can also prompt Brain to: 

• Identify blockers, risks, and priorities: Summarize your tasks to see what’s holding up progress
• Summarize Docs effortlessly: AI drafts a summary of the documents and inserts it as the Doc’s subtitle for easy reference
• Track progress instantly: AI-generated updates highlight changes in task priorities, due dates, and team collaboration in seconds
• Summarize chat messages or updates from channels: Ask the AI to catch you up on updates from a specific period

5. Draft emails, blog posts, or reports 

Writing any communication takes time, and fine-tuning it for clarity only adds to your workload. 

Brain speeds up this process by generating structured drafts, summaries, and reports based on your needs. Refine the AI-generated text instead of starting from scratch. 

Here’s how it helps: 

• Emails: Generate professional emails for project updates, client communication, or internal messages
• Blog posts: Create outlines or full drafts based on specific input
• Reports: Extract key insights from discussions or data and format them into structured reports
• Meeting notes: Summarize key takeaways from meetings for reference
• Editing and rewriting: Ask AI to refine the draft or make it more scannable with bullet points, subheadings, and shorter paragraphs 

6. Translate and localize your content 

Communicating with global teams and customers is difficult when content needs to be adapted for different languages and cultural contexts. 

Brain steps in as your AI-powered translator. Currently, it supports 12 languages, including English, French, Spanish, German, Korean, Arabic, and more. 

You can: 

• Convert emails and documents into multiple languages with a single click
• Adapt tone, phrasing, and cultural nuances for different target audiences

7. Transcribe voice clips 

You’re in a meeting, taking voice notes on the go, or receiving an audio update from a teammate. , you have to replay the clip multiple times to catch key details—a slow and frustrating process.

Brain can easily transcribe voice clips, converting them into text for easy info review, editing, and sharing.

You can also reprompt AI to get exactly the information you need. For example, ask: Do these meeting notes include any action items for me or my team?

8. Get role-specific answers 

Finding relevant updates, reports, and insights for different stakeholders often means sifting through endless data.

Brain simplifies this for you. It references your Profile title, scans Workspace Docs and tasks you have access to, and pulls only the most relevant insights—so you get exactly what you need. 

9. Build custom automations using natural language 

The last thing you want to do, as a team lead, is manually update simple tasks that come up daily/weekly/frequently. 

’s intuitive AI Builder does it for you. Type what you need in plain language, and Brain configures the automation across any Space, Folder, or List. 

10 Generate instant meeting summaries and action items

’s AI notetaker can help you streamline meeting workflows by automatically transcribing and summarizing discussions and extracting actionable items. It alleviates the burden of manual note-taking, allowing participants to focus on the conversation!

• Automated summarization: The AI generates a concise summary of the key points discussed in a private Docs
• Action items: It identifies and extracts action items from the transcript, making the follow-up easier
• Integration with Tasks: Action items and summaries can be seamlessly integrated into existing or new Tasks and workflow

11. Build and deploy AI Agents to automate tasks

AI Agents in are designed to autonomously handle queries and execute actions based on team member requests. These agents exhibit autonomy, reactivity, and proactivity, allowing them to make decisions, adapt to real-time changes, and take initiative toward specific goals.

Here are the four types of agents in :

• Auto-Answers Agent (Chat Agent): A chat-based assistant that helps you quickly find information by answering questions using data from team discussions in Chat
• Daily/Weekly Report Agent (List Agent): Automatically creates detailed, customizable reports from the Lists you choose, saving time and eliminating the need for manual updates
• Team Standup Agent (List Agent): Keeps your team aligned by automating the standup process, pulling relevant updates directly from your Lists
• Custom Agents (Build Your Own Autopilot Agent): Lets you design personalized workflows and automation tailored to your team’s specific goals, processes, and use cases.

12. Automate scheduling with AI powered insights

’s AI-powered Calendar revolutionizes how you manage your day by automating time blocking—transforming your packed schedule into focused, manageable blocks of time. This intelligent scheduling system analyzes your tasks, priorities, and availability to create a customized daily agenda that keeps you on track and minimizes distractions.​

It can help you with:

• Automated task scheduling: The AI assesses your task list, deadlines, and priorities to automatically allocate time slots, ensuring high-priority tasks are completed first
• Dynamic adjustments: If a meeting runs over or a new task arises, the AI dynamically reshuffles your schedule, preserving focus time and preventing conflicts
• Focus time optimization: The system identifies periods of peak productivity and schedules deep work sessions accordingly, while also suggesting breaks to maintain energy levels
• Conflict resolution: AI agents swiftly handle scheduling conflicts by offering alternative solutions or nudging participants to adjust times, ensuring a seamless calendar experience
• Integrated meeting management: The calendar integrates with tools like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, auto-adding call details and syncing with your tasks and docs

How to Implement AI in Your Workflow? 

Now that you know what AI tools can do, it’s time to integrate them into your workspace. 

Brain adapts to any workflow, whether you’re managing projects, running marketing campaigns, or tracking engineering tasks. 

For example, Jamie is a project team lead responsible for planning and executing multiple projects across teams. The biggest challenges:

🛑 Slow project planning: Constant back-and-forth to finalize timelines and deliverables

🛑 Complicated task assignments: Manually checking availability and balancing workloads

🛑 Time-consuming status meetings: Decisions and action items get lost in long chat threads

🛑 Chaotic progress tracking: Manual follow-ups and endless email chains complicate things 

To keep tasks moving without delays, she turns to Brain. Here’s how it optimizes her workflows effortlessly: 

1. Brainstorm and write a project plan in minutes 

For a new project kicking off—a website redesign—Jamie needs a structured project plan with timelines, deliverables, risks, and milestones.

Here’s how the process looks with ’s AI: 

• Opens a new Doc
• Uses the Write with AI feature 
• Inputs a detailed prompt in the text box

• AI generates a structured plan covering deliverables, deadlines, dependencies, and risk assessments
• Jamie reviews and refines the plan in minutes instead of hours

Jamie can also paste a previously used project plan into the AI prompt and ask: Use the following project plan as a template and refine it for our new project.

2. Create and assign tasks from the project plan 

Next, turn the plan into actionable tasks for the team. 

Within the Doc, Jamie highlights key action items in the Doc, such as ‘Create wireframes and design mockups.’ Brain creates the task and links it back to the Doc, keeping everything connected and including details like status, assignee, and priority.

Additionally, ’s AI quickly generates the task description with essential details, which she reviews and refines before finalizing it. 

3. Generate team standups and progress updates  

Jamie’s project is moving fast, but keeping up with the progress? 

Brain generates real-time standups and progress reports, saving time and keeping everyone aligned. 

Team standups come in three format options: 

• Bulleted list: A quick snapshot of completed tasks
• Short: A concise overview of completed tasks
• Traditional: A detailed breakdown of progress, blockers, and next steps

Best Practices for Using AI Effectively

’s AI is powerful, but only if you use it right. Here are some practical strategies to get the most out of it: 

1. Write better prompts

Brain can’t read minds (yet 😉 ). The more specific and clear your instructions, the better the results. Also, add details like audience, format, or tone. 

❌ Summarize this report.

✅ Summarize this report in three key takeaways for an update to the CEO. Capture the metrics that have made an impact.

2. Save, share, and reuse AI prompts

If you find a prompt that gives great results, save it. Brain allows you to save prompts within its interface. Having a library of well-crafted prompts can save time and maintain consistency. 

3. Iterate on the output

AI-generated content isn’t always perfect on the first try. You will have to ask AI to refine the output until the response fits your needs. 

4. Adjust tone based on your audience

Brain can adapt its writing style to fit different audiences—but only if you guide it. Want a formal report or a casual update? Just set the tone, and it delivers.

Use-case	Tone	Prompt
📊  Leadership updates	Professional	Summarize this project update in a formal tone for an executive audience. Keep it concise, highlight key metrics, and focus on strategic insights.
💬 Team chats, Slack updates	Casual	Summarize this project update in a friendly and casual tone for the team. Keep it short and motivating.
🎯 Client communication	Confident, persuasive	Write a project update for a client, ensuring a confident and reassuring tone. Emphasize progress and next steps.

5. Train your team to use AI efficiently

Set clear guidelines on where AI should be used (e.g., drafting reports, summarizing meetings, brainstorming ideas) and where human input is critical (e.g., strategic decision-making, creative storytelling).

Consider hosting an AI workshop or creating a resource guide with prompt examples to help your team get started.

Put Your Productivity on Autopilot With Brain

AI should work for you—not the other way around—and with Brain, it finally does.

Standalone AI tools may offer automation, but they often lack the context needed to truly streamline work. They operate in silos, requiring extra effort to integrate into your processes.

Brain solves this by embedding AI directly into your workflow, making it an intuitive, seamless part of how you manage tasks, projects, and collaboration. The result? Less time spent switching between tools and more time focused on meaningful work.

Want to spend less time managing and more time doing? Sign up for today! 🙌

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