In the last email we did the end-of-2025 reality check:
AI didn’t “end work”… but it did quietly change how good people work.

So what are people actually using AI for - and how? What’s powering the stories of regular people like you and me freeing up a day every week for more meaningful work

Two people can use the exact same AI tool (from vanilla ChatGPT, to more hardcore tools like n8n) and have completely different experiences:

Person B: “It’s fine, I don’t get the hype.”
Person A: “It saves me hours every week.”

Good with AI is a pipeline for turning Person B’s into Person A’s!

The journey is usually 3 parts:

1) Give AI context;

A’s don’t just say “write an email.” - they say who it’s for, what they want, the tone, and the constraints. Plus feed the AI all your previous correspondence, all your business details etc - so it becomes:

2) A Team-mate, not a vending machine

Person As iterate on outputs, exactly the same way you would when training a new teammember:

“make it shorter” / “give me 5 different options” / “what’s missing here?” / “here’s how to do it better next time” - which means you can now:

3) Use AI for repeatable work

A’s pick 2–3 recurring tasks first and make AI part of the process. That’s where the compounding happens.

Here’s a quick hit of what Person A’s are doing with image editing and generation - for social media posts, newsletters, pdfs, and powerpoints.

Image creation & decomposition

Are you a Canva fan? Do you find yourself creating slides or images - and sometimes thinking “gosh, this is SO much better than 5 years ago… BUT, I’m still frustrated with how long some things take?”

If you’re the sort of person who WASN’T reading emails on a Christmas Sunday yesterday - and therefore missed all the delightful, gravy themed gems we shared in the last email, AI’s got you.

We can now easily summarise emails, notes, documents, podcasts, youtube videos, Q3 financials - any sort of information you like - into a slide or slide deck, in any visual style. No more Canva, no more powerpoint. Any style you want.

Yesterday’s email, summarised:

I copied and pasted the contents of the last email into Gemini’s Nano Banana Pro image model and asked it to create me a slide summarising the copy in 4 different styles - punk (above, obviously 😂) pop-art, modern soft, and 1920s newsprint below.

One of the strengths of AI is the ability to give you multiple different outputs - you remain the human tastemaker, your job is to now set the initial task, then choose between the offerings using your judgement and taste, rather than spend hours in document creation.

If you’re into image editing and creation, there’s also a really useful tool called Qwen-Image-Layered, which can take any image and split it into component layers, which you can then edit, individually:

if you’ve spent any time at all in Canva or powerpoint over the years trying to change images or create/edit slides you’ll know how useful tools like this will be to your workflows!

That’s some high-level, easily accessible stuff. Tomorrow we’ll share some things at the other end of the spectrum - what advanced AI use looks like, and what getting really good with AI could look like for your work, life, and business.

Speak soon!

Henry & Cien & Ben.
co-founders @ Good with AI

Here at Good with AI we offer practical, fun 6-week cohorts for individuals & teams to get really good with AI. Learn how to build AI team-mates, apps & workflows to save time, grow your business, and scale your impact. Action-focused with accountability from your instructors and peers.

Next courses start 12th & 13th Jan: www.GoodwithAI.org