Sam Wong.黃力桐Let’s talk training

TOOLS & WORKFLOWS

How to use AI as a personal assistant at work

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Short answer: Treat AI like a new assistant, not a search box. Brief it by voice, tell it exactly what output you want, ask for real files instead of chat replies, check the last 1% before anything goes out, and give it your context so it learns how you work. The tool matters less than the frame; the same habits work in Gemini, Copilot and ChatGPT.

Based on an evening AI+ class 「打造個人 AI 助手」 that I helped Hong Kong CT deliver on 14 October 2026.

Sam Wong (黃力桐) is a Hong Kong corporate AI trainer. 11,000+ people trained · 70+ organisations · 13 countries.

The class ran one office story from start to finish: your boss suddenly wants to sell a product nobody in the team understands. Over three hours we took it from a voice brainstorm to market research, a report for the boss, a stakeholder sheet, a messy sales-data analysis, a chart, product images and a knowledge base. This is what I'd want any office team to keep from it.

What is a personal AI assistant at work?

A chatbot that has been given hands, a memory and your context. A plain chatbot answers one question at a time. An assistant can also use tools (create a Word or Excel file, add an event to your calendar), remember how you like to work, and act on that.

You don't need an expensive product to get there. Most mainstream tools already have the pieces: file creation, personal instructions, and connections to your calendar or email. Switching them on is most of the work.

How should you start working with an AI assistant?

Talk to it. The first takeaway I gave the class: "Using AI today doesn't have to mean sitting still and typing. Where the strongest AI helps you most is when you stand up, walk, and talk, like chatting with an assistant."

When the boss hands you something you've never done, you don't know what you don't know. So before any prompt, talk the problem through by voice: what is my boss really asking for, and what would I need to know to do this well?

I rarely type now. At home I use a voice-typing app; in the class I mentioned Wispr Flow and Typeless. As I put it: "It isn't that AI generates everything. I just want to make it easier for myself." I wrote up my own method in how to use ChatGPT at work without typing.

How do you write prompts that give useful answers?

Use a five-part frame and never skip the output line. A good prompt tells the AI five things:

  1. Who it should act as.
  2. What you want to achieve.
  3. The background it needs.
  4. The kind of output: exactly what you want back.
  5. To ask you about any unclear points.

What I told the room: "Forget the role, fine. Forget the context, fine. But the kind of output matters. You need to know what you want and what you need. Only then can AI give you something relevant."

If you don't know which output to ask for, get it from the voice brainstorm. Ask the AI what a good piece of work would cover, write down the headings it suggests, and put them in the output line of your prompt.

Two small tricks that help:

Can an AI assistant create Word and Excel files?

Yes, and that is where most of the time saving is. Instead of copying a chat answer into Word, ask: "Based on the above, create a DOCX file I can send to my boss, and name it market research.docx." In class, the research came back as a formatted Word report in the same chat, and I changed one section just by asking for it in plain words.

Be specific about which part you want. I'm deliberately long-winded with AI, because honestly I don't trust any AI to get everything right. I say which part I liked, ask it to pull out just that part, and name the file: "I like the stakeholder matrix you created. Can you create a new XLSX file with only that, called stakeholder matrix.xlsx, for me to download?"

Which AI tool should an office use?

The one that can actually do your task, and you only find out by testing on real work. In class I gave three tools the same messy sales file and the same prompt. The free tool answered "cannot determine" for most questions. A paid model worked longer, flagged the duplicate and inconsistent rows, analysed the data it could trust and showed its working.

The problem is often not your prompt or data; the tool itself simply lacks the capability. And the standard I'd hold any assistant to: "A good analyst, the one you'd hire as the boss, does as much as there is."

Start with what you have. If the free version isn't enough, try the paid one; if that isn't enough, look further. Having the best isn't the point; knowing what to expect is. And because the frame stays the same, what you learn in one tool carries over to the next, and to your next company.

How do you check AI work before it goes out?

Let AI do 99%, and keep the last 1% for yourself. "You can use AI for 99% of it, the research, the documents, the files. But the last 1%, before it goes out, you review it, because it represents you."

This matters most with numbers. In the class, two strong tools gave slightly different findings from the same file. Before any figure reaches your boss or a client, someone checks it.

When AI gets something wrong, that is useful too. "How you correct the intern is what's actually valuable." Correcting it from your own expertise is where your judgment shows, and it is worth keeping that correction for next time.

How do you make an AI assistant remember how you work?

Give it more, and keep it in one place. "The main difference between someone who knows how to use AI and someone who doesn't is how much you give it."

Three places to start:

How can an office team start this week?

Pick one recurring task and run it through the habits above:

  1. Talk the task through by voice and collect the output headings.
  2. Write one prompt with all five parts, and ask for a real file.
  3. Test the same prompt in two tools on real (non-sensitive) data.
  4. Name one person who owns the last 1% before anything goes out.
  5. Save the prompt that worked in a shared folder.

If you are planning this for a team, my page on corporate AI training in Hong Kong explains how I run sessions. 中文讀者可看香港企業 AI 培訓。

FAQ

What is a personal AI assistant at work?

It is an AI chatbot set up to work like an assistant: it can create files, use connected tools such as your calendar, and remember your preferences through personal instructions. Most mainstream tools, including Gemini, Copilot and ChatGPT, already have these features. Turning them on and giving the AI your context is most of the setup.

Do I need to type prompts to use AI well?

No. Talking to AI by voice is often faster and helps you think. I use voice to explore a task before writing any prompt: what does my boss really want, and what would I need to know? Voice-typing apps also let you dictate long prompts at your desk instead of typing them.

What is the most important part of an AI prompt?

The kind of output. In the five-part frame I teach (role, objective, context, kind of output, seek feedback), you can sometimes skip the role or the context, but you must say exactly what you want back. If you don't know, ask the AI by voice what a good result would cover first.

Can AI make Word and Excel files for me?

Yes. Mainstream tools can turn an answer into a downloadable DOCX or XLSX file. Ask for it directly, say which part you want, and name the file, for example "create stakeholder matrix.xlsx with only that table". It saves the copy-and-paste and formatting time.

Is free AI good enough for office data analysis?

Sometimes. In a class I taught on 14 October 2026, a free tool could not answer most questions on a messy sales file, while a paid model cleaned up what it could and showed its working. Test your own real task, start with what you have, and upgrade only if the result isn't good enough.

How do I stop AI mistakes reaching my boss or clients?

Keep the last 1% human. Let AI do the research, drafting and file creation, then review anything before it goes out, especially numbers, because it represents you. If two tools give different answers from the same data, that is a signal to check the source yourself.

Talk to me

If your team wants to set up AI assistants this way, message me on WhatsApp: Message Sam on WhatsApp

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