Let AI handle the administrative busywork so you can focus on higher-value work.

Presented by Lilian Lin, Conference and Events Manager, Housing & Hospitality

What You Can Learn

AI can be a useful assistant when a task involves repeatedly organizing, comparing, checking, or personalizing information. Lilian used AI to prepare personalized guest envelopes and review dietary restrictions against event menus, reducing manual work while keeping human review in the process. 
 

Try It Yourself

Pick one routine task that takes 30 minutes or more and follows roughly the same steps every time.

1. Give AI the information it needs, such as a spreadsheet, document, or template.
2. Explain the outcome you want and the steps you normally follow.
3. Ask AI to complete the repetitive comparison, organization, or drafting work.
4. Review the result carefully and refine your instructions.
5. If it works, save the prompt so you can reuse it.

Good tasks to try: Comparing information, checking documents for completeness, finding missing information, performing repetitive quality checks, or personalizing documents from a spreadsheet. 

Starter prompt: “I do this task regularly. Here are the inputs and an example of the finished result. Help me complete the repetitive steps, flag anything that needs my attention, and leave final decisions to me.”

Start with rough facts and let AI help you create a message people can act on.

Presented by Gabriel Mora, Supervisor, Fire Alarm & Security Systems, Facilities Management 

What You Can Learn

Managers often need to communicate the same information differently to staff, customers, vendors, and leadership. Gabriel uses AI to turn rough technical information into summaries, emails, checklists, plans, and audience-specific communications. 
 

Try It Yourself

Take a real set of notes or facts you need to communicate today.

1. Remove sensitive information before entering it.
2. Give AI the facts.
3. Tell it who the audience is, the purpose, tone, constraints, and action needed.
4. Ask for a clear draft.
5. Review facts, commitments, dates, risks, and tone before sending.
6. Now change the audience and ask AI to rewrite the same information.

Starter prompt: “Here are the facts: [paste facts]. The audience is [audience]. The goal is [goal]. Make this clear, direct and action-oriented. Flag any information that is missing rather than making assumptions.”

Use AI as an analyst when you have too much information and not enough time.

Presented by: Bill Sweeney, Interim Director UCLA Events Office, Events & Transportation 

What You Can Learn

Bill used AI to review five detailed vendor proposals against 18 evaluation criteria. AI summarized submissions, compared vendors, identified pricing differences, and helped answer follow-up questions. One of the most valuable benefits was to chart the proposals with the evaluation criteria. Bill, not AI, made the final evaluation and recommendation. 
 

Try It Yourself

Find two or more documents you already need to compare: reports, proposals, policies, plans, or other appropriate non-sensitive materials.

1. Upload the documents.
2. Explain what decision or question you're trying to answer.
3. Provide your evaluation criteria.
4. Ask AI to summarize each document first.
5. Ask for a side-by-side comparison against your criteria.
6. Follow up: “What important differences might I be overlooking?”
7. Validate important findings against the original documents before making your decision.

Starter prompt: “Compare these documents against the following criteria: [criteria]. Create a table showing the key differences, strengths, risks and gaps. Identify assumptions or information I should validate. Do not make the final decision for me.”

This approach can also apply to contracts, policies, budget scenarios, reports, research or grant proposals, and executive briefings. 

Turn AI into a practice partner for leadership and communication skills.

Presented by: Priyanka Srivastava, Supervisor, Events and Operations IT Products, Digital & Technology Solutions 

What You Can Learn

Instead of asking AI to write the perfect response, Priyanka asks it to create realistic leadership scenarios, lets her respond first, and then asks for feedback on clarity, confidence, framing, and executive presence. The result is a repeatable practice loop: simulate → respond → feedback → improve → repeat.
 

Try It Yourself

Think of one conversation coming up this week: a stakeholder meeting, difficult feedback conversation, resource discussion, or executive update.

1. Tell AI the situation and your role.
2. Ask it to play the other person.
3. Tell AI not to give you the answer first.
4. Respond as you would in the real conversation.
5. Ask for feedback on what worked and what could be clearer.
6. Try your response again.
7. Ask AI what patterns it notices after several rounds.

Starter prompt: “Act as my practice coach for [skill]. Teach me one concept, give me a realistic workplace scenario, let me answer first, then give me specific feedback and let me try again.”

Stop repeating the same instructions by creating a reusable AI assistant.

Presented by: Robert Acha, Manager and UCLA Radiation Safety Officer, Environmental Health & Safety 

What You Can Learn

If you repeatedly give AI the same background, instructions, reference material, and preferred format, you may have a candidate for a Custom GPT. Robert's approach is to capture that context once so the assistant can provide more consistent, repeatable support.

Try It Yourself

Before building anything, identify a workflow you repeat frequently.

1. Write down the role you want AI to play.
2. List the instructions you repeatedly give it.
3. Identify appropriate reference materials it needs.
4. Describe your preferred output and any important constraints.
5. Add that context to a Custom GPT and test it on several examples.
6. Refine the instructions when results aren't what you expect.
7. Keep human review and decision-making in the workflow.

Start small: If the task is simple, you may not need a Custom GPT at all, a reusable prompt may be enough. 

Question to ask yourself: “What background information do I find myself explaining to AI over and over again?”

Use AI-generated visuals to make abstract ideas tangible and explore possibilities faster.

Presented by: David Kim, Senior Architect, Design and Project Management, Facilities Management 

What You Can Learn

David uses AI to explore design alternatives and quickly visualize concepts so stakeholders can react to something tangible earlier in the process. AI expands the possibilities; professional expertise determines feasibility and the final design. 
 

Try It Yourself

You don't need to be an architect or graphic designer. Start with any idea that's easier to understand when people can see it.

1. Describe the idea or upload an appropriate reference image.
2. Explain the audience and what you're trying to communicate.
3. Ask AI to create a first visualization.
4. React to it: “Keep this, change that, don't change anything else.”
5. Generate several alternatives.
6. Use the images to improve the conversation not as the final professional deliverable.

Ideas to try: Visualize an event setup, workspace concept, communications campaign, service experience, signage idea, presentation concept, or other early-stage idea.

Starter prompt: “Help me visualize this idea: [describe it]. The purpose is [purpose] and the audience is [audience]. Create a concept that will help us discuss possibilities. This is for exploration, not a final design.”

David's key distinction: Use AI for exploration, communication, and analysis, not final design authority.

Turn trusted information into on-demand answers and learn from what people ask.

Presented by Anna Ahearn, Interim Manager, Student Experience & Academic Services, Digital & Technology Solutions 

What You Can Learn

BruinChat shows how conversational AI can move beyond individual productivity and improve an entire service. UCLA deployed it to provide on-demand support using official source content while expanding accessibility and allowing staff to focus on higher-impact work. 
 

Try It With Your Team

This use case starts with a question rather than a prompt: What questions does your team answer over and over again?

1. Identify your highest-volume routine questions.
2. Identify the authoritative webpages, PDFs, help articles, or other content containing the answers.
3. Look for questions that could appropriately be answered through self-service.
4. Identify which questions still need a person.
5. Consider whether BruinChat could provide an additional support channel.
6. Use conversation insights to identify missing or unclear content and continuously improve your service.

BruinChat combines official source content and guardrails with conversation review, analytics, source visibility, and reports on content gaps and frequently asked questions. 

Start here: Ask your team, “What are the five questions we answer most often, and where does the authoritative answer currently live?”