Meet your AI-ssistant

When was the last time you stared at a blank email, struggling to find the right words? Or spent hours formatting a complex spreadsheet? Yale staff members are discovering that these common workplace hurdles are becoming easier to overcome, thanks to new AI tools that feel more like helpful colleagues than complex technology.

Getting started with AI assistants like Clarity and Copilot with Data Protection is simpler than you might think. They can help you write emails and reports or generate images. They also allow you to upload documents and images and then ask the chatbots questions about the uploaded files.

Jenny Frederick, associate provost for academic initiatives and executive director of the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, is responsible for coordinating AI investments across campus on behalf of the provost’s office. Her advice to staff members who are new to chatbots or uncertain about AI’s benefits is straightforward: embrace curiosity. “AI assistants are tools to make work easier, not more complicated,” she said. “Yale is dedicated to ensuring equitable access to AI for everyone in our community, and the best way to learn is by experimenting and discovering the tools that work best for you.”

To get a better sense of what kinds of prompts would work for applications used by Yale staff, Your Yale went straight to the source: the Clarity Platform. The following interview with Clarity has been edited for length.

Hello, Clarity. Can you suggest a couple of prompts that would be helpful in working with Microsoft Outlook?

Hello! Here are some effective prompts that staff members could use when working with AI assistants for Outlook-related tasks:

• Help me draft an email to [recipient] about [topic]. The tone should be [formal/friendly/etc.] and include [specific points].
• Review this draft email and suggest improvements for clarity and professionalism, while maintaining my intended message.
• I need to coordinate a meeting with multiple people. Help me draft an email that clearly presents [X] possible time slots and asks recipients to indicate their availability.

Thanks, Clarity! These are great. Can you suggest prompts for staff who work in Microsoft Word?

• Help me reorganize this text to improve its flow and logical structure, while keeping all the key information.
• I need to create a clear step-by-step procedure for [process/task]. Help me structure this information in a way that’s easy to follow.
• Help me develop a consistent formatting style for this document, including recommendations for headings, subheadings, and paragraph structure.
• I need to summarize a longer document into a one-page executive summary. [Attach the document or paste in the full text.]

Yale staff often create outlines in Word that they convert to PowerPoint presentations. Are there best practices they should follow in their prompts to create the decks?

Always specify the presentation duration and audience upfront in the prompt, and request that main points be framed as complete thoughts rather than single words. This will make the transition to slides easier. You should ask for suggestions about where data visualizations, diagrams, or other visual elements could enhance the message, and when moving from outline to slides, request that content be chunked into slide-sized portions with clear hierarchies.

Here are some prompts that Yale staff could use with AI assistants when creating presentations:

Prompt 1:

Please help me create a presentation outline with the following parameters:

• Target presentation length: [X] minutes
• Main objective: [specific goal]
• Target audience: [specific group]
• Level of technical detail needed: [basic/intermediate/advanced]
• Please structure it with clear main points and supporting details.

Prompt 2:

I’m creating a presentation about [topic]. Help me organize this content following the “tell them what you’ll tell them; tell them; tell them what you told them” framework, with clear sections for the introduction, main points, and conclusion.

Many staff also work in Excel — everything from budgets to data tracking. Do you have some prompts that they could use?

Always specify if you’re working with formulas, pivot tables, macros, or other Excel features, and describe your data structure and what the result should look like. Mention any specific requirements like automatic updates or error checking, and include examples of your data format when relevant.

Here are some effective prompts for working with Excel and data analysis tasks:

• I have a spreadsheet tracking [type of data]. What Excel functions would be most useful for analyzing trends and patterns in this data? Please explain how to implement them.
• I need to clean and standardize data in these columns. The common issues include [describe issues like inconsistent formatting, duplicate entries, etc.]. What Excel functions or steps should I use?
• Please help me create a template for [specific purpose - budget/tracking/reporting] that includes:
  • Essential columns and calculations
  • Data validation rules to prevent errors
  • Automated formulas for totals and summaries
• I need to combine data from multiple worksheets/files. What’s the most efficient way to:
  • Merge the data
  • Remove duplicates
  • Ensure consistency