Use Cases of Generative AI

The following interactive image shows possible use cases of generative AI. Click on the 'plus' sign for more information and specific examples. Scroll down to find the same information (without the examples) as a continuous text.

Please always consider privacy and confidentiality when you feed information to an online application.

Reading Buddy

The tools can provide valuable assistance when handling large amounts of text. You can think of them as a reading buddy. The tools can, for example, summarise long texts, reports, or articles quickly, convey key messages, and compare texts.

If a text is hard to understand, you can ask the tool to simplify, paraphrase, or explain technical jargon. It helps you find and use essential information swiftly. As a reading buddy, the tools can save you time but also encourage you to think more deeply about articles, opinions, and so on. You can, for instance, ask it to generate critical questions based on the text or to suggest alternative viewpoints than those presented in the text ... .

Writing Assistant

There are various applications to optimise the writing process. In the first place, the tools can help you to revise existing texts: 

  • checking the grammar/spelling,
  • rewriting texts/mails in a different register,
  • lifting the texts to another level, restructuring a text,
  • holding up a mirror: looking for bias, prejudice or partialities in what you wrote, etc.

In addition, the tools can assist you in composing texts, which you can use to work on in your daily practice and beyond. In some instances, you can adopt the generated text entirely; however, be aware of the potential risks, such as copyright infringement.

  • composing a syllabus, a book, a research paper,
  • drafting emails or (Ufora-) messages,
  • writing scripts, e.g. tutorials, learning pathways, ...
  • making summaries, e.g. to make slides,
  • turning slides into full text,
  • turning video clips into full text,
  • drafting outlines for (policy) documents,
  • coming up with examples/cases,
  • drawing up (differentiated) exercises,
  • drawing up assignments and exam questions,
  • making assessment instruments,
  • ...

Ideas Generator

Suffering from writer's block? The GenAI tools might be able to assist you in overcoming it. Use them to brainstorm a new idea. Consider the tools as a creative partner that suggests ideas, connects concepts, and helps you think outside the box. Once the tool has generated some ideas, you can use the chatbot to refine those ideas, add new ones, and shift the focus. The tools can help you work through specific problems.

With the right input, they can brainstorm solutions, offer recommendations, provide different perspectives, formulate general advice, tell you how others have dealt with these issues, or help you prove or disprove certain statements.

Multimedia Content Developer

There is a suitable GenAI tool for every medium. They can create images, graphs, tables, and slides, or produce a first draft for you to develop further.

  • Images
    Microsoft CoPilot, Gemini and ChatGPT can generate free images.
    Have you generated an image in a specific style that you would like to continue using throughout? Ask the tool which prompt to use to obtain that style so that you can retain it for future use.
    Find out more on prompting in Module 2.4 of our Ufora info site Generative AI: Concepts, Creations, Research and Classroom Practice.
  • Graphs and tables  
    Specific tools like Microsoft Copilot and Gemini can generate tables, histograms, and graphs. Test which tool works best for your data. Be careful not to enter confidential, (privacy) sensitive or copyrighted data.
  • Slides
    The tools can generate ideas to put on your slides (keywords and images) or what layout to use. CoPilot and ChatGPT will sometimes also generate a real, downloadable PowerPoint presentation. There are other slide-generating tools, but those are often paid for. Browse thereisanaiforthat.com using the keyword 'presentation' to find the newest tools.

Administrative Assistant

GenAI tools can carry out various routine (and possibly time-consuming) tasks such as writing emails or summarising texts (cf. before).

Consider, for example,

  • optimising your calendar,
  • breaking up a large assignment into subtasks/to-dos to work more efficiently,
  • sending out meeting invitations,
  • preparing for meetings (drawing up the agenda, collecting the necessities, summarising the previous meeting),
  • preparing presentations,
  • taking notes,
  • cleaning up notes (categorising, summarising),
  • converting handwritten notes to digital notes,
  • generating a report based on notes (audio/video to text),
  • ...

Analyst

Specific GenAI tools can analyse texts and data and solve exercises (e.g. Microsoft CoPilot). You can ask the tool to interpret an image (e.g. a histogram) or solve a mathematical problem. It can also analyse the results of a survey. 

If you are analysing or organising data in Excel, SPSS, or R code but cannot find the suitable formulas, you can ask the tool for them by describing the issue.

Academic Search Engine

You can use the tools as you would a search engine, asking general questions to gather information. Unlike traditional search engines, GenAI tools will use natural language instead of a list of web links. The tools will also help you understand a topic better: in response to your query, you receive extensive information, recommendations, and connections between concepts.

There are various advanced academic search engines based on GenAI. They provide a wide range of features. While some will give an overview of the top 5 papers (e.g., SciSpace) on a specific topic, others will offer a summary of your topic, which you can use for further research (e.g., Elicit). These tools do not search the entire internet; instead, they search specific databases. Elicit uses Semantic Scholar, and ScopusAI uses Scopus.

Regular chatbots, such as CoPilot, ChatGPT, and Perplexity, also offer a deep research functionality that allows you to select specific options to find scholarly literature.

Programmer

GenAI tools are capable of writing programming code and assisting in identifying and debugging existing code. The tools will suggest ways to optimise code and the corresponding apps. You can also ask the chatbots for personalised feedback on the code you have generated.