Smarter Living with AI: Tools for Work, Play, & Life

How AI enhances productivity, creativity, and daily living

Aju John

Fall 2025

How often do you use AI without realizing it?

Every day, AI quietly works behind the scenes:

• Recommendations (Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, YouTube, …)

• Gmail spam filtering

• Google Maps traffic updates and ETA prediction

• Phone photo organization

Today we'll explore intentional AI tools for work, creativity, and life enhancement.

When to intentionally use AI tools

When you have a problem to solve

• To address a pain-point (How do I … )

• To overcome a mental block (get ideas to get started)

• To create new media (presentation, articles, pictures, music…)

• To automate and organize (emails, photos, lists, schedules…)

Try not to pick a tool and go looking for a problem to solve. It can get overwhelming. Be intentional about the tool, based on your need.

• And so on…. ( AI can help pick a tool for a given situation)

The Art of Asking AI: Prompting

It’s like requesting the barista for a cup of coffee

• Clearly describe what you want from AI

• Share any rules, limits, or formats you want the answer to follow.

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• Set the Context

• Iterate and refine (Chain of Thought)

Making a good prompt is like ordering coffee: be clear, specific, share your preferences, give context, and check for clarity. The better your order, the better your result!

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• Meta prompting

A cheat-sheet of useful prompts will be emailed to the registrants who have provided an email address.

AI at Work: Your Digital Assistant

Boost productivity and collaboration with smart tools

Perplexity

Research companion that sources answers

Gamma

Creates stunning presentations in minutes

NotebookLM

Ultimate tool for understanding things

Comet

Browser with agentic capabilities

Reclaim.ai

Automatically blocks focus time

AI for Creativity & Entertainment

Unleash your creative potential with AI-powered tools

ChatGPT

Writing partner for stories, emails, code; a

versatile, creative conversational partner that

can generate detailed content

Beyond Text & Images

• Suno: Compose original songs

• Netflix/Spotify: Personalized recommendations

• Adobe AI: Photo editing magic

AI for Daily Life & Wellness

Smart living made simple

Smart Homes

Alexa, Ring or Google Assistant manage lights, temperature, security automatically

Health & Fitness

Fitbit AI and Apple Fitness analyzes sleep patterns, suggests personalized workouts

Personal Finance

Mint categorizes expenses, Cleo provides spending insights

Travel & Language

Google Flights, Google Translate, trip planning with

real-time suggestions

AI in Action: Demo 1

"Plan a healthy dinner for two vegetarians with 30 minutes prep time"

AI Response:

• Recipe: Mediterranean chickpea bowl

• Shopping list generated

• Prep steps optimized

• Nutritional breakdown included

From question to complete meal plan in 10 seconds

Demo

AI in Action: Demo 2

Take apart the fine-print from service provider agreement to extract the good, the bad, and the ugly

AI Response:

• Your exclusions spelt out

• Privacy concerns highlighted

• Violations that voids the service agreement

• Deadlines surfaced

You can interactively ask your questions and concerns about documents, even take a quiz

Demo

AI in Action: Demo 3

Generate complete, original songs—including melodies, lyrics, vocals, and instrumentation—from simple text prompts.

Meta prompting

• Ask GenAI to create the lyrics and a prompt for Suno using the lyrics

• Example: Give me a prompt to create lyrics for a song about the best of Cambridge

• Paste that prompt in Suno.com to generate the song

• Add instructions for the gender of the voice, genre, etc.

You get a complete song in MP3 format that you can play

Demo

The Benefits

Saves Precious Time

Automate routine tasks, focus on what matters most

Amplifies Creativity

Overcome writer's block, explore new artistic possibilities

Personalizes Everything

Tailored recommendations, customized experiences

Levels the Playing Field

Professional-quality results without years of training

Navigating the Challenges

Being smart about AI limitations

Accuracy Isn't Perfect

AI can make confident mistakes. Always verify important information.

Bias Exists

AI reflects training data biases. Be aware, seek diverse perspectives.

Privacy Matters

Read terms of service. Don't share sensitive personal data unnecessarily.

Human Touch Required

AI assists, doesn't replace critical thinking and creativity.

The Future is Collaborative

Imagine your ideal day:

• AI schedules meetings around your energy levels

• Smart home adjusts to your mood

• Personalized learning adapts to your pace

• Creative projects flow effortlessly

The goal isn't replacement—it's human + AI collaboration

Questions & Next Steps

Resources

QR code to a list of AI Tools, Link to this presentation,

& useful prompts

🔧 Start Here

01

Pick One Tool

ChatGPT for general tasks

02

Try Small Tasks

Email drafts, recipe ideas

03

Explore Gradually

Add tools as needed

Resources: openai.com, perplexity.ai, openai.com, gamma.app