Getting Started on your AI Journey in Operations

This is a two-part course given by Anders Reagan, our AI Consultant for Operations, purpose-designed for Professional Service staff in the University. Each session is two-hours long and can be delivered online or in-person. These can be requested for groups of staff of at least 20 participants, at a time and place that suits you.

Read on to find full details of the two sessions.

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Part 1: Applying AI to Administrative Use Cases

Overview

This session is the first live workshop in the series and assumes participants have already completed 'Your First Steps with ChatGPT' and 'Your Next Steps with ChatGPT'. Those pre-recorded trainings provide baseline familiarity with what AI is, how it works in broad terms, and key considerations for responsible use.

This live session begins the applied phase: using AI directly for administrative tasks. Participants will work through practical use cases that reflect real day-to-day operations, such as summarising documents and meeting notes, producing structured outputs (agendas, action lists, briefs), formatting content, and supporting planning and scheduling.

The focus is on building practical confidence and good habits: recognising where AI genuinely saves time, setting clear instructions, checking outputs properly, and adopting workflows that can be reused in the role.

Audience

Administrative and professional services staff who have already completed introductory training sessions or are familiar with AI tools and are ready to start applying AI tools in everyday operational work.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Identify high-value administrative tasks where AI can save time and improve clarity
• Use generative AI tools to support core admin workflows (drafting, summarising, formatting, organising, planning)
• Create clear prompts that produce usable outputs for operational contexts
• Apply basic quality-control habits to verify and refine AI-generated content
• Leave with at least one reusable workflow or template for their own role

Part 2: Discussion, Reflection, and Admin Hackathon

Overview

This session builds on the first live session, where participants explored concrete administrative use cases. The emphasis here is application through discussion and collaborative problem-solving.

Participants will bring real examples from their work: recurring tasks, documents, communications, meeting support, process pain points, or planning and coordination challenges. In a guided hackathon format, participants will work in small groups or pairs to test AI against those tasks, refine prompts, and develop reusable templates or mini-workflows that can be taken back into the role.

Alongside the practical experimentation, the session includes structured discussion about what is working, what feels unreliable, how to verify outputs, what boundaries matter in admin contexts, and how to build consistent practices that teams can adopt.

Audience

Staff who have completed 101 and 102 online and have attended Part 1, and who want to apply AI to their own administrative workflows through discussion and collaborative experimentation.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Apply AI tools to their own administrative tasks through guided experimentation
• Build and refine prompts and templates for recurring operational work
• Evaluate outputs for reliability, completeness, tone, and appropriateness for real use
• Identify where AI fits into administrative workflows and where human judgement is essential
• Contribute to shared norms around responsible and consistent AI use in operational settings