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Maaritin's Myday: how I use artificial intelligence in project work and in my free time

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There's a lot of talk about artificial intelligence these days, but how can you actually use it in everyday life and at work?

In this blog, passionate AI enthusiast Maarit Takavainio gives us a peek into her working day as a project manager and reveals how she utilizes AI in different situations, both at work and in everyday life. Whether it's learning new concepts, writing meeting notes, or creating visual materials. She also shares her thoughts on why we at Graniit want to use AI and how it can support project work and bring immediate added value to customers.

P.S. At the end, I'll list the most useful favorite artificial intelligence tools that I actively use both in my work and in my everyday life. 

Who am I?

I have spent most of my career working in banking and finance, most of it in various IT roles. For the past three years I have worked at Graniit on varied and interesting client projects in several roles across different industries.

To balance my work, I have a wonderful family and great friends. I do a lot of sports and sing.

My latest client

My latest assignment is at a Finnish logistics company, where I have been able to work as an external project manager on projects related to the SAP environment. 

The client needed help with two different projects in the financial administration area. The client needed help with the implementation of systems and processes in a situation where a new company was acquired from abroad and, correspondingly, in the second project, part of the business was sold off. I have had the privilege of being assigned to this client for the second time. 

MyDay: Maarit Takavainio

Psst. If your project needs the help of a highly experienced expert, Maarit has just been released from her current assignment and is ready to lead projects supported by artificial intelligence and best practices.

Artificial intelligence is my hobby

Artificial intelligence may seem abstract and something that should perhaps only be used in your free time, for information retrieval or for your own enjoyment. On the other hand, it may also seem to be only in the plans of large companies and beyond the reach of individual employees. 

I constantly strive to make my work more efficient and avoid unnecessary manual work. I want to manage my work professionally. When various artificial intelligence tools came to the market, I immediately noticed that this is where they are useful. 

I spar a lot with my husband about innovative uses of AI, such as what all things can be used with language models and which service produces the best images and videos. I have participated in many free AI webinars, got acquainted with the latest trends in the field on various social media platforms. I have a colleague who is just as enthusiastic about AI as I am. Together we exchange a lot of thoughts around our passion for AI and give each other good AI tips.  

I use artificial intelligence in a very diverse way, both at work and in my free time. In my free time, I test different language models and image generators and deepen my understanding of phenomena related to artificial intelligence. At the same time, I learn how I can utilize it more effectively in working life.

For example, ChatGPT and other client models are great tools when I encounter new concepts or areas in my work that I want to quickly delve into. In addition, artificial intelligence acts as an excellent sparring partner. With the help of artificial intelligence, I can significantly improve the smoothness and efficiency of my own work and everyday life.

Why do we at Graniit want to use artificial intelligence?

At Graniitti, we want to use artificial intelligence for the simple reason that it greatly enhances the work of project professionals and provides them with powerful tools that help them do their work more efficiently. Artificial intelligence not only speeds up routines, but it also expands the expertise of our experts, provides quick access to essential information, and helps us understand new customer relationships in more depth. 

At the same time, AI helps us stay competitive and respond to rapidly changing needs across industries. It allows us to react more agilely to new challenges, identify opportunities, and ensure that our operations are always based on up-to-date information. For us, artificial intelligence is a strategic asset that enables better work, customer experience, and bottom line.

Welcome to follow my day with artificial intelligence!

Getting started in the morning – calendar, coffee and quick information search

Myday klo 7:00

During the morning, I glance at the upcoming workday on the calendar and at incoming emails, while getting ready for work and eating breakfast.

In my job, where clients and industries change frequently, I come across new terms and unfamiliar topics that require familiarization. If incoming messages or upcoming meetings cover topics that are unfamiliar to me, I discuss them with ChatGPT in the morning or on my commute. 

Language models are good sparring partners and can be used to quickly summarize even complex things into an understandable form. 

Here A concrete example of the prompt I gave to ChatGPT: 

MyDay: Maarit Takavainio ChatGBT

The answer given by artificial intelligence:

MyDay: tekoäly

My morning at the client

Myday klo 8:00

There are usually a lot of meetings on the daily agenda, most of which I organize and lead myself.

On the day I wrote this, we discussed, among other things, sales invoicing, improving the customer reimbursement process, making reconciliation reports, and a daily project meeting was held to monitor the progress of the project's various tasks. If the customer uses Copilot, it is convenient to use it to create meeting notes and summaries of agreed-upon issues. 

The meetings are attended by members of the project team, but often also by experts from the supplier or other partners. The meeting language is Finnish or English. 

The goal of the meetings is to advance the project towards its goal: to ensure that the agreed work progresses and stays on schedule, and to resolve any challenges that arise. 

Lunchtime and energy for the rest of the day

Myday klo 11:00
GS lounas

Artificial intelligence as a colleague

Myday klo 14:00

My job as a project manager is to make sure everyone is clear about what we agreed on and what to do next. I lead the discussion and take notes on what was agreed. 

Copilot

Copilot can be asked to take notes either automatically for the entire meeting or focusing on specific points.

Examples of commands for Copilot:

“Summarize the project schedule based on the discussion.”

“What were the most important decisions from this meeting?”

“Create action lists for participants.”

Copilot can also help you create to-do lists of things agreed upon in a meeting, which can be transferred to, for example, Planner or a To Do application.

Prompting

A prompt is a prompt that is used to control a language model. It is a question or instruction that you give to an AI to produce the response you want. It can be short, like 'Tell me some jokes', or specific and detailed, like 'Write a LinkedIn post about using AI in project management. Use a clear and inspiring tone, and provide concrete examples from different phases, such as planning, risk management, and reporting. Also mention the challenges and solutions. The goal is to spark discussion and inspire others to try AI in their work.'. The more specific you are about what you want, in what role you are requesting it, or to whom it will be presented, the more likely you are to get exactly what you want. And maybe even more. 

Images, videos and presentation materials

AI is a great help in creating more visual presentation materials, and that's why I often ask ChatGPT for suitable prompts for images. I don't think its own images are very good, so I use a separate AI image generator and feed it more detailed instructions created using the language model. I have noticed that the end result improves significantly when I first tell the language model what kind of image I need and for what purpose, and ask it to create optimal prompts. Below is an example of the message in which I asked ChatGPT for image prompts:

Myday: Tekoäly 2
Prompt given by ChatGPT for the image:
Myday: Tekoäly 3
Below is an image produced by the KlingAI image generator with the above prompts, which I used to make the cover page of a PowerPoint presentation:
Myday: klinai-työkalu
Below is an animation I made with artificial intelligence to help my colleague with a material that went through a successful migration project:

Day in the package

Myday klo 16:30

As the workday progresses, I focus on making meetings more efficient, where possible, and thus freeing up valuable time for the experts to do their actual work. I strive to speed up the process and help to find the necessary decisions.  

I use AI-based tools that help me, for example, adopt new business or understand the functionality of different systems. This way, I can also be more supportive of experts.

Sometimes AI can also act as a facilitator. Watch the short video below where I got help from AI on how to use Jira. (Jira is a project management and task management tool developed by Atlassian, which is particularly popular in software development and agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban.)

After work - how does artificial intelligence appear in my everyday life?

At the end of the workday, artificial intelligence helps me in many different ways. In this video, I show you how I cleverly use artificial intelligence to plan my evening meals, either using a specials brochure or using ingredients already in my fridge.

Artificial intelligence tools I use

Image and video generators

  • I use image and video generators to create images or videos for myself and my colleagues for various presentations, websites, or blog posts.
  • Paid image and video generators I use: Kling Ai, Flux1ai and ChatGPT Sora

Music

  • Suno AI is an innovative artificial intelligence-based service that generates music based solely on text descriptions.

Language models and artificial intelligence services

  • Currently in use ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Google Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity
  • I have used various language models and artificial intelligence services to support, among others, the following matters:
    • to talk about new concepts
    • to make Excel templates with different formulas
    • to make summaries of long articles/texts
    • convert process diagrams, e.g. into a RACI table
    • to act as a systems facilitator, (Video above)

Attention! Use of artificial intelligence vs. sensitive data and responsibility: 

Do not provide confidential information, such as names of individuals or companies, trade secrets, or other sensitive data to AI unless the AI is in a closed environment within your company. Check with your employer for policies regarding this if you use AI at work.

Use AI responsibly – ensure that the content it produces is trustworthy, avoid misleading use, and remember that the ultimate responsibility always lies with a human.

Artificial intelligence can be a great assistant, helper, or colleague – but where is the line? We will soon publish more about the principles of responsible use of artificial intelligence. Stay tuned!

* I used artificial intelligence (ChatGPT, KlingAI, Suno) to come up with the idea for this article. How do you use artificial intelligence in your work?

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