Spot where AI is creating more work instead of more value
Finds where AI use is adding rework, review load, content volume, or noise, and what to change so it creates real value.
The prompt
Help me find where AI is adding work instead of adding value in my team or workflow.
How we use AI today: [TASKS, tools, who uses it]
What has changed since we started: [e.g. more documents, longer emails, more meetings to review drafts, faster turnaround expected]
Complaints or symptoms: [e.g. "reviews take longer", "inboxes are fuller", "people redo AI drafts"]
Results we hoped for: [DETAILS]
Look for these patterns:
- Volume inflation - more reports, slides, or messages because they're now cheap to produce.
- Review burden - time saved drafting is lost to checking and correcting.
- Rework - outputs that miss the brief and get redone.
- Raised expectations - faster turnaround becomes the new baseline without less work elsewhere.
- Low-value automation - speeding up tasks that should be stopped.
- Noise for others - longer, generic content that readers must wade through.
- Tool sprawl - time spent switching, learning, and prompting.
Return:
1. A table: Pattern | Evidence from what I shared | Who bears the extra work | Estimated impact | Fix.
2. The tasks where AI is clearly creating value - keep these.
3. Tasks to stop, simplify, or set new norms for (e.g. length limits, "no AI-generated status reports").
4. 3 measures that would show value rather than activity (e.g. cycle time, error rate, decisions made faster), and how to track them.
Be direct. If something should be stopped rather than automated, say so.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Working with AI prompts
What to fill in
- TASKS, tools, who uses it
- DETAILS
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
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