Use AI smartly, and your functions will be greatly upgraded: Don’t just use it to write copy, 4 advanced ways to connect AI to your second brain
*▲ The most fascinating thing about AI is not to help you do more trivial tasks, but to upgrade the way of working from looking for information to talking with knowledge. *
Many people use AI, often focusing on copywriting, presentations, or summary articles. But the most fascinating thing about AI is not to help you do more trivial tasks, but to upgrade the way of working from looking for information to talking with knowledge. In other words, AI is not just a tool, but a work partner that can connect to your second brain.
Many people have been working for ten years and have countless reports, meeting minutes, proposal briefings and customer correspondence stored in their computers. However, when they actually encounter a problem, they still start from scratch. When AI is connected to your note-taking system—whether it’s Notion, Obsidian, or a tool like NotebookLM that can read your data—you can ask questions to your past self. For example, when you want to visit a customer you haven’t seen in half a year, you can ask AI to compile past interaction records and list the core needs, concerns raised, commitments, and the most important questions to ask during this meeting. This kind of preparation not only saves time, but also allows you to walk into the meeting room with a complete context.
Usage 1: Ask questions to your past self and review decisions
AI can also help you make decision-making reviews. You can ask AI to find the notes you took when taking on a certain project six months ago, sort out the evaluation basis at that time, and compare it with the current results to point out which judgments were accurate and which ones were inaccurate. Over time, you will see your thinking patterns: Are you overly optimistic? Are communication costs underestimated? Are cross-department collaboration risks often overlooked? At this time, AI is not just sorting out information, but helping you train your judgment.
This is exactly the change I talked about previously in “When Notes Start Talking” - when your notes are no longer just a passive warehouse, but a work partner who can ask questions, compare, and remind you, the second brain really comes alive.
Usage 2: Detect knowledge gaps and see gaps in the map
Another underrated use is detecting knowledge gaps. Many people think they know a lot about a subject, but the real question is: Do you know what you don’t know? When you ask the AI to review your notes on a certain field and find concepts that are mentioned repeatedly but not developed in depth, or topics that are rarely touched on but may be important, it acts like a mirror to help you see the gaps in your knowledge map.
Usage 3: Process semi-finished products into deliverable results
The second value of AI is to process semi-finished products into deliverable results. You have meeting minutes, but they haven’t turned into to-dos yet; you have work progress, but they haven’t turned into weekly reports yet; you have lecture notes, but they haven’t turned into articles yet; you have draft proposals, but they haven’t been questioned and revised yet. After the meeting, you can hand the verbatim draft or meeting notes to AI and ask it to organize it into to-do items, responsible persons and deadlines, and then list the unresolved items and items that individuals need to track.
The same goes for weekly newspapers. If you usually leave daily work, project updates, and meeting highlights, you can ask AI to produce a first draft of the weekly report, divided into three sections: completed, in progress, and need assistance. The key here is not just to save time, but to get your work seen.
Many people in the workplace have obviously done a lot of things, but they fail because they don’t organize and present them. AI can be your work translator, converting fragmented efforts into understandable results. In fact, there is a more fundamental idea behind this: the starting point for making full use of AI is not to choose tools, but to first learn to disassemble your workflow.
Furthermore, a briefing can be turned into an article, an internal training material can be split into three social posts, and a consulting meeting can be compiled into a client proposal template. You can also ask the AI to play devil’s advocate and ask it to put itself in the shoes of your most critical executive and suggest five possible objections to your proposal. Really powerful professionals don’t wait for others to find fault, but put their own plans through stress testing first.
Usage 4: Pave the way for the future, upgrade from handling cases to seeing mode
The more advanced use of AI is to help you pave the way for the future. Many insights are not hidden within a single project, but between different projects. When you ask AI to compare the notes of three projects at hand to find recurring problems and standardizable processes, it is like a pair of eyes that help you gain a higher perspective. A very important step in career growth is to upgrade from handling cases to a seeing model. Only after you see the pattern can you build a methodology.
At the end of the day, the tools are available to everyone, the difference lies in where you connect the AI. When you are willing to connect it to the knowledge assets you have accumulated for many years, it will not only amplify efficiency, but also your professional judgment and irreplaceability. If you want a more complete entry path, you can also refer to the “[AI Learning and Application Action Guide] (/blog/ai-action-guide-to-learning-and-application)” that I compiled previously, and practice these usages step by step into your own muscle memory.
*This article was originally published in the column of “Economic Daily” and was supplemented and rewritten after publication. *
