In today’s fast-paced environment, innovation leaders are harnessing the power of AI to speed up tasks, automate processes, and enhance creative output.

I asked 7 innovation experts on how they are using AI, the tools they use most frequently, and the tasks they still prefer to do manually (with good reason).

Nick Skillicorn
www.improvides.com

Everyday Tasks Enhanced:

  • Drafting thought leadership
  • Editing text
  • Meeting summarisation and note taking
  • Document summarisation
  • Voice dictation
  • Drafting emails in various languages
  • Automating multi-step processes and workflows
  • Deep research and search
  • Image production
  • Simple coding to automate processes within office apps

Tools Used:

  • ChatGPT and Claude for drafting and refinement
  • make.com for automating repetitive processes
  • Claude for simple coding tasks
  • Microsoft Copilot for image production and meeting summarisation
  • Perplexity for deep market research
  • Various smaller tools for one-off tasks

Tasks Still Done Manually:

  • Final reviews of text out outputs, since the risk of misunderstanding and hallucinations are still too high. I always check what an AI creates and make corrections and edits as required
  • Creative output, since this still requires my individual thoughts to be useful
  • Strategic thinking, understanding the dependencies between items
  • Project and People management, considering the best ways to communicate challenging topics to diverse groups, especially when it comes to change and things that might invoke fear or resistance

Jeff DeGraff
jeffdegraff.com • innovatrium.org

Everyday Task Enhanced:

  • Email communication

Tool Used:

  • Meta.ai

Task Still Done Manually:

  • Outlining, to capture the nuances of complex problem-solving

Todd Henry
ToddHenry.com

Everyday Tasks Enhanced:

  • Generating rough outlines for new content based on past writing and podcasts
  • Analyzing old content
  • Brainstorming and finding new ideas
  • Transcribing podcast episodes
  • Creating show notes
  • Formulating discussion questions

Tools Used:

  • Notion AI (within Notion)
  • Castmagic

Robyn Bolton
www.milezero.io

Everyday Tasks Enhanced:

  • Content creation for blogs and social media
  • Developing “gifts with purchase” for a book and lead generators
  • Finding speaking engagements
  • Responding to tricky emails

Tools Used:

  • Claude for content creation
  • ChatGPT for researching speaking opportunities

Tasks Still Done Manually:

  • Managing emails, invoicing, scheduling, and project progress tracking

Paul Sloane
www.destination-innovation.com

Everyday Task Enhanced:

  • Supporting the creation of courses, articles, and a new book

Tools Used:

  • ChatGPT
  • Mistral
  • Perplexity
  • Claude
  • Copilot
  • Gemini

Greg Satell
GregSatell.com

Everyday Tasks Enhanced:

  • Serving as a writing partner
  • Analyzing photos and handling various ad hoc tasks

Colin Duff
www.mosaic-innovation.com

Tools Used:

  • A range of large language models including Chat, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini
  • Recently exploring Grok and Deepseek
  • Midjorney for image generation
  • Additional tools with AI integration, such as Descript

In Summary

These insights show that AI is increasingly integrated into creative, administrative, and strategic tasks.

While many experts embrace AI to draft content, automate workflows, and streamline research, they continue to rely on human judgment for final reviews, creative decision-making, and strategic planning. This balanced approach highlights how AI serves as a powerful partner, enhancing efficiency without replacing the essential human touch.

Feel free to share your thoughts or ask any questions on how these practices might be applied in your own work.

Did you know that scientific evidence shows your creativity decreases over time

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Nick Skillicorn

Chief Editor, Founder & CEO at Improvides Innovation Consulting
Creativity & Innovation expert: I help individuals and companies build their creativity and innovation capabilities, so you can develop the next breakthrough idea which customers love. Chief Editor of Ideatovalue.com and Founder / CEO of Improvides Innovation Consulting. Coach / Speaker / Author / TEDx Speaker / Voted as one of the most influential innovation bloggers.