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Creative AI Workflows & Tools

Creative AI Workflows & Tools

Discover powerful ways to use AI tools beyond basic questions and answers. Each tool has unique capabilities - from building interactive dashboards to generating podcast-style summaries. Below are the superpowers of each tool and creative workflows that combine them in surprising ways.

For full tool details and data policies: Approved Tools for Use with University Data

Tool Superpowers:

🧠 Claude - The Builder

Superpower: Builds interactive tools you can use and share - not just text responses

Unique Capability: Creates live artifacts (calculators, dashboards, visualizations, quizzes) that you edit in real-time

Best For:

  • Building interactive tools without coding

  • Deep analysis of long documents (200+ pages)

  • Technical work and code generation

Try It: Ask Claude to "build an interactive grade calculator" or "create a filterable task tracker"

Claude FAQ: Claude - Frequently Asked Questions

🎙️ Gemini NotebookLM - The Podcast Machine

Superpower: Turns documents into 10-20 minute AI-generated podcast conversations

Unique Capability: Audio overviews - two AI hosts discuss your content in engaging dialogue format

Best for:

  • Making dense content listenable (commute/gym study)

  • Multi-document research with citations

  • Creating audio study guides

Try It: Upload lecture transcripts and generate an audio "course overview"

⚙️ Microsoft Copilot for Work - The Auto-Documenter

Superpower: Automatically documents Teams meetings while you focus on participating

Unique Capability: Zero-effort meeting summaries - records, transcribes, and summarizes without manual work

Best for:

  • Microsoft 365 integration (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams)

  • Enterprise-level automation

  • Organization-wide search

Where You'll Find Copilot Buttons:

  • Microsoft Teams - Meeting transcription, chat summaries, catch-up on missed meetings

  • Word - Draft documents, rewrite sections, summarize long files

  • Excel - Analyze data, create formulas, generate insights

  • PowerPoint - Create presentations from prompts, design slides

  • Outlook - Draft emails, summarize long threads

  • OneNote - Organize notes, create summaries

⚠️ Important: Microsoft Copilot for Work requires an M365 Copilot for Work license, which is an additional license that must be purchased.

Try It: Let Copilot for Work watch your meeting, then ask "What were the key decisions?"

Creative AI Ideas

→ Upload entire semester of lecture transcripts to NotebookLM

→ Generate single "course overview" podcast (10-20 min)

→ Listen before finals = comprehensive review on commute

→ Turn 40 hours of lectures into digestible audio

→ Upload meeting notes to Claude

→ Ask: "Build interactive task tracker with filters and progress bars"

→ Get working artifact you can share with team

→ Update it by talking to Claude, not coding

→ Project management without the software

→ Record class with permission

→ Upload recording(s) to mentorAI mentor: "Create 30 flashcards + 10 practice questions with answers"

→ Upload same transcript to NotebookLM for audio study guide

→ Study with both active recall AND passive listening

→ Ask Copilot for Work: "Find all emails about [project] from last 6 months"

→ Ask Claude: "Find all emails about [project] from last 6 months" (Requires the enabling of the Microsoft 365 Connector)

→ "Create timeline of decisions made"

→ "Draft status update based on this history"

→ Claude argues Position A, mentorAI-ChatGPT argues Position B

→ You moderate by copying responses between them

→ Watch AIs strengthen each other's arguments

→ See both sides at their best, not their worst

→ Upload syllabus to Claude

→ Ask: "Build interactive grade calculator with 'what-if' sliders"

→ Get working tool: "If I get 85% on final, what's my grade?"

→ Share link with classmates

→ Bookmark and use all semester

→ Ask mentorAI: "Critique this prompt and improve it"

→ Feed improved version to Claude: "Make this even better"

→ Feed that to Gemini for third perspective

→ Watch prompts evolve across AI ecosystems

→ Learn what makes prompts actually work

→ Upload paper to Claude: "Create conference poster layout in HTML"

→ Get interactive artifact with your data visualized

→ Edit colors and text in real-time

→ Export and print = professional poster in 10 minutes

→ Copilot for Work auto-transcribes your Teams meeting

→ Upload transcript to Claude: Use Meeting Transcript project

→ Get shareable task tracker artifact

→ From meeting to project board in 2 minutes

→ Create a custom AI assistant with your citation style

→ Upload papers and have it summarize in your format

→ Build a library of summaries in consistent style

→ Upload your paper to Claude

→ Ask: "Create tool that converts citations between APA/MLA/Chicago"

→ Get interactive converter artifact

→ Paste citation, get all three formats

→ Never look up citation rules again

→ Upload 10 papers to NotebookLM

→ Ask: "What do these papers disagree about? Where's the gap?"

→ Get literature review with identified conflicts

→ Find your research question from what's missing

Support

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