AI for Managers: What’s Gold, What’s Garbage, What’s Just Glitter
AI is…inevitable.
Whether we like it or not, Artificial Intelligence is our future. For better and or worse, a substantial portion of private spending feeds AI development. At some point, we will all feel AI’s technological shocks in the workplace. The question is: how will your organization harness this force to enhance performance?
ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity... there are all general-use language models being trained to act as your virtual assistant for a variety of uses. Beyond these language models, several tools and applications—such as Canva, Grammarly, and Google Search Engine are powered by AI and integrate it into its functions. So, the AI universe keeps expanding.
As you already know, AI is far from perfect. It raises a number of environmental and ethical concerns, including high energy and water consumption, potential for plagiarism, reinforcement of existing biases, the spread of misinformation, and risks to user privacy. Perhaps most importantly, AI lacks some of the basic qualities we most value in other humans: empathy, emotional nuance, and moral judgment.
Despite these concerns, AI is disrupting traditional workplace models (996, the death of entry level jobs, new grad hiring drops). The question is: will your team be in front of this trend—or behind it? According to an industry-wide survey (n=178) by Manager Method (2025), only 16% of managers consistently use AI to support their work. Whether it’s because of skepticism, traditionalism, or an outright rejection of technology, this is untapped potential.
To address this gap, our team at Elevate Labs compiled a list of practical tips and tricks to help you leverage AI in your own work. We have broken our suggestions into three tiers so you can figure out which combination of use cases make the most sense for you.
Tier #1: Slam Dunk Use Cases
Skill augmentation. Need to perform a task that is beyond your current skillset? Maybe you need to create a content calendar, draft a proposal, or develop an entirely new product. If you are running a small to medium- sized business and need help getting things off the ground, AI can be a great springboard for experimentation. It can extend your capabilities just enough so that you complete a solid first draft.
Brainstorming. Staring at a blank page? Need some initial ideas to spark your own creativity? A specific, well-designed prompt can get you a long way in the beginning stages of idea generation. Give it a try!
Empathy mapping. Curious to know what a customer, colleague or stakeholder might be thinking or feeling? Provide AI with a target persona and scenario, and it will generate a detailed empathy map that simulates what that person might think, feel, or do. It’s not magic—the AI simply uses real-world patterns and language cues. But this basic insight can help you better navigate the challenge at hand.
Practicing giving feedback or difficult conversations. You can prompt AI to role play a difficult conversation with you, even giving it some context clues about how your direct report might respond. If you use the voice feature, you can practice what you want to say. You can even ask the AI to give you feedback on your feedback. (Bear in mind: the AI is trained to pad your ego, so tread carefully!)
Building context. In our Grounded Leadership session, we talk about the way P.E.S.T. forces—Political, Economic, Social, and Technological—shape and influence your organization. AI can help you spot and understand these trends in real time so you can plan how to adapt and respond.
Tier #2: Useful, But Proceed Cautiously
Analysis. Need to summarize that meeting? Need to compile several resources into a single brief? AI can assist with this. Yet it can also miss key insights or trends that can help your organization move forward. So, make sure to review your raw data to know what to look for when you let AI take the wheel.
Prioritization. Unsure how to tackle your to-do list? AI can help you differentiate items worth digging into now versus less urgent tasks that can wait until later. But be careful: AI only knows what you say, and it will never have full context.
Sensitive Messages. Need to draft a response to a sensitive email? Chatbots are less reliable here, since they often have blind spots and can give biased advice. While AI can be a helpful tool in some instances, organizations should continue to help their managers develop emotional intelligence so they can navigate tough conversations. Ultimately, what people want in these difficult moments is authenticity and humanity.
Tier #3: Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200
Research. Although some AI models are designed to conduct research (Perplexity, Research Rabbit, etc.), AI is prone to hallucinate facts into existence, providing misinformation that can mislead you and your team. While AI can provide a quick overview of a topic, always do your own research before publishing or sharing its findings.
Self-diagnosis (“AITA?”). Chatbots are trained to offer unconditional positive regard, no matter what role you play in the dysfunction that is around you. If you are looking for an objective opinion on your own morality, phone a friend or a therapist— not a chatbot!
Managing sensitive information. Always be careful about sharing personal, financial, medical, or other sensitive data with any online service, including AI tools. Some companies may collect data for advertising or training purposes, especially if they offer their service for free. It is always wise to investigate whether your organization has a policy on AI use, since additional rules may apply for your role or industry.
Here are some sample prompts you can use to test out these ideas! Share with us in the comments what has worked for you and what hasn’t worked.
"I’m planning an offsite for my leadership team. Generate 10 creative theme ideas that connect to growth, adaptability, and collaboration. For each idea, include a tagline and a short activity concept we could run to bring it to life."
"Create an empathy map for a frontline manager in a logistics company who has just been told their team will need to adopt a new scheduling software. Include what they might be thinking, feeling, hearing from others, saying/doing, and their main pains and gains."
"Act as my communications coach. I need to send a short, clear message to my team about a new project deadline moving up by two weeks. Write three different drafts (formal, friendly, and urgent-but-supportive) that I can adapt. Keep it under 150 words each."
"Summarize the pros and cons of implementing a hybrid work policy where employees are in the office three days per week. Include at least two risks I might overlook as a manager and suggest three questions I should ask my leadership team before making the decision."
"Let’s role-play a performance conversation. You play the role of my team member, Alex, who has been meeting expectations but not showing initiative. Respond as Alex would in a realistic back-and-forth dialogue. After 8–10 exchanges, step out of role and give me coaching feedback: what I did well, what I could phrase differently, and one alternative script to try."
"Take the following meeting agenda [insert bullets] and suggest how I can restructure it to cut the time by 30% without losing outcomes. Provide a revised agenda and a recommendation for which parts could be handled asynchronously."
