I'm a senior PM at Microsoft. Here are the easy ways I use AI to help me at work and home.

Rishab Jolly, a senior program manager at Microsoft, considers himself an early adopter of AI . He shared the easy-to-replicate ways he's using AI to help him at work and in his personal life. AI tools help him create drafts for work documents and do research for his podcasting hobby. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rishab Jolly, 37, a senior program manager at Microsoft, based in Washington. The following has been edited for length and clarity. I landed a job at Microsoft as a program manager in 2017, after moving to the US for my MBA. I'm now a senior PM and find my role very fulfilling. My role involves developing ideas for products and features that enhance the customer experience, but also drafting plans that take the product from development to shipping to the customer. PMs are like the glue that brings different teams, across engineering, marketing, and business, together to work on each project. As AI tools have become more prevalent, I've felt excited about the technology's potential to help me in my role. I consider myself an early adopter who's been upskilling to make sure I have AI as a new tool in my toolbox. Here are the ways AI helps me, both in my job and personal life, that are relatively easy to replicate. In my role at Microsoft, AI gives me time back to focus on more meaningful tasks I studied computer science engineering for my bachelor's degree in India, where I'm from, before moving to the US in 2015 for my MBA. I also worked as a software engineer in India for four years, at companies using AI and machine learning in some form, before LLMs arrived on the scene. I wouldn't have called myself an AI expert, but I understood how the technology worked. As AI tools have become more commonplace, I've used them to make my work faster and easier. PMs like me spend a huge amount of time in meetings. When I first joined Microsoft, I compiled notes manually to help me understand what I needed to action afterward. Now, I use can use AI tools for note-taking, which has given me back a lot of time to focus on more meaningful work, like strategic thinking and prioritization. Part of my job as a PM is to write documents that provide clarity to engineering teams about our goals and priorities. AI tools can help reduce the time spent on an initial draft. I then review, edit, and shape the AI-generated content myself, applying my judgment and experience before sharing the document with the team. AI supports my love for podcasting in my spare time At work, I use the tools available at Microsoft, but in my personal life, I like experimenting and getting my hands dirty with a wide range of tools, from ChatGPT and Perplexity to Gemini. I started a podcast called " Curious Souls" in 2022 with my wife, who also works in tech, where...

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