Step 1 of 7
Before you start
By the end of this lesson you will be able to:
- Identify appropriate administrative uses for AI.
- Use AI to accelerate drafting, summarization, extraction, and organization.
- Verify AI output before using it.
- Protect confidential information.
- Understand where human judgment remains necessary.
AI can help produce work faster. The VA remains responsible for checking whether the output is accurate, appropriate, safe, and consistent with the client's instructions.
Appropriate uses
- Drafting routine emails for review
- Summarizing long notes or messages
- Extracting action items
- Turning unstructured notes into a first-draft checklist
- Creating spreadsheet-formula suggestions
- Reformatting information
- Brainstorming categories or structures
- Drafting an SOP from verified instructions
Verify before using
- Check names, dates, numbers, links, and claims.
- Check whether the output followed the client's instructions.
- Check tone and context.
- Check for invented information.
- Check that sensitive information was handled appropriately.
Privacy rule
Do not paste confidential client or customer information into an AI service simply because it is convenient. Follow the client's policy and the approved tool configuration.
Verify the AI's work
An AI tool drafted this action list from the email above. Check the boxes for items that are accurate and safe to use as-is — leave unchecked anything that's wrong, invented, or needs correction.
Faster, but is it safe?
What should you do?
Work sample: AI-Assisted Administrative Workflow
Document one AI-assisted task: what the AI contributed, and how you verified it. The four rows from the curriculum's own workflow are started — adapt them to your own example.
Nice work.
You've practiced catching what an AI tool got wrong — not just what it got right — and protecting client data along the way.