1 day a week lost to "where's the file?"
You’ve got six emails open.
Your files are stuck in SharePoint folders you can never find. And you haven't written a single line of commentary yet. And what’s crazy is, you know what the report needs to say. You could write it in 45 minutes if someone just put the numbers in front of you. So why are you still here at 4pm?
Because you spent the whole day being a very expensive search engine.
In 2012 McKinsey found that the average knowledge workers uses nearly 20% of their time just looking for internal information or chasing the colleague who has it.
14 years later, and members of my community when they start off are still saying to me when I explain this: "that's literally my Monday."
But, last week, we showed our community how to use AI to build a full monthly report (executive summary, country-by-country) using nothing but emails.
Only last year I could never imagine AI could create this only using emails.
2-Levels of AI Powered Knowledge Work
The tool we used in our masterclass was Microsoft 365’s Copilot Cowork. But it’s currently only available as part of the Microsoft Frontier Preview program.
But you don’t need to build a full AI ‘agent’ like this to remove a lot of the headache from your workflow.
First, it’s as simple as turning on connectors in your AI tool. Then finding the relevant Outlook / Gmail connectors.
(connector resources further down)
Once you’ve done this there are 2 levels of AI knowledge work that’ll stop you wasting 20% of your time on manual searching.
Level 1 – Human Led (Live Activity)
This is where you use the AI search connectors within the chat. And then continue the conversation live.
Using a prompt like this:
The AI only continues when you are chatting to it, and you have to keep prompting it live.
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Level 2 – AI Led (Background Activity)
This is where you set up your connectors and your instructions. Then let the tool carry out the tasks whilst you do something else.
You only come back to it when it gets stuck, or completes the task.
Your instructions might look something like this.
The AI continues by itself. For as long as it needs until it requires your input for something.
But, not every tool can do this, so you will need to use either:
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Connector Resources
Each tool has different terminology and setup methods.
- Claude calls them Connectors – more info here.
- ChatGPT calls them Apps – more info here.
- Google Gemini calls them Connected Apps – more info here (just go to your settings, select connected apps and turn on Google Workspace)
- Microsoft Copilot searches e-mails and files using its Connected Search capability – more info here (check your plan, and that Copilot has been granted e-mail access)
Pro Tip – Using connectors can consume your AI usage fast. So make sure to be targeted in your prompting.
So: “Search my e-mails for my departmental cost reports…
Becomes: “Search my e-mails from [enter colleague email addresses] for departmental cost reports between [date A and date B]”
The One Thing to Remember
You do not need a full ‘Agentic AI’ to speed up your workflow.
Start with a connector to reduce the time it takes you to search your e-mails and files. It's the simplest way to make sure you’re getting to the value add work as soon as possible.
So whatever AI tool you are using.
Build the habit of switching from manual search, to AI search.
You’ll get much more excited about the numbers if they’re already in front of you 😉
Best,
Your AI Finance Expert
– Nicolas
P.S. – Have you got your AI connectors working yet? Hit reply and let me know (I read all replies)
P.P.S – Want to watch it run before you build it? Here's the full walkthrough → Claude Cowork: Automate Finance Like a PRO