How I apply AI in my day-to-day tasks

Cover image by Solen Feyissa via Unsplash

"It's 2025, and you're not using AI? You're missing out on a lot!"

This is a common sentiment these days, and for good reason. AI tools have become integral to many aspects of our daily lives, from automating mundane tasks, enhancing productivity to providing insights and brainstorming ideas, things that were previously hard to come by.

In this post, I'm sharing how I leverage AI in my daily tasks. If you're not already using AI tools, or still curious about how they can help you, I hope this post will inspire you to explore their potential.

My daily routine

Developing software

As a software developer, I find AI tools incredibly useful for various aspects of my work. They help me write code more efficiently, debug issues faster, and even resolve complex problems that would otherwise take a lot of time and effort. In a more specific sense, below are some of the tasks where I use AI and the tools that help me in software development:

• Writing code: I use a combination of different AI tools. For example, I use the GitHub Copilot extension for Visual Studio Code to auto-complete smaller code snippets and functions, or Cursor + Claude model to write larger and more complex code that require more context and thinking.
• Debugging: when I encounter issues that are out of my expertise or take too long to resolve, I use ChatGPT to help me understand the problem and suggest potential solutions.
• Code reviews: as all of my code is committed to GitHub, I use GitHub Copilot to review my pull requests for any issues, and suggest improvements based on best practices.
• Writing tests: once again, I use GitHub Copilot extension to help generate tests for my code, from unit tests to end-to-end tests, saving me a lot of time and effort.

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Writing blog posts

Admittedly, I'm not a very good writer myself, so I also usually turn to AI to help me brainstorm ideas for my next post, use it to help me organize the structure, or write the content faster. Specifically:

• Brainstorming: whenever I feel stuck and cannot come up with a good topic to write about, I use ChatGPT to help me brainstorm ideas and generate a skeleton structure of the posts.
• Writing content: I use GitHub Copilot extension for auto-completing ideas that pop up in my mind as I write them down.

Learning and researching

I also leverage AI to help me learn new concepts, expand my domain, as well as to research topics that I'm not familiar with. Learning and researching has never been easier thanks to these tools.

In general, I only use ChatGPT for this purpose, but sometimes I still use Google to search for specific information or resources when I need to.

Why these tools?

So far, you might have noticed that I only mentioned a very few AI tools which I use on a daily basis. This is because I stand by the principle of "less is more". I prefer to stick with just a few tools that work well for me, rather than trying out every new AI tool that comes out.

In my experience, I find that:

• ChatGPT is the most versatile that can handle a wide range of tasks, especially when it comes to critical thinking and researching.
• Cursor, being a code editor, in combination with Claude model, excels at writing code, understanding context, and offers an immersive coding experience.
• GitHub Copilot is mediocre at best, but it's cheap and serves its purpose well enough for my use case.

Thoughts

It's easy to get carried away with the latest AI tools and trends, and sometimes even drown in the sea of information. Here are some things I always keep in mind in this day and age:

• Stick with what works: as mentioned earlier, I prefer to use only a few tools that serve me well. This helps me stay focused and avoid getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of AI tools available.
• Do NOT "vibe": what I mean is, don't just use AI blindly, do not rely on it for everything. Only use it when it makes sense, always question the output, and verify the information it provides.
• Balance is key: we don't know how AI will evolve, but at the current stage, I merely treat AI no more than an assistant, not a replacement for my own skills and knowledge. So I always try to balance between using AI and my abilities, and not let AI take over everything I do.

A subjective sharing without much depth, but I hope this post gives you some insights from my perspective on how I apply AI in my day-to-day tasks. And remember, AI, while amazing and revoluntionary, is just a tool. It's up to us to use it wisely and responsibly.