Your first AI wins: 5 everyday tasks

When you finish, you can use AI for five public-sector tasks with strong prompts and clear checks.

Begin with public material

Practice with public documents, such as published policies, past public notices and agenda packets. Do not paste casework, personal records or non-public internal documents into a consumer tool. Use only tools your agency has approved for the kind of information you handle.

A good prompt for government work says who the audience is, the reading level, what must stay exactly the same and what the tool must not add. “Keep every date and deadline exactly as written” prevents quiet errors.

Wins one and two: plain-language notices and meeting summaries

Weak: “Make this notice simpler.” Strong: “Rewrite at an 8th-grade level with headings and short sentences. Keep every date, deadline, requirement and contact exactly as written.” Check each date and requirement against the original, and have a colleague read it as a resident would.

For meetings, weak: “Summarize this meeting.” Strong: “Summarize into decisions, action items with owner and date only if stated, deferred topics and public concerns. Mark unclear items verify.” Check against the recording or minutes. Official minutes remain your records responsibility.

Wins three and four: sorting comments and building FAQs

For public comments, remove names and contact details first. Ask for themes and representative quotes, plus a list of comments needing staff review. Count the comments yourself, because language tools often miscount. Check by reading a sample of comments from each theme yourself. Look for minority views the summary may have buried.

For an FAQ, give the policy text and tell the tool to use only what it says, listing unanswered questions separately. Check each answer against the policy. Have a subject-matter expert approve it before publishing.

Win five: forms in plain language

Ask the tool to explain each form section and make a checklist of documents someone might need, using only the text you provide. Do not let it state eligibility rules that are not in the text. Check with the program office.

Public-facing material should also be accessible. Test whether your final text works with screen readers, large print and translation. AI can help draft, but accessibility rules and testing remain your job.

Practice now

Take a public notice from your agency's website and run the plain-language prompt. Compare every date and requirement with the original.
Invent ten fictional public comments and run the theme sorting prompt. Read the comments and see what the summary missed. Count each theme by hand and compare it with anything the tool claimed.

Use any AI assistant you have. Do not paste private, client or patient information into it.

Check yourself

1. What phrase protects a notice rewrite?

2. After AI sorts public comments into themes, what should you do?

3. Who approves an FAQ built from policy text?

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Next lesson: Guardrails for government workers

AI-drafted. Checked by an automated validator and a separate AI reviewer; a person has not read every lesson. Translations and tutor answers are AI-made. Found a mistake? Tell us. AI can be wrong. General information only, not professional advice. Not affiliated with any AI company named. Current University is not accredited.