A PRACTICAL QUESTION

Can AI help me spend less time on repetitive work and more time on the intellectual work that matters?

DEVELOPED APPLICATIONS · A RESEARCH JOURNEY

Choose the app
for this moment.

Move through four research stages. These are starting points—not automatic endorsements—and important outputs still need your review.

TWO WAYS TO WORK WITH AI

From individual interactions
to complete workflows.

AI APPLICATIONS

Interact through an interface

General-purpose applications such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are versatile interfaces that can support literature review, coding, writing and data analysis.

Specialised applications such as Consensus, NotebookLM and ResearchRabbit are designed around more specific activities, including evidence search, source-grounded analysis and literature discovery.

AGENTIC WORKFLOWS

Configure a process, not only a prompt

With an application, we normally interact with AI one request at a time.

With an agent, we can give AI access to the materials and tools within a project and ask it to follow a connected, multi-step process.

Applications help us with individual tasks. Agents can work across a larger workflow.

CLEAR TASK SPECIFICATION

No one knows how to write a better prompt than AI. However, that does not mean the quality of our request is no longer important.

It is increasingly about defining the work clearly.

01The goalWhat are you trying to accomplish?
02Context and sourcesWhat should the AI work from?
03ConstraintsWhat must it include, respect or avoid?
04The required outputWhat form should the result take?
05The necessary checksWhat must be verified, reported or flagged?

ACADEMIC EXAMPLE · MANUSCRIPT REVIEW

One request built from all five elements

Goal: Review the Introduction of my uploaded manuscript and identify the three revisions that would most improve its argument.

Context and sources: Work only from the manuscript, its reference list and the attached author guidelines for the target journal.

Constraints: Preserve my intended contribution, do not invent citations or evidence, and separate major concerns from minor language edits.

Required output: Return a table with the issue, supporting passage, why it matters and a proposed revision.

Checks: Flag every claim or citation you cannot verify, state your assumptions and finish with a short verification checklist for the author.

A clear prompt can define one task. But research rarely consists of only one task. We may also want to repeat the same process across several projects without explaining every requirement again.

SEARCH & EXPLORE