Research and summarising safely
AI is brilliant at digesting long documents — and dangerous if you trust its ‘facts’ blindly. Learn to summarise fast and verify properly.
Your goals
- Summarise long documents and pull out actions.
- Recognise why AI is not a search engine.
- Use AI for judgement tasks, then verify facts.
Summarise and extract
Paste text and ask for what you need: “summarise in 5 bullets”, “list the action points”, “pull the dates and owners into a table”. Minutes of reading become seconds.
AI is not a search engine
Ask AI for “a source” or “a statistic” and it may invent a convincing one. For real facts, use a real source (official site, your own data). AI can help you find where to look — it isn’t the proof itself.
AI gives you a statistic with a named source. What do you do?
Great research prompts
Use AI for judgement, not facts: “what questions should I ask?”, “pros and cons?”, “what am I missing?”. Then you bring the verified facts.
The 20-page policy
Raj must act on a long supplier policy today. He asks AI to summarise it and list what his team must change.
What should they do? Think, then reveal.
Reveal the answer
Summary yes, quoted law no.
The summary and action list save Raj an hour. But where AI quotes a ‘regulation’, he checks the original document before telling his team it’s a rule.
End-of-module quiz
3 questions. You need 2 to pass. Retake as often as you like.
Question 1
A safe AI research task is…
Question 2
AI gives a source that looks real. You…
Question 3
AI is best used for…
Remember this
- AI summarises and extracts from text you give it — fast.
- It’s not a search engine; it can invent sources.
- Use it for judgement; verify every fact yourself.
Finish all 8 modules and pass each quiz to earn your AI Skills for Work certificate of completion — shareable on your CV and LinkedIn. CPD accreditation is being arranged.