Artificial intelligence tools more common on campus than you’d think

“At an AI conference I attended, someone said that where we are with Gen AI space right now is akin to where we were with the internet in the early ’90s,” said Kyla Martin, director of digital strategy at the University of Saskatchewan (USask). “It’s a great way of visualizing where we are in a moment in time.” 

In late 2024, USask’s strategic communications unit introduced a working group comprised of communications and digital strategy professionals from across campus. Together they were tasked with assessing opportunities for Gen AI use within the communications profession, along with gaining a better understanding of industry standards. 

The results ranged from simple to sophisticated. 

Some forms of Gen AI are more obvious, like using CoPilot to generate an email or report. But in other ways it’s already so integrated into an employee’s workday that it goes unnoticed, for example using spellcheck in Microsoft Word or designing in Canva. 

The struggle to ascertain what is or isn’t your own work is a bit of a grey zone, but Martin explains it in a straightforward way.  

“AI is a tool that we can use in our work, just like Microsoft Word can help me organize my thoughts, or even spell check, but at the end, still my thoughts, still my work,” said Martin.  

There are times the working group determined that disclosure is the best practice.  

“While you may not alert your co-workers that Gen AI helped you with an email, you would need to disclose it if that email went to all employees on behalf of a senior leader,” said Martin, noting that she would not recommend using Gen AI to draft messages for senior leaders. 

“You also have to ask, am I using it as a tool to support the work I’m doing, or am I just leaving it all for AI to do it for me?” 

The working group is continuing these important discussions with the goal of addressing this and other questions around Gen AI literacy. The end result is to support employees as they learn how and when to use it and how to do so responsibly. It is critical to focus on the work, as the speed at which Gen AI is changing is another challenge that users must adapt to. 

“I think that the growth of Gen AI could be reasonably considered as faster than the internet when it was emerging,” said Martin. “That’s likely where some of the excitement and trepidation is from, but I think most people are beginning to understand that it’s a tool we can use in everyday life.” 

An important reminder for anyone using Gen AI on campus is to ensure you are working with CoPilot available in PAWS. This version of Microsoft’s Gen AI tool is tailored to the USask community, securing your data.