What is AI? A plain guide for your team

What AI is

AI, short for artificial intelligence, is a broad term for modern software and tools that help an organization run more efficiently, grow and do better work. You'll find it in assistants like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, and more and more inside the software your team already uses, such as email, word processors and donor or client databases.

What changed is how people talk to it. Older software needed menus, forms and exact commands. With today's AI, your staff type or say what they need in everyday words, and the tool answers the same way. You can think of it as a fast assistant that has read a great deal, follows your instructions and works from the files you give it.

Plenty of organizations already use it. In spring 2026, 19.2% of Canadian businesses had used AI to produce goods or deliver services in the past year, triple the 2024 share¹.

What AI does at work

Most of what AI does at work is reading and writing. These six everyday tasks show the range:

• First drafts. Letters, reports, grant applications and newsletters, written in your format for a person to edit.
• Answers from your own files. Your staff ask a question in plain words and get the answer from your policies, past reports or procedures, with a link to where it came from.
• Summaries. A long document, an email thread or a recorded meeting becomes a short list of what matters and who does what next.
• Sorting and filling in forms. Details from emails, intake forms and invoices land in the right fields of the systems you already use.
• Translation. A notice or a reply goes out in the languages your clients and members speak.
• Reminders and follow-ups. A thank-you after a gift, a nudge before an invoice is late or a reminder before a volunteer's shift, drafted and sent on time.

In each of these tasks, a person on your team stays in charge. AI prepares the work, and someone checks it before it reaches a donor, a client or the public.

Examples by kind of organization

The same few tasks look different in every field. Here's how they show up in six kinds of organizations we work with:

• A food bank forecasts demand and stock from past distribution numbers, drafts funder reports and answers client questions by chat or phone in several languages.
• A church or faith group drafts the weekly bulletin, translates notices for members who speak other languages and schedules volunteers for services and events.
• A health charity prepares board packs and donor reports from its own numbers, and its staff search policies and procedures in plain language. Health records stay out of any task that doesn't need them.
• A law firm gets a summary of each new matter, with the parties and key dates, for a lawyer to review. Its lawyers find past precedents by asking in plain words.
• A manufacturer drafts quotes from past jobs and its pricing rules for the estimator to edit, and its staff search setup notes and fixes for common faults.
• A town office drafts minutes and action lists for the clerk to approve, and finds where records sit when someone files a freedom of information request.

In every example, the person who signs off today still signs off. AI takes over the searching, copying and typing that comes first, which is often the slowest part of the job.

What AI can't do

Every AI tool has limits, and your team should know them before it starts:

• It makes mistakes. AI can state something false and sound completely sure of it. Treat every answer as a draft, and check names, numbers and dates.
• It only knows what you give it. A general tool doesn't know your programs, prices or policies unless you share them, so its answers about your organization may be guesses.
• Free tools may keep what you type. Keep donor, client and health records out of free accounts. Canada's privacy commissioners expect organizations to put personal information into AI tools only where they're allowed to, and to check that the results are accurate enough for the job².
• You answer for what it says. In 2024, a BC tribunal held Air Canada responsible for wrong advice its website chatbot gave a customer about bereavement fares³.

Words you'll hear

ChatGPT

A general AI assistant from OpenAI. You type a request, and it writes an answer.

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft's AI assistant, which also works inside Word, Outlook, Excel and Teams.

Google Gemini

Google's AI assistant, which also works inside Gmail, Docs and Sheets.

Claude

A general AI assistant from Anthropic.

Chatbot

A program that answers questions in a chat window on a website or in an app.

Prompt

The request you type or say to an AI tool. A clear prompt with an example gets a better answer.

Automation

A set of steps that runs on its own, such as copying a new form into a spreadsheet and then sending a reminder.

AI agent

An AI tool that takes steps for you, such as reading a new email, looking up the account and drafting a reply for a person to approve.

How to start safely

Three steps work for most teams:

1. Learn the basics together. A short class gives everyone the same starting point, so nobody has to figure it out alone. When Statistics Canada asked businesses what they'd changed because of AI, training existing staff came first⁴.
2. Pick one task that eats time every week. A monthly report, the same five questions from clients or a weekly round of reminders makes a good first target.
3. Set simple rules first. Write down which tools your staff can use, which records stay out and who checks the work.

See where AI could help you

Answer five quick questions about your organization, and you'll see two or three places AI could save your team time. You don't need to leave an email to see them.