Exploring AI by doing
19 October 2026
Research Services staff recently put AI tools to the test, exploring practical ways they can support everyday work, spark creativity, and encourage new ways of thinking.
What happens when a group of curious library staff are given AI tools and a few hours to experiment?
In October, the Research Services team found out.
Over two AI Upskill sessions facilitated by Bex Rose from Elevate AI, the team rolled up its sleeves and explored what AI can actually do instead of just hearing about it. The workshops focused on contextual prompting, Gemini Gems, NotebookLM, and, most importantly, giving people the time and space to try things out for themselves.
One of the biggest takeaways was surprisingly simple: AI works best when it understands your context. The more information you provide, the more useful the response is likely to be.
A popular tip from the sessions was asking AI to interview you before answering:
"Ask me 3-5 questions, one by one, to gather more information before providing your answer."
Team members found that this simple approach often led to more relevant and practical results, turning AI from a quick-answer tool into something more like a thinking partner.
The workshops also explored Gems, Gemini's custom AI assistants for repeatable tasks. This sparked conversations about creating a shared collection of Gems that colleagues could use, adapt and build on for common activities across Research Services.
Creating AI-generated quizzes was another popular exercise, with potential applications for workshops and engagement activities. Storybook also proved a crowd favourite, transforming a simple prompt into an illustrated story.
But perhaps the most valuable part of the workshops was simply having time to play. Staff compared prompts, tested ideas, shared discoveries and occasionally laughed at unexpected results.
The sessions also prompted reflection on AI's limitations. While it can save time and help with repetitive or less enjoyable tasks, good outcomes still depend on human judgement, expertise, creativity and relationship-building.
The technology will continue to evolve, but these sessions gave the Research Services team an opportunity to explore it, question it, and form its own views about where it can genuinely add value.