Tools and ways of working
Having documents and PDFs analysed
Get to grips with long PDFs, reports and manuals faster using AI. How to ask the right questions and make sure you don't miss anything.
5 min read
A forty-page report, a technical manual, a grant scheme's rules: AI can help you find what you need faster. Provided you ask targeted questions and check for yourself.
Targeted questions work better
"Summarise this" gives a general picture. Targeted questions give useful answers:
- "What are my obligations as a user, with page numbers?"
- "What dates and deadlines does it contain?"
- "What's changed compared with the previous version?"
- "What conditions do I need to meet to qualify?"
Ask where it says so
Have the AI give the page or section for every answer. That way you can quickly check against the original.
Tables and figures too
AI can extract and organise tables from PDFs. Always check the figures, because conversion from a PDF isn't always flawless.
Watch out for
- Scanned documents are sometimes hard for AI to read. Check the text was recognised properly.
- Long documents: if in doubt, check whether the AI used the whole document.
- Confidentiality: contracts and internal reports in a business account.
- Interpretation: have legal or technical conclusions confirmed by a specialist.
Test yourself
What helps most in checking an AI analysis of a long document?
Prompt to copy
Read this document. Answer these questions, each with the page number or section: 1) what's the purpose of the document, 2) what obligations or conditions does it contain, 3) what dates and deadlines, 4) what's unclear or should I check. Tell me if you couldn't read any part of it.
[attach the document]
