How to Use AI for Unstoppable Remote Work Productivity

How much great work can you get done in a single day?

Speed, efficiency, impact – these are the KPIs we use to measure individual performance in a remote workplace. 

Your personal rate of productivity hinges on your daily performance and the value it creates in your job.

And productivity? That’s the human metric that brands you as desirable – or a dud. Performance is how pay and career progression are determined, after all.

• High performers are 400% more productive than the average worker
• …and top software developers can be much as 800% more productive!

That was before the rise of AI.

Artificial intelligence has stepped in and dramatically improved the personal KPI’s that fuel remote productivity. 

It’s handed top performers an advantage like we’ve never seen before. Ai has made it possible for you to achieve peak performance.

In the future – high performers will be puppeteers overseeing multi-agent AI systems to execute complex technical or creative work in areas like software engineering, customer service - and sales & marketing.

It’s already happening.

I know because I use AI in my remote job here at Crossover every day. 

Last year, I pulled the trigger on an AI experiment that resulted in a 500% improvement in outputs for a key content area. The insights of that experiment have led to new and exciting discoveries!

According to PWC Research AI will cause a 40% increase in employee productivity by 2035. And 64% of businesses expect AI to increase productivity in general.

But who really knows what the multiplier effect will be for high performers?

Of this I’m dead certain:

“Whether in the C-suite or on the shop floor, people who know how to use AI will outcompete those who don’t.”

The AI gap is widening.

Soon the gap between an average employee and an AI-savvy remote worker will be the same as comparing a fisherman on a boat to a pilot wearing a jetpack. 

They’re both explorers, but one tapped into the power of technology, first. They learned to go further, faster.

So, here’s how to use AI to start along the path of unstoppable remote work productivity. This is the moment that will change the way you perform, earn and live – forever.

AI Productivity: Your Competitive Advantage

AI automation, communication and collaboration: These are the three pillars of productivity in remote work. They can be an unstoppable competitive advantage if you tap into them with the right processes, and tools.

But first, a story.

On May 6, 2010, Wall Street was having a regular day…until things fell apart.

In the blink of an eye, the US stock market spiraled into a nosedive, dropping by 600 points in 20 minutes. Briefly, billions were lost. Panic spread as fortunes vanished into thin air. 

What happened? AI did, of course.

It’s been around for much longer than you realize.

Thanks to AI trading algorithms going mental in what is now infamously called the flash crash. For those heart-pounding minutes, the world of finance held its breath. And just as suddenly as it fell, the market rebounded.

Shew.

This chaos was so extraordinary, it ended up in the Guinness Book of Records as the most erratic market drop and recovery ever recorded.

This was an important lesson for the world: AI needs people. 

Smart people.

Because AI automation is everywhere and we’re all living in an ongoing experiment.

It’s in self-driving cars, in your banking app, and in the prediction engines recommending those demure cat videos you love so much on TikTok. It will filter into every digital platform, resource and offline piece of tech you can imagine.

YOU being the operative word. 

AI only has peak power, when you find creative and strategic ways to use it to improve the way things get done.

We ran a poll recently on our LinkedIn page, asking our remote work community a simple question: “As AI automates more tasks, who should benefit from the increased productivity.”

The poll shows a split in what remote workers want from AI: 54% say both companies and workers should benefit. But here’s the twist: 23% are all about cutting costs for businesses, while 17% want shorter workweeks for themselves.

Clearly - remote workers want a fair share of the AI productivity pie, and they're ready to push for it.

How will you use it? Here are some ideas, tools and resources.

Ways To Use AI in Remote Work

There are literally thousands of ways to apply AI at work right now.

• Scheduling with AI: If you find time zones a tricky business like we do, and don’t have the time to keep switching meetings up because of misalignment – AI scheduling tools will automate this process. Plus, they’re great when you’re busy and need to schedule in focus time.

We recommend: Reclaim.ai

• Automating boring admin tasks: No need to take notes in virtual meetings ever again. Just use an AI-powered note-taker to do it for you. We add the bots to our meetings live, and they tap into your microphone and record key points or make full transcriptions. They can even be there when you can’t, then send you a summary of the meeting.

We recommend: Circleback, Granola or Otter.

• Create a chatbot resource center: Whip together a chatbot to be your personal FAQ, to quickly find project details, company policies or specific client information. Who has time to wade through 8000 Google docs? Not this remote worker. 

We recommend: ChatGPT, Claude or Hubspot.

• Deploy a chatbot trainer: If you need to train a team member in something new, but are tired of repeating the same information – chatbots will rescue you. You can teach the chatbot to guide new teammates through processes and direct them to resources and company training materials.

We recommend: Botpress.

• Instant messages on the go: You’ve seen them on LinkedIn already and in Slack. The ‘draft with AI’ button. Maybe you’ve seen the ‘research’ buttons too? AI communication has stormed project management software and as a result – has impacted how quickly you can summarize, respond and find messages.

We recommend: ChatGPT app for Slack.

• Fixing your inbox crisis: Email. We love it and we hate it. But now achieving inbox zero is within reach with Ai tools! I’m not talking about using AI to respond to emails (everyone does that already) – I mean using AI to nix spam and junk mail, prioritize key mails and generally crush repetitive email tasks.

We recommend: Sanebox and Superhuman.

• Sending smarter async video recordings: One of my personal favorites is Ai that automatically enhances hastily recorded videos you need to send to your team. I’m talking about removing ‘ums,’ summarizing key points and making transcripts available on demand. No action needed. Just shoot and send.

We recommend: Loom Ai.

• Personalized learning: If you’re constantly upskilling – as you should be – you can save a ton of time being on the right platform with an AI recommendation and personalization engine working in your favor. Why bother with weak courses that don’t teach you anything new? This is just what you need.

We recommend: LinkedIn Learning or Coursera.

Have you seen Learnwith.Ai and 2 Hour Learning? They’re companies we work with who are leading the charge when it comes to AI learning initiatives.

Your next AI-first remote role might be on their team!

• Deeper more meaningful insights: As a knowledge worker in tech, analytics can be – extensive. Luckily AI can process large amounts of data, and make sense of it in ways that will help you be better at your job. From visualization, collection and insight summary – these are indispensable to up your AI game.

We recommend: Coefficient, SEMRush Suite, Rose.ai.

• Faster presentations for meetings: Last-minute presentation and no time to make it look pretty? That’s a thing of the past with AI presentation makers. Your whiteboard slides for virtual meetings will be done in a snap.

We recommend: Canva.

• Keep up to date with document collabs: No idea where that one particular SOP is from last year’s project? No need for a menty b. Collaborating on shared documents is smarter and centralized with toolsets using AI. If you don’t use Ai-powered knowledge hubs yet, this is your sign to do it.

We recommend: Notion.

• Music to enhance your focus: If you’re anything like me, you work with headphones on and focus music in the background. Well, there’s a smart AI platform for that and it’s backed by science. Say cheerio to distractions with the right brainwaves working in your favor. Productivity hack unlocked!

We recommend: Brain.fm.

• Keeping your data safe: It’s never a problem until it is – but cybersecurity threats are real, and you need AI to keep your data safe. With all this accelerated productivity, you’ll be encountering more than your share of online threats. Why be fired over a data leak coming from your accounts? Do it while you can.

We recommend: Cylance and Darktrace.

Propping Up Your Pillars with Regular AI Use

How often do you use AI automation in your daily work? What about building chatbots – doing that yet? If not, you’re not at your productivity peak.  

The days of eking by and being ‘good enough’ are gone.

We’re living in the era of the extraordinary. If you want to be a top performer you must learn how to use AI interdependently, for the benefit of your career.

The top 5% of tech talent already delivers 95% of the value. 

With AI in the mix, they’re zooming even further ahead! The gap between the average worker and AI-powered super performers is becoming a gaping chasm.

These are the remote workers who will get the 6 and 7 figure pay. They will rocket to the top and be the tech leaders of tomorrow.

So, here’s the deal. If you’re not using AI to supercharge your work, you’re just a fisherman in a world where rocketeers are leading the way. Paddle all you like, but you'll never reach their heights.

Want to be one of the best?

Imagine what you could do at 10X or 100X your current productivity level!

It’s possible.

Start mastering multiple types of AI now and you’ll be unstoppable.