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June Question of the Month - Join the conversation and receive a badge

Rebeca S.

Community, last month’s question was way too fun!

I believe that food is one of the best ways to get to know each other, and this was the perfect showcase of that. There was such a wide variety of food and stories, and we all got to learn a little bit more about our Community friends.

Maybe we felt a bit hungrier after reading everyone’s responses, but hopefully you also felt a bit more connected as well. And if you ever need food recommendations while traveling, you already know where to find the perfect list. 😋

Ready for a new question? Here’s your new chance to earn badges, while getting to know your peers.

If you could design your own AI assistant, what would you want it to help you with?

Feel free to get as creative as you like with this one. Maybe your ideal assistant is a master chef that magically plans your weekly meals (I promise I’ll let go of the food topic already 😆). Or maybe a hyper-specific assistant designed to tackle your least favorite work task. Dream big and have fun with it!

Share your response in the comments below. ⬇️

About Question of the Month:

We kick off each month with a new question. These monthly ice breakers are just one way to help you get to know your Smartsheet peers and rack up some badges and points in the process.

Everyone who participates by answering the question prior to the end of the month will automatically receive a unique participant badge once the question closes at the end of the month.

In addition to the participant badge, the top three answers based on Community member votes will receive the Top Answer badge. To vote on an answer click on the upvote icon associated with an answer in the comments below. Multiple votes allowed and encouraged!

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Comments

Will Duplex

If I could design my own AI Assistant, and I wasn't worried about access to my personal data, I'd want it to cover all aspects of my finances. Being able to passively day trade, buy and sell items online, invest, conduct bets on sports/pop culture events etc. and just generally take advantage of the large swaths of information that are out there to create favorable financial outcomes would be amazing. The AI assistant could automatically set up LLC's and take advantage of existing tax benefits and loopholes, and capitalize on arbitrage situations.

With all that free time and multiple reliable passive income streams, I would have the ability to travel anywhere and explore the world, without worrying about bills, costs, or time commitments.

Hayesst

If I could design my own AI Assistant, I would model it as a continuous improvement vehicle across different portfolios and programs. I would utilize API's to connect automated analysis tools to determine where further efficiencies in program delivery are opportunities for simplification, automation, consolidation, and to supply informed strategic recommendations for review. As generative AI is only so reliable, I would want to ensure that my AI assistant is as consistent as possible, and the resources pulled from are focused, regulated & maintained. I would use this AI assistant to share across my group for further development hardening, success tracking, then later submit it to leadership for potential company-wide use with evidence supporting use-case and accuracy.

As we're always so focused on delivering and the task on hand, having reviews & automations set in place to decrease the manual burn and increase efficiencies will be critical in future deployments as AI ramps up.

Monique Odom Stearn

My answer is going to be a non-answer for this month. If I could design my own AI assistant… I wouldn't.

I know Smartsheet is pushing AI a lot right now, as is everyone else, but I'm actually trying to distance myself from AI a bit. Don't get me wrong, I still use AI as part of my job in ways that make sense and make processes easier, but I'll take a pass on adding any new AI to my life right now. I think this officially makes me an old geezer!

Yvonne Smythe

'If you could design your own AI assistant, what would you want it to help you with?'

One of my hobbies is designing and prototyping my theories.

• The first theory I'm working on is an employee verification tool to counter job scams. (currently testing on Smartsheet trial )

• The second theory I'm working on is a hub to eliminate food insecurity and doing away with people standing in lines when getting assistance from food banks, pantries, and nonprofits, etc. (paused testing on AWS ran out of free usage)

If I could design my own AI assistant, I would have it help me with researching and testing the security, efficiency, and costs associated with building out prototypes into sustainable and viable products.

Yvonne Smythe

@Monique Odom Stearn This is a brilliant comment! Someone asked me the other day about who owns AI and I said the users do, the onus lies with us to question if we should use it just because we can. I hope my comment doesn’t press our community guidelines, if so I will delete 🙂

Rebeca S.

Different perspectives, and non answers are also appreciated @Monique Odom Stearn!

Your honest and respectful comments are always welcome in the Community, so please don't worry @Yvonne Smythe. 😊

Pat Canning

A dialog that converts instructions / descriptions into schematic drawings suitable for woodworking, e.g. I want a shop table, with x, y, z dimensions, two shelves beneath the table surface, designed with standard lumber - 4"x4", 2"x4", 2"x2", 0.5" plywood, 0.25" plywood. The AI would convert it all to schematic diagrams with front, side, & top views showing dimensions & hidden lines; it would ask me clarifying questions, e.g. if my input data is incomplete; it would notify me if any of my inputs are unconventional or unwise and the reason(s); it would suggest modifications that would improve design or usability, or reduce cost; it would ask about finishes, e.g. paint, stain, etc. & color the drawings per the dialog; it would tell me the overall weight of the finished product; it would give me a complete bill of materials, e.g. lumber, nail and/or screw types & lengths to be acquired in standard lengths or quantities, and approx. cost of the project at current market rates, e.g. from Home Depot and/or Lowes.

'AI, help me build a wooden, static / non-moving, 50% scale model of the batmobile for a yard ornament…'

'AI, help me build a wooden, yard ornament, water well that also serves as a bird house, feeder, and bath, with space for a wireless camera…'

S.Stone

If you could design your own AI assistant, what would you want it to help you with?

The most I want it to do is take a short list and remove certain words or formatting or something - you know, things you can do with Excel or Word, but things you can easily check or verify on your own. Anything more than that and you're risking confident-sounding but wrong results that can snowball into bigger problems.

darkmatter

If I could create an AI assistant (and I actually have!), it would be a mentor.

I built 'Mac the Mentor' for me to help make progress in three areas in my life:

-Career growth - career planning, opportunities, positioning, and professional development

-Leadership - people management, influence, decision-making, and difficult conversations

-Skills - coaching, feedback, role-play, practice drills, and continuous improvement

It uses document grounding from my fave mentoring book The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier. The assistant acts like a real mentor by asking clarifying questions, understanding goals and constraints, helping explore options, and then guiding towards practical next steps, by following a loop:

Goal → Reality → Options → Way Forward → Commitment → Check-in

As AI becomes more present than ever in our lives, I think some of the most valuable assistants won't be the ones that simply answer questions - they'll be the ones that ground people and guide them to think clearer.

Matt

Amy Munro

Recreational Answer
If I could design my own AI assistant for home, I would want it to take care of the mental load of everyday life. I would want it to manage the social calendar, help plan family meals, create shopping lists, track receipts, and organise the practical details that usually take up time and energy. I would also want it to support my downtime by playing board games with me and helping me make leisure time feel genuinely restful. Most importantly, I would want it to give practical advice on how to support my adult children through life, while helping me plan the hard stuff in the background so my personal time can be calm, enjoyable, and as close to 100 per cent bliss as possible. I want AI to do more auto stuff for me, with less input and data from me.

Work Answer

I would design an AI assistant that acts like a PMO thought partner. It would help me analyse portfolio data, highlight risks and trends, draft executive-ready updates, improve data quality, and support better planning and reporting. I would want it to reduce repetitive admin work so I can spend more time on assurance, governance, and helping leaders make evidence-based decisions. The most valuable AI is not one that takes over, but one that strengthens human judgement, visibility, and flow across the organisation. Internal PMO and Copilot materials also describe AI supporting planning, risk assessment, status reporting, and productivity in this way.

jenise.malone

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/512501#Comment_512501

I like Mac the Mentor. I would love to have an assistant like that as I am currently using AI for guidance in my Career Path, however I am playing it by ear and yours sounds organized and vetted. Great job!

jenise.malone

If I could have my very own AI assistant, I would use it to help continue and guide my career path. It would assist with reviewing and updating my resume to match roles that peak my interests and qualifications. I would have the assistant to "interview" me for upcoming roles based on role/job description for readiness. The AI assistant would keep record and organization of my thoughts as I currently write on sticky notes (I know..) and also many notepads throughout my home as ideas or thoughts pop up. Having them organized and grouped would be helpful. I am using AI this way in a lot of instances but an elevated form of what I use it for would be terrific :)

Paul.Woodward

If you could design your own AI assistant, what would you want it to help you with?

I am not very creative but if I could design my own AI Assistant…. I would just continue to use Chatgpt and Claude. I am still trying to figure out AI and how to use it responsibly, and how to use it without over using. Like I have heard before above, AI is having this gigantic push for us to use it but I do not want it taking over my life and not letting me think for myself.

For what I want AI Assistants to do, it kind already does. It lets me bounce ideas off it, it helps me figure out my schedules and how to prioritize. I use it to plan my career growth and use it to even help me with my emails.

Not sure what else I need it for right now.

Angie Bryant

If you could design your own AI assistant, what would you want it to help you with?

I would have it help with automating some of my more mundane and repetitive tasks that I do each morning that we have already tried to get into automation but have failed so far.

Never give up.

superkathy

If I could design my own AI Assistant, I would let it focus on things that I'm not so good at. For example - if I wanted to design a new bedroom with a coastal theme, it would already know what might fit my needs and BOOM - all the furniture is ordered and delivered to my doorstep, all within my budget, without my having to do endless research online!! Maybe even arranged in the room for me too 😀

Bruce Case

As someone who delivers outcomes through people, process, and technology, I see AI as a powerful accelerator, but not a replacement for judgment. Sure, it would be great if AI could do all my work, time the market, or hand me winning lottery numbers, but real value comes from using it responsibly. AI needs to be a tool that enhances decision-making, not a crutch that replaces critical thinking, accountability, or experience. If we rely on it blindly, we risk bad data driving bad outcomes at scale. Used carefully, though, AI can amplify what we already do well and help us deliver smarter, faster, and with greater confidence and self-reward.

RebSchr

If you could design your own AI assistant, what would you want it to help you with?

Personally? I would love for it to meal prep for me. Wouldn't be nice to have everything ready to go and everything at hand? One could argue that a food delivery service could do the same, but it isn't the same.

Professionally - Manage the meetings that should have been an email. Imagine the amount of time we could save in a day not jumping on a meeting that could have been an email. I try to prevent this, but it still happens. LOL

darkmatter

@jenise.malone looks like we have similar plans for our assistant!

jenise.malone

Actually meal prepping is a great idea! iRobot'ish. I did use AI to create a 2,000 cal vegetarian "simple" meal prep for me last week and ask that it be for a low budget. I was provided how the grocery list, what store options in my area and the prices at each, as well as how to prep the meals. That was my first time using like that and it was thorough. Oh, I also asked for healthy snacks for someone liking sweet and salty snacks.

RebSchr

I have tried that!! It does work great. I just hate having to put everything together and clean-up all the stuff. Wouldn't it be great if it was like on the Jetson's you walk up and it just spits out the food you want?

jenise.malone

Oh yes, I love the Jetson's version 😂

Babs_at_Didlake

Hi @jenise.malone, Have you ever seen the software The Brain? You can get the free version, and it would eliminate sticky notes and notebooks and have everything in one place. I think it's great. Enjoy!

darkmatter

Great idea! I would hope some of this capability can be achieved with Claude / Copilot Frontier connectors.

Shawna M

That’s a great idea! An AI assistant for meal prep would be so helpful, especially for busy days when figuring out what to cook is the last thing I want to think about. I can definitely see how that would make things easier and keep everything running smoother at home—it would be a huge time saver and take a lot of stress out of the day.

jenise.malone

He @Babs_at_Didlake I have not heard of The Brain, but you have piqued my interest. I will look into this. Thanks so much. 😊

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