2 Chatbots: Tasks and tips
This chapter covers
- How AI chatbots perform in day-to-day IT work
- Understanding what each major AI assistant does best
- Getting AI help with web searches, analyzing images, voice commands, and automating tasks
- Setting up AI tools to work better with your IT processes
- Finding the right AI image generator for your IT projects
Choosing the right AI tool makes a big difference for IT work. Although AI assistants share many features, each is better at specific tasks. Some are great at searching the web and breaking down error messages, whereas others can create entire websites from basic instructions. Others focus on creating detailed images—they can even turn abstract ideas like “beautiful API architecture” into realistic visuals.
This chapter explores how AI tools work in practice—both what they can and can’t do well. Rather than listing features, we’ll look at actual use cases and situations where each tool works best. Understanding these differences helps you pick the right AI assistant for each task.
NOTE Running AI models on your computer is covered in appendix A. You may be surprised at how simple it is—you can start with just a Microsoft VS Code extension. Local models aren’t usually as powerful as cloud versions because they need fewer resources, but they’re great if you need privacy or work on air-gapped networks.