AI Power Tips 3: Delegate Only What Is Permitted

The newest AI tools do more than chat. Hand them a multistep job, like gathering sources, drafting a report, and building the slides, and they carry it out while you do something else. I wrote about choosing between chatting and delegating in ChatGPT at Work 8. For students, the harder question is not how to delegate. It is what you are allowed to delegate.

Every assignment exists to build some skill. If an agent does the part that builds the skill, the grade might survive, but the learning does not. And unapproved use can put you in front of an academic integrity panel, explaining why a tool wrote your reflection paper.

A simple fix is a Delegation Map. For each assignment, sort the work into three groups.

Delegated. AI may do this part. Formatting a bibliography, turning notes into a table, generating practice questions, reorganizing a messy outline.

Assisted. AI may help, but you do the work. It can quiz you, explain an error message, or point out where your argument is thin. The sentences, code, and calculations are yours.

Unaided. You do this alone. Usually this is the core skill the assignment measures: the analysis, the design decision, the configuration you will someday have to perform in a lab or a job interview without help.

The map belongs to the instructor first. When a syllabus says only “use AI responsibly,” students are left guessing, and guessing is where honest students get into trouble. If your instructor has not drawn the lines, ask: “Which parts of this assignment may I use AI for?” That is a professional question, not a confession.

Once you know the lines, delegate like a good manager. Give the agent a clear job, the materials it needs, and a description of the finished product. Tell it what not to do. Then check the result before your name goes on it, which is where the next post picks up.

This is the skill employers are starting to want: knowing which parts of the work a machine can carry and which parts need a person. Practicing it on coursework, with clear lines, is a lot cheaper than learning it on the job.