# FAST-02 Reading List: Generative AI for Everyday Work Provider: 7formations | Course: FAST-02 | Instructor: Wadood Chaudhary | Links verified by fetch or search as of Oct 2026 Readings for office and frontline staff who draft, summarize, and compare documents. Vendor help pages are included because the course runs in the employer's tool; read the one that matches yours. Helper features changed significantly in late 2026, so the migration notices are required reading for session 4. **How to use.** Required readings take 20 to 45 minutes per session and are done before (or right after) the session they support. Optional readings go deeper. 'Living page' means the publisher updates it continuously; read the current version. Reading times are estimates for the parts that matter to this course, not the whole document. --- ## Session 1: Grounded drafting ### Required - **Reduce hallucinations** Publisher: Anthropic (Claude Docs) | Date: Living page | Reading time: about 10 min URL: Why read: Anthropic's practical techniques to reduce invented facts (allow 'I don't know', require quotes from sources). The same ideas as 'use only' and 'not in source'. - **Get started writing prompts in Microsoft Copilot** Publisher: Microsoft Support | Date: Living page | Reading time: about 10 min URL: Why read: Microsoft's guidance on giving Copilot a goal, context, source, and expectations; maps directly to fenced sources and rounds. ### Optional - **Why language models hallucinate** Publisher: OpenAI | Date: September 5, 2025 | Reading time: about 12 min URL: Why read: Why models guess instead of saying 'I don't know', and why abstaining is better. Explains why the Gaps line works. - **201 CMR 17.00: Standards for the Protection of Personal Information of MA Residents** Publisher: Mass.gov, Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation | Date: Regulation page dated 10/19/2017 (in force since 2010) | Reading time: about 15 min URL: Why read: The Massachusetts definition of personal information (17.02). Know what never goes into a drafting prompt. - **What is Generative AI?** Publisher: Amazon Web Services | Date: Living page | Reading time: about 15 min URL: Why read: Background on how generative models produce text. --- ## Session 2: Summarizing for real readers ### Required - **Plain language guide** Publisher: Digital.gov (U.S. General Services Administration) | Date: Living page | Reading time: about 20 min URL: Why read: Federal plain-language guidance: write for the reader, put the main point first. Use it to judge your new-hire summary. - **Google Workspace with Gemini Prompt Guide** Publisher: Google Workspace | Date: Living page (guide updated periodically) | Reading time: about 20 min URL: Why read: Google's prompt guide includes summarization prompts by role; compare its patterns with the brief / decision memo / action list types. ### Optional - **Summarize an email thread with Copilot in Outlook** Publisher: Microsoft Support | Date: Living page | Reading time: about 8 min URL: Why read: How Copilot summarizes email threads, and its limits. - **When AI Gets It Wrong: Addressing AI Hallucinations and Bias** Publisher: MIT Sloan Teaching & Learning Technologies | Date: Living page | Reading time: about 10 min URL: Why read: Checks for AI output accuracy; supports the five-fact routine. --- ## Session 3: Comparing and extracting ### Required - **Data analysis with ChatGPT** Publisher: OpenAI Help Center | Date: Living page | Reading time: about 12 min URL: Why read: OpenAI's own guidance on file analysis, including the warning that scanned or image-based tables may not extract exact values. Directly relevant to Lab 3. - **Get started with Copilot in Excel** Publisher: Microsoft Support | Date: Living page | Reading time: about 10 min URL: Why read: How Copilot works with Excel data, which is where the comparison math belongs. ### Optional - **Collaborate with Gemini in Google Sheets** Publisher: Google Docs Editors Help | Date: Living page | Reading time: about 8 min URL: Why read: Gemini in Google Sheets for teams in Google shops. - **Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework: Generative Artificial Intelligence Profile, NIST AI 600-1** Publisher: NIST | Date: July 2024 | Reading time: about 30 min URL: Why read: NIST's Generative AI Profile. Read the 'confabulation' and 'information integrity' risks; they describe invented values in formal terms. --- ## Session 4: Building reusable helpers ### Required - **Custom GPT retirement and migration FAQ** Publisher: OpenAI Help Center | Date: Living page (October 2026) | Reading time: about 12 min URL: Why read: Required for ChatGPT users: custom GPTs retire December 11, 2026 and migrate to plugins (instructions become a skill). Explains what transfers and what doesn't. - **Use Gems in Gemini Apps** Publisher: Gemini Apps Help (Google) | Date: Living page | Reading time: about 8 min URL: Why read: How Gems are created with instructions and knowledge files, plus the notice that personal-account Gems move to 'skills' from November 2026. ### Optional - **What are projects?** Publisher: Claude Help Center (Anthropic) | Date: Living page | Reading time: about 6 min URL: Why read: Claude projects: custom instructions and project knowledge. - **Creating and editing GPTs** Publisher: OpenAI Help Center | Date: Living page | Reading time: about 12 min URL: Why read: How GPT instructions and knowledge files work (useful for writing any helper spec). - **Configure a secure and governed foundation for Microsoft Copilot** Publisher: Microsoft Learn | Date: Living page | Reading time: about 15 min URL: Why read: Why a Copilot agent grounded on SharePoint shows users only what they're permitted to see, and why over-shared folders are a risk. - **Generative AI at Work (Brynjolfsson, Li, and Raymond), NBER Working Paper 31161** Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research | Date: April 2023 (revised) | Reading time: about 20 min URL: Why read: Field evidence that AI assistance raised productivity most for less-experienced workers. Read the abstract; use it to think about who on your team benefits from a shared helper. --- ## Link verification Links verified by fetch or search as of Oct 2026. Links that could not be confirmed were dropped and are not listed. The instructor re-checks links before each cohort.