So... How does one actually use AI?

Those are great uses.

A couple of months ago we shared in concert tickets with a friend and received a PDF with all our tickets in one doc (the theater doesn’t use an app). I could have just sent him all three and told him which to use, but I asked ChatGPT if it could split a PDF, and it did it in a matter of seconds based on my instructions. Way less complicated than what you’re doing, but nice to just have a thought and see it immediately executed.