School Business Insider

Episode Title: Building Confidence with AI: Frameworks, Tools, and Real Use Cases
Host: John Brucato
Guests: Aziz Agaev and Jamal Amanova, Flow List
Release Date: February 3, 2026

Episode Overview

In this insightful episode, host John Brucato is joined by AI and education experts Aziz Agaev and Jamal Amanova from Flow List to discuss the maturation of artificial intelligence in schools and the broader public sector. Together, they explore the evolving landscape of AI adoption—chronicling its shift from a novelty to an indispensable tool and examining the real-world challenges, practical frameworks like TADA, and the most impactful current use cases. The conversation is peppered with humor, memorable personal stories, actionable advice, and a positive, empowering tone for all school business professionals striving to elevate their work through AI.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Guests’ Background and Motivation

• Jamal Amanova’s Journey: Blends experience in tech—working with Fortune 50 companies and IBM Red Hat— with a background in education as an AP art teacher, motivated to bridge technology and real-world solutions for educators (03:49).
• Aziz Agaev’s Role: Noted workshop leader, regularly training school business officials across the country in responsible and creative AI adoption.

2. The State of AI Adoption in Education

• Progress & Skepticism

  • The AI landscape is improving rapidly, but skepticism and distrust persist, particularly around reliability and the notion that “AI hallucinates” or produces untrustworthy results (04:29).
  • Substantial advancements occur in short timeframes; models like Gemini 3 outpace predecessors in speed and accuracy.
  • “Not in two years, in two days, things can change drastically and suddenly you have a new model that is a lot smarter…”
    — Aziz (04:39)

• Spectrum of Use

  • Some school business officials use AI daily for tasks like payroll analysis, drafting memos, and board presentations, with AI now “woven into the fabric” of their work (06:55).
  • Others remain disengaged after early, underwhelming experiences.
  • The quality of AI outputs depends largely on the quality of user prompts.
  • “The response quality will be based on the question quality. The better you ask, the better it gets.”
    — Aziz (09:00)

• Cross-Sector Context

  • Industries like healthcare and auto have been using AI for decades, now moving toward higher-level “agentic” AI (10:00).
  • Teenagers are already heavy AI users, sometimes for cheating but often to create compelling media, underlining the need for educational institutions to step up and provide AI literacy (10:20).

3. Academic Integrity and Student Use

• ELA Departments Embracing AI
  • Despite concerns, English teachers know student voices and catch inappropriate use; using AI is seen as not fundamentally different from traditional cheating—still requires human questioning and follow-up (11:41–13:18).
• Need for Adaptation
  • The panel agrees: education must evolve, teaching students how to use AI creatively and safely rather than banning it (13:18).
• Original Voice and Communication
  • Discussion about a future where emails are just AI talking to AI, raising concerns about loss of authenticity and the need for “preservation of original thought” (14:33).

4. Challenges for School & Public Sector Leaders

• Privacy and Security

  • Main concern: sharing Personally Identifiable Information (PII) with AI models.
  • Solution: dedicated educational workspaces (like ChatGPT for K12 or Gemini for Education) have strong guardrails, ensuring data shared for school purposes is not used for broader model training (16:56).
  • “Our responsibility is to create that safe environment where our leaders and teachers and our educators can use AI models safely.”
    — Aziz (17:44)

• Model Trust and Human-in-the-Loop

  • Persistent worries about “hallucination” (false or misleading outputs).
  • Emphasis on human oversight: “Using AI to shape our ideas, instead of using AI to give us ideas.” — Aziz (18:57)

• Interface Frustration: Microsoft Copilot vs. Others

  • Copilot’s inconsistent performance is a notable pain point. Gemini and ChatGPT are regarded as more advanced and user-friendly (21:06).
  • Tips: Use ChatGPT or Gemini to create instructions for Copilot agents for better results (24:30).

5. Practical AI Use Cases in Schools

• Excel and Data Analysis

  • Formula generation: Use AI to explain complex Excel needs and receive ready-to-use formulas, or simplify existing ones (27:36).
  • Deep Research: AI can draft tailored policy documents (e.g., AI use policies), analyzing hundreds of pages of supporting materials—often creating 85–90% of a final product autonomously (29:00).
  • "Most of us right now are concerned about AI policy... you activate Deep Research... and it will go out... analyze many, many other documents and then summarize the information..."
    — Aziz (28:05)

• Teacher Productivity

  • Dramatic time saving in creating presentations, websites, and teacher resources (26:59).

• Real Confidence Boosters

  • Audience members report improved confidence and better negotiation outcomes after integrating deep research AI tools into their workflow (32:57).

6. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On AI personality:

  • “ChatGPT would go and search and try to please you and make sure that you get the answer. Saying such a good question. I love it. Thank you.”
    — Jamal (33:50)
  • “Gemini would argue with you…”
    — Jamal (34:22)

• Fun AI Prompts:

  • “Based on what you know about me so far, roast me and don’t hold back.” — Aziz (36:05)
  • “It comes up with so many jokes, so many roasts. I was impressed…”
    — Aziz (36:45)

• Wow Factor: Building Dashboards Instantly

  • Using Gemini’s canvas mode to auto-generate a custom dashboard app from an Excel file (39:00–40:40).
  • “It writes 600 lines of code in less than one minute and it works.”
    — Aziz (40:32)

• On Frameworks: The TADA Method

  • TADA = Title, Assignment, Do/Don’t, Ask
    • Used to structure high-quality prompts and agent instructions (45:57+, 53:27).
    • “Make sure that you assign a role title... highlight the overall aim... define constraints... and invite questions.” — Jamal (45:57)
    • “TADA is if you wanted to remember it when you show up to people's home without invitation and you say, ta da, it's me.” — Aziz (48:38)

• On Mindset and Growth

  • “Compare yourself only to yourself… compare yourself to yesterday’s yourself…”
    — Aziz (57:13)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |------------|------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:47 | Jamal Amanova’s background & path to education technology | | 04:29 | State of AI adoption, skepticism, and progress in schools | | 06:55 | AI integration in everyday operations & business workflows | | 13:18 | Handling academic integrity issues with AI in student work | | 16:56 | Biggest challenges: privacy, PII, & model trust | | 21:06 | Frustrations with Microsoft Copilot; platform comparisons | | 24:30 | Copilot productivity tips: using AI to write agent prompts | | 27:36 | Real-world use: Excel formulas, deep research, policy drafting | | 32:57 | Impact story: AI boosts negotiation confidence | | 33:50 | AI personalities: ChatGPT vs. Gemini | | 36:05 | Fun prompt: “Roast me and don't hold back.” | | 39:00 | Building live dashboards from spreadsheets with Gemini | | 45:57/53:27| The TADA framework explained | | 56:38 | Practice, muscle memory, and iterative improvement | | 57:13 | Self-growth: compound effect and peer comparison | | 59:18 | Staying current: sharing wins, building community |

The TADA Framework: Building Better Prompts

TADA Acronym:

• T – Title (assign a role: e.g., "Act as a school attorney")
• A – Assignment (state the objective and task)
• D – Do's/Don'ts (define constraints and preferred formats)
• A – Ask (invite clarifying questions before final output)

“Always give title because giving title gives perspective to AI model. It knows how to look at your question. If you say act as an Attorney. It will give you attorney's perspective. If you say, act as a parent... then it will read as a parent who doesn't have financial knowledge.”
— Aziz (48:16, 50:30)

Start simple, flex as you gain confidence, and eventually develop prompt engineering instincts that unlock powerful, context-aware AI agents tailored to your operational needs.

Final Advice for School Business Professionals

• Share What Works: Post on LinkedIn and tag your communities. Real-world, peer-shared use cases inspire and educate (59:18).
• Join Communities: Engage with others experimenting in education and leadership.
• Have Fun: Use AI for personal and professional enrichment alike—experiment, joke, and socialize with it (61:48).
• Practice Mindset: Growth in AI (as in any skill) is compounding. Don’t compare yourself to experts; focus on your own progress (57:13).
• Start Small, Iterate Often: Begin with one practice, one tool, one day a week—and scale up from there (56:38).

Notable Light-Hearted Moment

John was most impressed by his car’s AI-powered adaptive headlights, which selectively dim for oncoming cars—illustrating how AI’s wow-factor permeates even everyday technology and safety features (41:55–44:48).

Memorable Closing

“Make sure that you have those three goals in mind... have three to five tools to experiment and have a roadmap to adapt… Start with I’m going to use this tool once per week to create my presentations...”
— Jamal (55:19)

Keep experimenting, leveraging frameworks like TADA, and sharing your wins—you’ll shape not just your own efficiency, but the culture of your school, district, or public sector organization.