A sandbox environment is a safe practice space where you can experiment, make mistakes and test ideas without affecting your real work or business operations.
For Executive Assistants (EAs), a sandbox is a useful way to develop AI prompting skills. You can practise summarising documents, extracting information, drafting emails, analysing spreadsheets and testing different prompts without using live business information.
You do not need expensive software to get started. You can create a simple practice environment using Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive.
How to Create Your Own AI Sandbox
- Create a folder: Set up a private folder in Google Drive or OneDrive called “AI Sandbox”.
- Add sample documents: Upload fictional emails, meeting minutes, spreadsheets, invoices, contracts and other documents you regularly work with.
- Use your preferred AI: Upload copies of these documents to ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini, where supported.
- Test your prompts: Ask AI to summarise documents, extract action points, compare information or create reports.
- Review the results: Check whether AI has followed your instructions, included the correct information or made any mistakes.
- Improve your prompts: Adjust your instructions, run the test again and compare the results. Save successful prompts for future reference.
A Practical Example
Imagine you upload fictional meeting minutes containing attendees, decisions, action points and deadlines.
You could ask AI:
Review the attached meeting minutes. Create a summary of the meeting and a table showing every action point, the person responsible and the deadline. Do not invent missing information.
You can then compare the AI’s output against your original document to see whether it captured everything correctly.
Try improving the prompt by specifying the structure, using Markdown headings and adding clearer instructions. See whether the output improves.
Important: Keep Your Sandbox Safe
A Google Drive or OneDrive folder is a practice workspace, not a fully isolated technical sandbox. Use fictional, anonymised or publicly available documents wherever possible.
Avoid uploading confidential company information, personal data, passwords or sensitive financial information to AI tools unless your organisation has approved their use and the relevant data protection controls.
The objective: Build your prompting confidence, understand what AI can and cannot do, and develop reliable prompts before using them in your day-to-day work.