Uploading Your Own Files to Work From

By default, AI answers from general knowledge. But many tools let you upload your own files — a document, spreadsheet, PDF, or image — and have the AI work directly from them. Now its answers are grounded in your actual material, not the whole internet. This turns a general assistant into one that knows your specific contract, report, or notes, making the help far more relevant.

Depending on the tool, you can usually share many kinds of files:

• PDFs and Word documents
• Spreadsheets and data tables
• Slides, notes, and sometimes images

Once uploaded, you can ask the AI to read, summarize, search, or pull information from them — as if you handed a smart helper the exact paperwork to study.