Working with Ambient Occlusion

I have been doing research on how to make models look more realistic. Global Illumination is a very desired method of creating a skylight that simulates realistic soft shadows on a model- in real time during the render. The only problem is that the process takes a lot of the computers' resources and thus adds to the render time. The quick answer to this problem of getting it done while having it look good seems to be "Ambient Occlusion" This method fakes global illumination by creating a global light (usually the default lighting set up in any program when no lights are added to the scene) and figuring where the rays are being blocked by geometry. This creates the appearance of a softer shadow look, and, when composited into a basic phong or blinn shader, produces noticeable results. There is also a way to bake the occlusion into the uv map- so that the model can be updated quickly when rendered at different angels- also helping with the initial positioning of the diffuse map when texturing. I admit I'm no pro on the subject, but it is something worth getting a better understanding of to simulate more realistic models. I will try and render some examples so that it will be easier to understand.