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AI Training

Learn to work well with AI, from the basics to the advanced.

Practical advice and lessons on working with AI, from your first conversation with an assistant to building AI into how your business runs. Plain English, no hype, and useful whether you learn on your own or with us.
Start learningTraining for your team

How it works:

  • Start wherever you are
  • Plain English, no jargon
  • Exercises you can try today
  • Free to read, team sessions on request

Before you start

Six pieces of advice that apply at every level.

Most of getting good results from AI comes down to a handful of habits. If you only read one part of this page, read this.

  • 01

    Treat it like a capable new starter

    AI is quick and well read, but knows nothing about your business. Give it the context you’d give a new colleague and the results improve immediately.

  • 02

    Be specific about what good looks like

    Say who it’s for, how long it should be, the tone and the format. Vague requests get generic answers.

  • 03

    Check anything that matters

    AI can state wrong things confidently. Facts, figures, names and anything legal or financial need a human check before they leave the building.

  • 04

    Keep sensitive data out unless it’s approved

    Know which tools your business has cleared, and what they do with what you type. Customer and staff details need particular care.

  • 05

    Iterate rather than start again

    The first answer is a draft. Tell it what to change, the way you’d give feedback to a person, and keep going.

  • 06

    Start with the boring jobs

    The best early wins are the repetitive tasks nobody enjoys: summarising, reformatting, first drafts and tidying up notes.

The learning path

Three levels, twelve lessons. Start wherever you are.

Each lesson covers the key ideas in a few minutes of reading and ends with an exercise you can try straight away in any AI assistant.

  1. Level 1

    Foundations

    For anyone who hasn’t used AI much, or has tried it and wasn’t impressed.

    You’ll use an AI assistant confidently and safely for everyday tasks.

    1. 01What AI assistants are (and aren’t)A plain-English picture of what’s happening when you type into ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini.
      • They predict useful text based on patterns from a huge amount of reading, rather than looking things up.
      • That makes them excellent at language tasks, and unreliable as a source of facts on their own.
      • They only know what you tell them about your business, your customers and your situation.
      • Different tools suit different jobs, but the skills you learn transfer between all of them.

      Try this: Ask an assistant to explain something from your own industry to a new starter. Note what it gets right, and what it gets confidently wrong.

    2. 02Your first useful conversationsHow to get something genuinely useful back in the first five minutes.
      • Start with a task you already do and know well, so you can judge the answer.
      • Give it the context: who you are, who it’s for, and why you need it.
      • Ask for a draft, then reply with specific feedback rather than starting over.
      • Save the requests that work well so you can reuse them.

      Try this: Paste in a rambling email you’ve received and ask for a three-bullet summary and a polite reply that you can edit.

    3. 03Using AI safely at workThe common-sense rules that keep you, your customers and your business out of trouble.
      • Use the tools your business has approved, and find out what happens to what you type.
      • Leave out personal data, passwords and confidential figures unless the tool is cleared for them.
      • Check facts, numbers and quotes before relying on them. AI can invent convincing details.
      • Be open about where AI helped when it matters to the person receiving the work.

      Try this: Write down three kinds of information you handle that should never go into an unapproved AI tool. Share the list with your team.

    4. 04Everyday winsThe quick, low-risk tasks where AI saves time from day one.
      • Summarising long documents, meeting notes and email threads.
      • Drafting emails, posts, job adverts and letters for you to edit.
      • Turning messy notes into tidy lists, tables or step-by-step guides.
      • Rewording things for a different audience, tone or reading level.

      Try this: Take the notes from your last meeting and ask for a clear list of actions, owners and deadlines.

  2. Level 2

    Practitioner

    For people who use AI now and then and want dependable, repeatable results.

    You’ll get consistent, good-quality output and fold AI into your regular work.

    1. 01Writing prompts that workA simple structure for requests that get it right first time far more often.
      • Role, task, context, format: tell it who to be, what to do, what it needs to know and what to hand back.
      • Show an example of what good looks like. One example beats a paragraph of description.
      • Say what to avoid as well as what to include.
      • Ask it to list any questions before it starts when the task is complicated.

      Try this: Rewrite a request you use often using role, task, context and format. Compare the results side by side.

    2. 02Working with your own documentsGetting reliable answers from policies, price lists, reports and spreadsheets.
      • Upload or paste the source and tell it to answer only from that material.
      • Ask it to quote the passage it relied on, so you can check it quickly.
      • Break large documents into sections rather than asking about everything at once.
      • Use it to compare versions, spot gaps and pull out figures into tables.

      Try this: Give an assistant one of your policies and ask five questions a customer might ask. Check each answer against the document.

    3. 03Building a personal prompt libraryTurning one-off successes into tools you and your team reuse every week.
      • Keep prompts that work in a shared document, with a note on when to use them.
      • Leave clear placeholders for the parts that change each time.
      • Use custom instructions, projects or saved assistants so context is set up once.
      • Review the library every few months and retire what no longer earns its place.

      Try this: Pick the three tasks you use AI for most and save a polished, reusable prompt for each.

    4. 04Checking and improving outputHow to review AI work quickly and catch the mistakes that matter.
      • Ask the assistant to critique its own answer against your requirements, then fix the gaps.
      • Check names, numbers, dates and claims first. That’s where errors tend to hide.
      • Watch for vague, padded writing and ask for it to be cut down.
      • Decide in advance which outputs always need a second pair of human eyes.

      Try this: Ask for a draft, then ask ‘What’s weak or missing in this, given what I asked for?’ and compare the second version.

  3. Level 3

    Advanced

    For confident users and business owners ready to build AI into processes, not just individual tasks.

    You’ll know where AI fits in your business, and how to introduce it safely and measurably.

    1. 01From tasks to workflowsMoving from ‘I use AI sometimes’ to AI playing a defined part in how work gets done.
      • Map the process first: the steps, the people, the systems and the hand-offs.
      • Look for steps that are frequent, text-heavy and follow a pattern.
      • Keep a person in the loop wherever judgement, money or customer trust is involved.
      • Measure time saved and error rates before and after, so decisions are based on evidence.

      Try this: Write out one weekly process step by step. Mark each step as ‘AI could draft this’, ‘AI could check this’ or ‘needs a person’.

    2. 02Connecting AI to your systemsWhat becomes possible when AI can work with your email, CRM, documents and accounting software.
      • Many tools you already pay for now include AI features. Start there before buying anything new.
      • Automation platforms can pass information between systems, with AI handling the reading and writing.
      • AI agents can carry out multi-step tasks, but need clear boundaries and permissions.
      • Every connection is a new route for data, so decide who can access what before you switch it on.

      Try this: List the AI features already available in the software your business pays for. Most teams find several they haven’t tried.

    3. 03Policy, risk and governancePutting simple guard rails in place so the whole team can use AI with confidence.
      • A one-page AI policy: approved tools, what data can go in, and what always needs checking.
      • Understand your obligations under UK GDPR when personal data is involved.
      • Keep a simple record of where AI is used in customer-facing work.
      • Revisit the policy as tools change. What was true six months ago may not be now.

      Try this: Draft a one-page AI policy for your team with an assistant’s help, then review it with the people who’ll follow it.

    4. 04Bringing your team with youAdoption is a people challenge more than a technology one.
      • Start with enthusiasts and a small number of clear use cases, then share what worked.
      • Be honest that the aim is removing tedious work, and involve people in choosing what to change.
      • Give people time to practise. Confidence comes from use, not from a single session.
      • Collect examples of real wins from inside the business. They persuade far better than vendor demos.

      Try this: Ask each person on your team for one task they’d happily never do again. That list is your starting point.

Training for your team

Prefer to learn together? We run sessions built around your work.

The same path, taught hands-on using your own tasks and the tools you already have. Independent, so we’ll recommend whichever tools genuinely suit you.

Ask about team training

  • Team workshops

    Hands-on sessions for your team, built around your own tasks and the tools you already use, at whichever level suits.

  • One-to-one coaching

    Focused time for owners and managers who want to get confident quickly, or to plan how AI fits the business.

  • AI policy and rollout support

    Help writing a practical AI policy, choosing tools and introducing AI across the team without the disruption.

Questions

About the training.

Do I need any technical knowledge?

No. The Foundations level assumes no experience at all, and everything is explained in plain English. If you can write an email, you can learn to work well with AI.

Which AI tools do you teach?

The skills apply to any mainstream assistant, including ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini. For team sessions we use whichever tools your business already has or is considering, and we’re not tied to any provider.

Can I work through the lessons on my own?

Yes. Everything on this page is free to read and each lesson ends with an exercise you can try straight away. Team sessions add practice on your own work, with someone on hand to help.

How is training different from an Automation Review?

Training helps people use AI well in their day-to-day work. An Automation Review looks at your business processes to find where automation or AI could make a bigger difference. Many businesses start with one and follow with the other.

Enquire

Tell us what you’d like to learn.

Share a little about who the training is for and where you’re starting from. We’ll be in touch to talk it through and suggest the right format.

What would you most like to improve?

For example: who the training is for, which AI tools you use (if any) and what you’d like to be able to do afterwards.

We’ll only use these details to respond to your enquiry. See our privacy policy.

Ready to go further than individual tasks?

Once your team is comfortable with AI, the bigger gains come from how work moves through the business. That’s what an Automation Review finds.

Book an Automation ReviewTell us about your business

Takes about two minutes. No obligation.