Your First AI Tool

What you'll be able to do

• Create a free account and send your first message.
• Write a prompt using the four-part recipe.
• Have a back-and-forth conversation instead of accepting the first answer.
• Complete one real task from your own week, start to finish.

Getting set up

We will use Claude for this course. It is well suited to beginners, it writes clearly, and the free level is enough for everything we do here. Everything you learn transfers to the other major tools - the skill is the asking, not the brand.

Step 1. Open your web browser and go to claude.ai

Step 2. Click the sign up button.

Step 3. Enter your email address, or use a Google account if you have one.

Step 4. Check your email for a code, and enter it on the page.

Step 5. Answer the few setup questions it asks.

Step 6. You will land on a page with a box that says something like 'How can I help you today?' That box is where everything happens.

Your first message

Click in the box and type exactly this: Explain what you can help me with, in plain English, as if I have never used AI before.

Press enter. Read what comes back.

That's it. You have now used AI. The rest of this course is learning to ask better.

The four-part recipe

Weak prompts get weak answers. Almost every weak prompt is missing the same four things. Here is the recipe.

1. ROLE - who you want it to act as. 'You are an experienced office manager.'

2. TASK - what you want made. 'Write an email declining a meeting invitation.'

3. CONTEXT - the details only you know. 'It's my boss. I have a client deadline that morning. I want to offer Thursday instead.'

4. FORMAT - how you want it delivered. 'Keep it under five sentences. Warm but professional.'

Put those four together and you get a genuinely good email on the first try. Leave them out and you get something generic that you have to fix.

Three prompts to try right now

Prompt A - the email. 'You are an experienced office manager. Write an email to my boss declining a meeting on Tuesday morning because I have a client deadline, and offering Thursday instead. Under five sentences, warm but professional.'

Prompt B - the explainer. 'Explain [something you have never understood] to me in plain English, as if I am smart but have no background in it. Use one everyday comparison.'

Prompt C - the shrinker. Paste a long article or email chain, then write: 'Summarize this in five bullet points, then tell me the one thing I actually need to do about it.'

The part almost everyone skips

Beginners take the first answer. Users have a conversation.

When the answer is close but not right, you do not start over. You reply, the way you would to a person.

'Make it shorter.' 'Too formal - warm it up.' 'You missed that she's a longtime client.' 'Give me three different versions.' 'That third one - do more like that.'

The AI remembers everything said earlier in that conversation. Each reply narrows it toward what you actually wanted. Three rounds of this beats any single perfect prompt.

When it goes wrong

Answer is too generic - you left out context. Tell it who it's for and what the situation is.

Answer sounds nothing like you - paste in two things you have actually written and say 'match this voice.'

Answer is too long - say 'half that length.' Then say it again.

Answer is wrong about a fact - say so directly. Then verify the correction yourself. Do not assume the second answer is right either.

It won't do something - sometimes a rephrase helps. Sometimes it has a good reason. Ask it why.

Words worth knowing

You will hear these. Now you can use them.

Your turn

Write in this book. The people who write things down are the people who still use this in six months.

ROLE - who should it act as?

TASK - what do you want made?

CONTEXT - what do only you know?

FORMAT - how long, what tone?

Check yourself

Tick each one honestly. Anything unticked is the thing to go back to.

• I have an account and I know how to get back to it.
• I can name all four parts of the prompt recipe from memory.
• I have replied to an answer to improve it, instead of starting over.
• I finished one real task with AI.
• I know what to do when an answer is too generic.

Before the next module

• Use it once tomorrow. Anything. The habit matters more than the task.
• Write the four-part recipe on a sticky note and put it on your monitor.
• Save the conversation where your real task worked. It's your proof on a discouraging day.