Learn AI in 30 days: 15 minutes a day

The plan

1. Make a free ChatGPT or Claude account today and do Day 1 below. It takes about 15 minutes.
2. Do one lesson a day for 30 days, each on a real job from your business, and tick it off in the tracker in section 5.
3. By Day 30 you'll have saved instructions, a project folder, one small automation and your own list of prompts that work for you.

Try this now: Day 1, your first real conversation

Goal: make an account and get one useful answer about your own business.

On a computer, open your browser and go to chatgpt.com or claude.ai. On a phone, get the ChatGPT app (made by OpenAI) or the Claude app (made by Anthropic) from the App Store or Google Play. There are look-alike apps from other makers, so check the name underneath. Both have a free plan you can start with your email.

Now copy this, change the brackets, and send it:

I run [type of business] in [city] with [number] staff. The job I like least every week is [for example: answering the same customer questions, writing quotes, chasing invoices]. Ask me three short questions about how I do that job now. Then suggest two small ways you could help me with it this week, in plain words.

What good looks like: it asks about your actual situation before giving advice, and its two ideas are small enough to try tomorrow.

Check: did one of its questions make you think? Don't delete the chat. Your old chats sit in the sidebar (on a phone, tap the menu button at the top left), and you'll come back to this one on Day 7.

1. Start here if you're new: Week 1, the basics

Thirty lessons, one a day, about 15 minutes each. You don't need to be good with computers.

ChatGPT and Claude are AI assistants. You type or say a message, and a few seconds later it writes back. It's a bit like texting a well-read helper. ChatGPT is made by OpenAI, Claude by Anthropic. Pick one and stick with it for the month; every lesson works in both. If you can't decide, the ChatGPT and Claude guide compares them.

It gets things wrong. It only knows your business if you tell it, and it can be wrong while sounding completely sure of itself. It'll invent a date, a price or a rule that sounds right. So you read everything before you use it. That habit matters more than anything else in here, and Day 5 is about it.

It only writes words on your screen for almost every lesson. You decide what to copy and where it goes. Days 26 and 27 are the exceptions, and they say what they do.

Keep private details out. Before you paste anything about a customer or a staff member, take out names, addresses, phone numbers, health details and account numbers. Write "Customer A" instead. Day 6 explains why.

Free plans have a limit. Send a lot of messages in a few hours and it will tell you you've hit your limit. Nothing's broken. Wait, and it resets. The message usually says when.

How each lesson works. A goal, a prompt to copy, what a good result looks like, and a one-line check. Use a real task from your own week wherever you can. Practice examples teach you the buttons and not much else.

Miss a day? Carry on where you stopped. It's thirty lessons, not thirty dates.

Want the whole team learning together? The AI team in 30 days guide is the team version. This one is for you.

Words you'll see

Day 2: fix the answer by talking to it

Goal: learn that the first answer is a draft, and you improve it by saying what's wrong.

Pick an email you need to write this week. Send this:

Write a short email to [who] about [what]. The main point is [one sentence].

Then, in the same chat, reply to its answer three times with short fixes, such as:

Shorter. Friendlier. Take out the second paragraph.

We don't do Sundays. Fix that line.

What good looks like: by the third fix it sounds close to how you'd write it.

Check: you stayed in the same chat. It remembers the whole conversation, so talk to it the way you'd talk to a person.

Day 3: use your voice

Goal: get an answer without typing, for when you're driving or on site.

Both phone apps have a voice mode. Look for the sound-wave button next to the message box, tap it, and talk. It answers out loud. (Claude also has voice mode on its website and desktop app, though it's built for the phone.) Say something like:

I'm thinking about [a decision, for example: hiring a second person for the front desk]. Ask me questions one at a time to help me think it through. When I say "done", sum up what I decided in five lines.

What good looks like: a real back-and-forth, and a short written summary at the end.

Check: find the summary in the chat afterwards. Voice chats are saved like typed ones.

Day 4: use a photo

Goal: turn something on paper into something you can use.

In the app, tap the plus or paperclip button next to the message box and take a photo of a handwritten list or a whiteboard. Then send:

Type this up neatly as a list. Mark any word you couldn't read with [?].

What good looks like: a clean typed list, with the unclear words marked instead of guessed.

Check: compare it with the paper, word by word. Handwriting is where it guesses most.

Day 5: catch it being wrong

Goal: build the checking habit.

Ask it something about your own trade that you already know the answer to:

[A question from your line of work that you know well, for example: what's the usual process for a [job type] in [province]?]

Then, in the same chat:

Which parts of that answer are you least sure about? Which facts should I check with an official source, and which source?

What good looks like: it owns up to the shaky parts and points you somewhere real to check, like a government page or the body that sets the rules for your trade.

Check: find one thing in the first answer that's wrong, out of date, or too vague for your province. There's usually one. That's why you read everything, and why anything about law, tax, health or safety gets checked at the source.

Day 6: keep private things private

Goal: know what never gets pasted, and switch off training if you want to.

On personal plans, your chats may be used to improve future versions of the tool unless you turn that off. In ChatGPT, look in Settings under Data controls. In Claude, look in Settings under Privacy. Decide whether you want it on or off.

Then practise taking names out. Paste a real customer email with the details already removed, and send:

Here is a customer email with personal details removed: [paste]. Check it for anything that could still identify the person (names, addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, unusual details). List what I should remove before sharing it anywhere.

What good looks like: it spots something you missed, often a street name or a job reference number.

Check: the rule is "Customer A", never the real name. Canadian privacy law (PIPEDA federally, and BC's PIPA for most BC businesses) expects you to protect the personal information you hold. For anything sensitive, ask a privacy professional.

Day 7: one job, start to finish

Goal: use it on one real task from beginning to end, with everything from this week.

Go back to your Day 1 chat and send:

Let's do the first of the two ideas you suggested. Walk me through it step by step. Ask me for anything you need, one question at a time.

What good looks like: you end up with something finished, such as a reply you'd otherwise have written yourself.

Check: write down how long it took, next to how long it usually takes. You'll need that on Day 30.

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