Running a session

Who it is for: Anyone. No technical background needed.

They leave able to: You will have used an AI tool on one real task, checked the result, and built a small routine you trust.

1. What AI is and is notThink of one small job that eats ten minutes of your week. Write down what a decent first attempt would look like. That is your guinea pig for the rest of the course.
2. Your first good promptRewrite the dinner prompt for something in your actual day. Leave out names, addresses and anything you would not put on a postcard, then run it.
3. Everyday winsGive a tool one small job from today. Time your usual way of doing it, then be honest about whether the result helped once you had tidied it up.
4. Check the answerTake one fact from an AI answer you have seen. Go and find somewhere independent that backs it up or knocks it down, and write down which happened.
5. Make it your ownPick your repeating job and write the five steps on something you will actually see. Run it three times this week, then keep only the steps you used.

Who it is for: Anyone applying for a job, changing direction or preparing for an interview.

They leave able to: A CV bullet that is sharper and still true, a practised interview answer, and a rule for what never goes into a chatbot.

1. What a recruiter actually readsWrite down one thing you did well at work, in your own clumsy words. Nobody is marking the prose. Take out client, colleague and employer names before the next lesson.
2. Turn an achievement into a CV bulletRun the prompt on your achievement. Answer its questions with real detail, then keep the one bullet you would be glad to be asked about.
3. A cover note in your voiceTake a real advert, line it up against your bullets, write six sentences, then ask only for cuts. Notice what it wanted to delete; it is often the part you were proudest of.
4. Fairer interview practicePut your strongest bullet through three questions, out loud. After each one, write a single sentence on what you would say differently next time.
5. What never goes into a chatbotRead your achievement back as though your old employer were reading over your shoulder. Take out anything that would make them wince.

Who it is for: Owners and staff of small businesses, sole traders and side businesses.

They leave able to: A reply template you trust, a weekly plan that took five minutes, and a written rule for what customer data may never be pasted anywhere.

1. Where AI helps, and where it costs youList the five messages you write over and over. Mark which are safe to hand over, and which contain a price or a promise somebody could hold you to.
2. The customer replyDraft one reply this way, then turn it into a template with gaps where your own facts go. Future you will be grateful.
3. Plan the week in five minutesDo it for next week and time yourself. Note the one thing it dragged into the light that you would otherwise have remembered on Thursday at midnight.
4. Your written data ruleWrite your paragraph now, then read it against the last three things you actually pasted into a chat tool. This is the uncomfortable bit.
5. Keep it honest with customersTake the question customers ask you most, write a plain honest answer with the tool’s help, and put it somewhere they will actually find it.

Who it is for: Writers, designers, musicians, makers and anyone who creates for a living or for love.

They leave able to: A way of using AI for directions rather than finished work, a check on rights before anything is used commercially, and your own voice intact.

1. Directions, not draftsTry it on something you are stuck on. Write one sentence on which direction you turned down and why. That sentence, it turns out, is your brief.
2. Whose work is it?Open the terms of one tool you already use. Find what you are allowed to do with the output, and what it is allowed to do with your uploads. Two sentences. Write them down.
3. Your voice, on purposeTry it on one paragraph you are unsure about, then count how many of its notes you actually agreed with. The number is usually smaller than expected, which is the point.
4. The honesty lineWrite the process note for whatever you are working on now. Then ask yourself whether you would be happy sending it to the client. That is the whole test.
5. A sustainable practiceName the three stages of your process you are keeping entirely your own. Write them down and put them where you work, so the decision is already made on a tired day.

Who it is for: Parents and carers of school-age children.

They leave able to: A way to turn any topic into practice a child can do in their own words, an accuracy check you always run, and a family rule you can explain in one sentence.

1. Help, not answersTake whatever came home in the bag this week and run the prompt. Then check the explanation against the school’s own material before you repeat any of it.
2. Check it before you teach itTake one claim from an AI explanation and hold it against the school’s material. Note whether the method matched, not just the answer.
3. Practice in their own wordsGet three “explain why” questions on a topic and try them at the kitchen table. Note where the child’s answer was better than the machine’s. It happens more than you would think.
4. Privacy at homeWrite a one-sentence family rule a child could repeat back without rolling their eyes. Then test it on them, because they will tell you.
5. A family conversationThis week, check one AI answer together and let them find the mistake or confirm the fact. Then talk about how you knew. That conversation is the lesson.

Who it is for: Anyone who has used a chat tool and wants better results, without learning to code.

They leave able to: A prompt pattern you can reuse, a way to compare answers, and the habit of asking what the model is unsure about.

1. The patternWrite one prompt using all five parts for something you genuinely need this week. Run it, then keep it. You have just made yourself a template.
2. Context changes everythingRun the two-version experiment on something from your week, then write down the one sentence of context that changed the answer most. Keep that sentence.
3. Format and limitsFind a rambling answer you were given, ask again with a shape and a size, and compare how much of each you actually read to the end.
4. Compare and iterateTake a prompt from earlier and run three rounds, changing one thing each time. Keep the version that produced the answer you edited least.
5. Verify, then useAsk a model for three facts about a topic you know well, with confidence flags. Check all three and note whether the flags matched the errors.

Who it is for: Anyone who has seen an AI picture and wondered how, or whether to believe it.

They leave able to: You will have made something yourself, know why the giveaways keep expiring, and have one rule that works on a perfect fake.

1. How it makes a pictureAsk a picture tool for the same thing twice, word for word. Look at what changed between the two. That difference is the whole method showing itself.
2. Describing what you wantTake a picture you generated in the last lesson. Change exactly one word of the description and run it again. Keep going until you can predict what each change will do.
3. A voice that is not theirsAgree a daft family word with the people you would drop everything for. Do it today, while nothing is happening, because the point of it is that it already exists.
4. Why the giveaways expireFind something forwarded to you that you were not sure about. Do not study the picture. Search the claim as a sentence instead, and see whether anybody else is reporting it.
5. Using it honestlyLook at something you have made or might make with one of these tools. Decide the one sentence you would use to say it was generated, and where that sentence would go.