Day 1 of 5· 25 min

Which AI wins for which task

Claude vs ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Perplexity — when each one actually beats the others.

You don't need ten AI subscriptions. You need to know which of three or four wins for which task. Today we go through the real differences: Claude for writing + reasoning, ChatGPT for breadth + image gen, Gemini for Google Workspace, Perplexity for research. Free tiers vs paid. Where the $20/mo subscription actually pays for itself, and where it's a waste.

Lesson 16 min

What ChatGPT actually IS (and isn't)

Before we touch any tool, let's clear up what AI even means in 2026. When people say 'AI' they mostly mean ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini — these are called 'large language models.' Forget that term. What they ARE: extremely well-read assistants that have read most of the internet. You type something to them. They respond with text. That's it. That's the whole product. What they ARE NOT: not magic, not sentient, not the killer robots from movies, not 'taking your job' tomorrow. They're useful tools that get smarter when you give them clear instructions, just like a new hire. The reason everyone's freaking out is that they're surprisingly good at certain tasks — writing, summarizing, answering questions, brainstorming — and they're free or cheap to use. That's the entire deal.

Key points

→ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini are 'language models' — well-read text assistants
→You type → they respond with text. That's it.
→Not magic, not sentient, not coming for your job tomorrow
→Free or $20/mo. Why everyone's excited: surprisingly useful for everyday work

Lesson 25 min

Open one right now

Theory's over. Open a new browser tab and go to claude.ai. Sign up — it's free. Just an email. Don't put in payment info. Once you're in, you'll see a text box. That's it. That's the whole interface. Type this: 'Explain what my business does in one paragraph based on this description: I run [your business in 1 sentence].' Hit enter. Read what comes back. Now you've used AI. You can argue it's better than a Google search for this kind of task — and the AI never showed you ads. This is the basic experience: ask a question, get a useful answer. Stay in this tab for the rest of the lesson.

Key points

→Action: open claude.ai, sign up (free, no card needed)
→First prompt: 'Explain what my business does in one paragraph based on: [your description]'
→Read the response — that's AI in action
→Stay in this tab for the rest of the lesson

Lesson 37 min

What it's good at (and not good at)

Claude (and other chat AIs) are excellent at: drafting emails, summarizing long things, brainstorming ideas, answering general questions, rewriting your stuff to sound better, simplifying complicated text, planning a project, role-playing as a customer to test your sales pitch. These are tasks where 'one good answer' is what you need. They are NOT good at: looking up current prices or stock data (their knowledge has a cut-off date), giving you legal or medical advice (they hedge for liability), making decisions where the stakes are huge (use them for thinking, you decide), counting or precise math (they make mistakes on numbers). Rule of thumb: use AI for thinking, writing, summarizing. Don't trust it on anything that needs to be exactly right without checking.

Key points

→GREAT for: drafting, summarizing, brainstorming, rewriting, planning
→NOT great for: current prices/data, legal/medical advice, precise math, big decisions
→Rule: use AI for thinking + writing. You make decisions.
→Always verify anything that needs to be EXACTLY right

Lesson 47 min

Try three useful things

Three exercises. Do all three. They take 5 minutes total. Exercise 1: Paste your most recent customer email (or invent one) into Claude. Ask: 'Draft a friendly reply to this. Keep it under 100 words.' Notice how good it is. Exercise 2: Find a long article you've been meaning to read. Paste the whole thing. Ask: 'Summarize this in 5 bullet points.' Read the bullets in 30 seconds instead of reading the article in 20 minutes. Exercise 3: Ask Claude this exact question: 'I run [your business type]. What are 5 marketing ideas I haven't tried that other businesses in my space are using?' Read the suggestions. You'll get one or two genuinely useful ones. Congrats — you just got 5 marketing consultants' worth of ideas in 30 seconds.

Key points

→Exercise 1: Draft a customer reply from a real email
→Exercise 2: Summarize a long article in 5 bullets
→Exercise 3: Get 5 marketing ideas for your business
→Each one takes <1 min. The compounding effect is what matters.

Try it yourself

Your first 3 AI prompts (copy + try them)

PROMPT 1 — Customer email draft:
"Here's an email I received from a customer: [PASTE]. Draft a friendly reply under 100 words. Don't sound corporate."

PROMPT 2 — Article summarizer:
"Summarize this article in 5 bullet points. Just the bullets, no preamble.

[PASTE FULL ARTICLE]"

PROMPT 3 — Marketing ideas:
"I run [your business in 1 sentence]. Give me 5 marketing ideas I probably haven't tried that other similar businesses are using."

Result: you've replaced one consultant call, one slow read, and one creative-block session with 5 minutes of AI use.

Common beginner mistakes

⚠️Asking AI for 'the truth' on prices/policies — it has a knowledge cutoff. Look up current facts yourself.
⚠️Letting AI make actual decisions for you (use it to think; you decide)
⚠️Being too vague: 'Write me an email' vs 'Write a friendly reply to this customer who complained about [specific]' — specificity = quality
⚠️Trusting numbers without double-checking (AI does math poorly)
⚠️Stopping at the first answer. Better: tell the AI what to improve and ask again.

Day 2 →

Prompts that actually work (vs. why yours don't)

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