What you need
A browser, somewhere to save a plain-text note, and the ability to copy and paste. A calculator is useful for checking simple totals. You can work on a phone or computer.
A FREE COURSE · START FROM THE BEGINNING
AI Fundamentals.
Never used AI? You’re in the right place. Learn one small step at a time, with a fictional example you can safely practise on.
Understand the basics, choose a service, set it up, ask useful questions and check what comes back. Then save a reusable method and learn what can safely be automated.
8 lessons · About 120 minutes of reading and practice. Take one lesson at a time. Account setup, optional skill setup or access limits may add time. No coding, AI experience or paid subscription needed.
You can read every lesson without an account. To try a live AI conversation, use a service you’re allowed to use; each exercise also has a manual path. This website does not send prompts to an AI or connect to your accounts. Use only our fictional data, never passwords, private employer files or personal records. Progress checkboxes stay on this device.
What you’ll make
A checked invitation and agenda for a fictional workshop, a reusable instruction recipe, and a record of what you personally checked. Nothing is sent to anyone.
Why it matters
Drafting, reviewing and documenting a repeatable task are useful return-to-work habits across finance, HR, marketing and engineering. This is practice, not a qualification or a job guarantee.
YOUR LEARNING PATH
Start small. Build on it.
Follow the order the first time. Come back to individual lessons whenever you need them.
- LESSON 1 · 12 MINUTES
Understand what AI can and cannot do
Meet the basic ideas, then check one small answer yourself.
Start here → - LESSON 2 · 12 MINUTES
Choose a service without paying first
Pick one suitable starting point and keep the choice reversible.
Open lesson → - LESSON 3 · 15 MINUTES
Set up safely and send your first prompt
Find the chat box, review privacy controls and use only fictional details.
Open lesson → - LESSON 4 · 15 MINUTES
Write a prompt that gives useful direction
Supply the task, facts, audience, format and boundaries.
Open lesson → - LESSON 5 · 15 MINUTES
Check the answer and protect private information
Catch five errors and remove unnecessary personal details.
Open lesson → - LESSON 6 · 15 MINUTES
Save reusable instructions and understand skills
Build a portable recipe, then try an optional supported setting.
Open lesson → - LESSON 7 · 15 MINUTES
Try safe automation with a manual fallback
Define the trigger, test the task and verify what actually ran.
Open lesson → - LESSON 8 · 15 MINUTES
Finish your first checked AI workflow
Combine a draft, a proposed agenda and a truthful evidence note.
Open lesson →
NO JARGON REQUIRED
A few words you’ll meet.
- AI
- Software used for tasks such as recognising patterns, making predictions or generating content.
- Generative AI
- AI that creates content, such as text or images, in response to instructions and context.
- Assistant
- The app you interact with; its available tools and permissions vary.
- Model
- The underlying AI system that produces a response.
- Prompt
- The request or instructions you give an AI tool.
- Context
- Information available for a response, such as your request, earlier chat or supplied notes.
- Output
- What the tool returns, such as a draft, list or explanation.
- Hallucination
- An invented or inaccurate AI claim presented as though it were true.
- Source
- The original material you use to establish a fact. A citation should be opened and checked.
- Verification
- Checking a claim against appropriate evidence or independently repeating a calculation.
- Personal data
- Information about an identifiable person. Removing a name alone may not remove identifying details.
- Saved prompt
- Reusable text you keep and paste yourself; it does not run on its own.
- Account instructions
- Saved preferences a supported service can apply within its documented scope.
- Skill
- A provider-specific reusable method that can include instructions, resources or code. It is not automatically a schedule or permission.
- Connector
- A connection to another service that can allow data access and sometimes actions, depending on permissions.
- Automation
- A configured system that runs an action when a defined trigger occurs.
- Trigger
- The time or event that starts an automation.
- Manual fallback
- A way to complete the useful task yourself when an automated feature is unavailable or fails.
If you get stuck, use the manual option or the worked example and move on. You don’t need to buy a plan, install an extension, share files or connect email to complete this course. If you skip a live AI step, describe your work as manual practice. Each lesson includes a small check and an honest way to describe work you actually completed.