AI for Business & Productivity · Beginner level

Beginner level · Module 1 of 5 · 10 guided hours

AI at Work: Getting Started

Learn what today's AI tools do well and badly for business work, choose tools sensibly and write effective prompts.

Learning objectives

  • Describe what AI tools are good and not good at in business work
  • Choose AI tools considering cost, features and data policies
  • Write clear business prompts with task, context, audience and format

Topics

  • what AI assistants can and cannot do
  • common AI tools for business
  • free and paid plans
  • data use policies
  • prompt basics
  • iterating on answers

Lessons

  1. Lesson 1 What AI Tools Are Good and Not Good At

    Understand the strengths and weaknesses of AI assistants for business work.

    drafting and summarisingbrainstormingfactual errorsjudgement and accountability

  2. Lesson 2 Choosing AI Tools

    Compare AI tools for business use on features, cost, ease of use and how they handle your data.

    general assistants and specialised toolsfree vs paid plansdata use and retentionaccess on phones

  3. Lesson 3 Writing Effective Business Prompts

    Write prompts that give AI the task, context, audience and format it needs for useful results.

    taskcontext and audiencetone and formatfollow-up refinement

Practical activity

Compare two AI assistants on three real tasks from a local business and record which produced better results, how fast and with what problems.

Expected outcomes

  • Realistic expectations of AI tools
  • Effective first prompts

Assessment

Tool comparison sheet and a set of prompts marked against a prompt checklist.

Free taster lesson Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (for Business Use) Read a free self-study lesson on this topic in the Free Course Library.

Taught live by an instructor — online or in person. Free course lessons are for self-study and do not lead to a certificate — see registration options.