Before you build anything, get comfortable with the basics. An AI assistant is a very fast writer and reader that knows nothing about your business unless you tell it, and sometimes sounds sure when it's wrong. Half an hour of practice here makes every later stage easier.
What's inside
- What it's good at and where it slips
- A four-part way to ask that works
- Five jobs to try today
- What to keep out of it, and how to check its work
What it's good at, and where it slips
| Lean on it for | Check it carefully for |
|---|---|
| Drafting and rewriting emails and messages | Facts it can't see, such as your prices, dates and policies |
| Summarizing a long thread or document | Numbers. Do the math in a spreadsheet and let it write around the result |
| Turning messy notes into a clean list | Anything recent. It may not know what changed lately |
| Explaining something in plain words | Legal, tax and medical specifics. Treat it as a way to prepare questions for a professional |
| Brainstorming options to choose from | Anything where being wrong is expensive |
It can sound equally confident when it's right and when it's wrong. Your job is to be the one who checks.
How to ask
Most disappointing answers come from a thin question. Give it four things.
- Who you are and who it's for: the kind of business and the person reading.
- The job: one clear task, not three.
- What to work from: paste the email, the notes or the numbers.
- What good looks like: length, tone, format, and what it must not do.
A first prompt to try
I run a [kind of business] with [number] people. Write a reply to the customer email below. Keep it under 100 words, friendly and plain, no exclamation marks. Don't promise a price or a date. Put anything you can't know in [SQUARE BRACKETS] so I can fill it in. Email: [paste the email here]
Five first jobs
- Rewrite a message you've been putting off, in a calmer or clearer voice.
- Paste a long email thread and ask for what was decided and what's still open.
- Dump your notes from a call and ask for a checklist of next steps.
- Ask it to explain a clause or a term in plain words, then take your questions to a professional.
- Describe a problem and ask for five options with the downside of each.
Keep these out of it
- Passwords, card numbers and bank details.
- Customers' personal details, unless you've read your provider's terms and your plan is set up for it.
- Anything you promised someone you'd keep confidential.
Providers and plans differ on how they handle what you type, so read the data terms for the one you use. When in doubt, replace names and numbers with stand-ins before you paste.
Check its work
- Read everything before it goes to a customer. Always.
- Ask: what might be wrong or missing in your answer?
- Ask where a claim came from. If it can't say, treat it as a guess.
- Re-do any number yourself.
Do this today
- Run the first prompt on a real email.
- Try two of the five jobs.
- Write down one thing it got wrong.