Five jobs to try this week

Do not try to “adopt AI”. That is a project that never starts. Instead, pick one real, low-stakes job and do it with an assistant once. Here are five worth trying this week. All you need is a free account with ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.

1. Draft a reply you were dreading

Paste in an awkward customer email and ask for a polite, clear reply. Read it, adjust the tone to sound like you, send. You will feel the head start immediately.

2. Summarise something long

A rambling email chain, a supplier’s terms, a report you have been avoiding. Paste it in and ask for the key points and anything you need to act on. Minutes of reading becomes seconds.

3. Turn a voice note into a tidy message

Talk out what you want to say, paste the rough text in, and ask it to tidy it into a professional message. Great for quotes, updates and follow-ups when you are on the move.

4. Make a checklist you keep forgetting

Ask it to list the steps for a job you do often, or the questions a new customer usually asks. Use the answer as a checklist. You now have a small process where you had none.

5. Rewrite something to fit

A blunt email you need to soften, a long paragraph that needs to be three lines, a description that needs to sound less stiff. Ask, and pick the version that fits.

The pattern

Notice what these have in common: the input is words, the output is words, and you give it the final read. That is the sweet spot, and it is where nearly all the everyday value lives. Do one of these, then do a slightly bigger one next time. The whole skill is built from small reps like that. Nobody starts fluent.

That is the taster. If it clicked, the full courses go further: automating the jobs that eat your week, choosing the right tools, and giving your AI the context of your actual business so it stops guessing. And if you would rather learn it in a room with people who do this for a living, that is exactly what our regular AI Automation Masterclass in Manchester is for.