20 Tips for Setting Up AI
For the Very First Time

Don't try to change your whole business on day one. Pick the one dull job you put off every week (replying to enquiries, writing quotes, social captions) and hand that to AI first.

Jumping between tools is the fastest way to feel lost. Choose one, get comfortable, and only look at others once you know what you actually need.

Most tools have a settings page where you can describe yourself and your business. Fill it in once and every answer gets more useful, without you repeating yourself.

'Write a caption' gets you something bland. 'Write a caption for a busy café owner who has never used AI' gets you something you can use.

It's not a search engine. Give it a proper brief, explain what you want and why, and expect to guide it, just as you would with someone on their first day.

There are no magic words. Type it the way you'd say it to a colleague. If it's clear to a person, it's clear to the AI.

The first reply is a rough draft. Say 'shorter', 'warmer', 'less formal' or 'try again with a different angle'. The real value is in the back-and-forth.

Paste in an email or post you're proud of and say 'write like this'. Examples beat instructions every time.

'No jargon, no exclamation marks, nothing salesy.' Telling it what to avoid saves you a lot of editing.

Stuck on what to say? Tell it to ask you five questions before it starts writing. You'll get something far more personal.

AI can sound confident and still be wrong. Always check names, prices, dates, numbers and anything legal or medical.

Don't paste in anything you wouldn't put on a postcard: customer details, bank information, passwords. Check your tool's privacy settings too.

You can learn everything in this list without paying. Upgrade only when you keep hitting a limit that's actually costing you time.

When something works well, copy what you typed into a note. In a few weeks you'll have your own little toolkit.

A short email. A table. Five bullet points. A script you can read out loud. Tell it the shape of the answer and you'll save a lot of reformatting.

If you think better out loud, use the voice option on your phone. Ramble your ideas, then ask it to tidy them up.

If it doesn't sound like you, it won't sound like you to your customers either. Tweak it until you'd happily say it in person.

Write a few lines on how you sound (friendly, direct, no waffle) and keep them handy to paste in. Your content stays consistent without extra effort.

Jot down how long a task used to take and how long it takes now. Seeing the minutes add up is the best motivation to keep going.

Fifteen minutes a day will get you further than one long session a month. Make it part of your routine and it soon feels natural.