A.I. in plain English

You've heard about A.I. for a few years now, and most of what you've heard is either hype or fear. Here's what it actually is, in the words I'd use if we were sitting across a table.

What it is

The A.I. tools people talk about, like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot, are programs that have read an enormous amount of writing. From all that reading, they learned how words, ideas and tasks fit together. When you type something, the tool predicts a good response, one word at a time.

That sounds simple, and in a way it is. But it means the tool can write, summarize, explain, organize and rewrite almost anything you can describe in words. That covers a surprising share of the work in a small business or an office.

It is not a person, and it doesn't "know" things the way you do. It doesn't remember you between conversations unless you turn that on. And it can be confidently wrong, which is the most important thing on this page.

What it's good at

• First drafts. Emails, posts, letters, job ads, policies. You'll still edit, but you won't start from a blank page.
• Summaries. Paste in a long document, contract or email thread and ask for the five things that matter.
• Rewriting. Make this friendlier. Make this shorter. Make this sound like me. Translate it into Spanish.
• Organizing. Turn a messy list into a checklist, a schedule or a table.
• Explaining. Ask it what a term means, or how a process works, and keep asking until it makes sense. It never gets tired of questions.
• Working with your files. The newer tools can read a spreadsheet, a PDF or a photo of a handwritten note, and work from that.

What it's bad at

• Facts you haven't checked. It can invent a statistic, a quote or a law that sounds exactly right. Anything that matters, you verify.
• Your business's details. It only knows what you tell it. If you don't give it your prices, hours and tone, it'll make up something generic.
• Judgment calls. It can lay out options, but it doesn't know your customers, your town or your budget the way you do. You decide.
• Anything private you shouldn't share. More on that in Keeping your data private with A.I.

How to talk to it

The biggest difference between people who find A.I. useful and people who give up on it is how they ask. Three habits make most of the difference.

1. Give it the background. Don't just say "write a Facebook post." Say who you are, who it's for, and what you want them to do.

I run a small bakery in Coos Bay. Write a short Facebook post for our regulars announcing that we'll be closed Monday for a family wedding. Friendly, no exclamation points, under 50 words.

2. Show it an example. If you have an email or post you like, paste it in and say "match this tone." It's very good at copying a voice.

3. Keep talking. The first answer is a starting point. Tell it what's wrong: "too formal," "shorter," "don't mention the price," "give me three options." It's a conversation, not a vending machine.

It's not just a chatbot anymore

The chat window is where most people start, but it's no longer where it ends. The same technology can now sort your inbox, pull numbers out of invoices, answer the questions you get asked twenty times a week, or connect the apps you already use so they talk to each other. That's most of what I set up for people.

You don't need to understand how any of it works under the hood, any more than you need to understand your truck's transmission. You just need to know what it can do for you, and where to be careful.

Where to start

Pick one task that annoys you every week. Try it with any of the free tools, using the three habits above. If it saves you twenty minutes, keep going. If it doesn't, the problem is usually the instructions, not you.

If you'd like a hand, that's what my hour is for: book a time or ask me a question first.