How to Start Using AI in Your Business: A Practical First Step

You have heard about AI. Perhaps you have opened a tool, typed a question and received an answer that sounded impressive but did not quite fit your business. The next step is to choose something you actually need to do and practice using AI to help with it.

Think about the work that fills your week: responding to inquiries, explaining your services, writing follow-up messages or deciding what to include in your next newsletter. Pick one task you understand well enough to judge the result. You can begin as a solo business owner, with a laptop and a specific question.

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Make a short list of tasks you repeat. Select one with a clear starting point and a result you can review yourself. A draft response to a common service inquiry is a useful exercise because you already know what the customer needs to hear.

For example, imagine a customer asking what happens during an introductory consultation. Write down your actual process, what information you request and the next step you want the customer to take. Use a fictional inquiry for practice.

• Communication: turn your service notes into a clear reply.
• Marketing: develop a newsletter outline from a topic you know.
• Planning: organize your own notes into a weekly action list.
• Real estate: practice drafting a general buyer consultation checklist from your own approved outline.

A useful prompt explains who you are writing for, what you want to accomplish, the facts to use and the format you need. Include an example of your preferred tone when you have one.

The following practice prompt works for a consultant, service provider or other entrepreneur. Replace the brackets with general business information that is appropriate to share in your chosen tool.

Read the response beside your notes. Check whether it describes your service accurately, answers the question and sounds like you. Remove any claim you cannot support. Keep private customer information and confidential records out of an introductory exercise.

Then give specific feedback. Try: “Make the opening friendlier, shorten the second paragraph and keep the next step exactly as written.” Compare the revised version with the first. Learning to explain what needs changing is part of learning to use AI.

When the result is useful, save the prompt and your final version as a starting point for a similar task. Review it again each time your services or circumstances change.

• Practice keeping your voice in AI-assisted marketing

A demonstration can show you what is possible. Guided practice gives you a chance to try a task, ask questions and understand why the result needs adjusting. Bring a business example and the point where you get stuck.

At Latitudes Training, Coaching & Consulting, the work starts with your question and your experience. Marcela Arenas offers practical guidance in English and Spanish, connecting learning to the communication, marketing and organization tasks you handle.

• One-to-one AI sessions offer individual attention and a pace that fits your questions.
• Group workshops provide shared practice around a focused topic.
• Team training helps colleagues apply a common approach to their work.
• Workflow consulting examines how AI could fit a recurring business process.
• Hands-on implementation supports putting an agreed approach into practice.

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After trying the task, ask whether the final result was useful and how much editing it required. Compare the total effort, including review, with your usual approach. Record which instructions helped and where you still needed support.

If the draft is consistently useful, practice the same task again before adding another. If it keeps missing the point, revisit the information you supplied or work through the example with a guide. Your next step may be a clearer prompt, a better example or a different task.

You do not need a complete AI strategy to ask for help. Start with a sentence such as: “I want help writing better follow-up emails,” or “I have tried AI, but the answers are too generic.” That gives the learning a clear purpose.

Tell Marcela what you do, what you have tried and what you want to work on. Together, you can discuss whether individual instruction, a workshop or support with a business workflow is the right starting point.

• Talk with Marcela about your starting point
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