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AI Fluency for small businesses

📖 Lesson content

What you'll learn

Estimated time: 15 minutes

By the end of this lesson you'll be able to:

  • Define what AI Fluency means and why it matters for small business owners
  • Articulate your values, goals, and constraints for more effective AI collaboration
  • Identify your objectives for integrating AI tools and capabilities into your business operations

Welcome to AI Fluency for small business owners

(4 minutes)

This video introduces you to the course, explains why AI Fluency is important for small business owners, and previews what you will learn throughout the program.

Course roadmap

4D Framework for AI Fluency

Delegation, description, discernment, and diligence—the four moves behind every productive AI collaboration.

AI capabilities and limitations

What today's AI can and can't do reliably, and why that shapes how you put it to work in your business.

Using AI in practice

Applying the 4Ds to real business tasks—market research, customer data, and the operations work you handle every day.

Putting it all together

Building a repeatable AI-augmented workflow and an AI use policy that fits your business and your team.

Next steps

Where to keep building your fluency—blueprints, resources, and your certificate of completion.

Key takeaways

  • AI Fluency is the ability to use AI in ways that are efficient, effective, ethical, and safe.
  • The 4D Framework — Delegation, Description, Discernment, Diligence — is the foundation of AI Fluency.
  • The Delegation-Diligence loop guides responsible choices about when and how to use AI.
  • The Description-Discernment loop drives higher-quality outputs through back-and-forth collaboration.
  • Every efficiency gain should translate to better customer service and more time for high-value work.

Exercise

Exercise 1: Getting access to a language model

You'll need access to a language model (5–10 minutes)

Throughout this course, you'll practice what you're learning by working directly with a language model. While our examples feature Claude (Anthropic's AI assistant), you're welcome to work with any language model you prefer. The principles and skills we'll explore apply across different AI systems.

Getting started is simple and free:

  • Claude: Visit claude.ai to create a free account
  • No paid subscriptions required to complete course activities
  • You can also use other AI chatbots as you prefer

New to Claude? No worries! We'll provide clear guidance with each exercise to help you get started.

Exercise 2: Defining your values

This exercise will help you shape your purpose behind collaborating with AI in your business. By the end, you'll have a reusable context document that makes every future AI interaction more productive.

Part I: Self-Reflection (on your own)

Take a few minutes to answer the following questions. Write your answers down — you'll use them in Part II.

  1. What is the mission and vision of your business? What do you want to be known for?
  2. Describe your business situation and your specific role — constraints, strengths, opportunities, team size, etc.
  3. What are the core values and standards that shape how you operate? Think about what you'd never compromise on.
  4. Complete this sentence: "If AI could help me _______, I would be able to spend more time _______." Focus on how AI efficiency gains can translate to better customer outcomes, business growth, or quality of life.

Part II: Collaboration (with AI)

Start a conversation with Claude (or any other AI assistant you choose):

Opening the conversation:

  • Explain that you're a small business owner who wants to build a reusable summary of your business context
  • Let the AI know this document will help establish shared understanding for future collaborations
  • Indicate you'd like the AI to help you think through all relevant aspects of your work
  • You can ask the AI to interview you about your business, OR you can just start sharing information and ask the AI what else would be helpful to know
  • Take your time, the goal is a back-and-forth conversation that surfaces important context

Key areas to cover (the AI should help you explore these):

  • Your business's mission, vision, and values
  • The products or services you offer and who your customers are
  • The typical scope of work that you do in your role (and any team members' roles)
  • Typical challenges faced by your business — cash flow, staffing, competition, time management, etc.
  • Industry context and market constraints
  • Opportunities for improvement or growth
  • Common pain points in your daily operations
  • Goals for integrating AI into your workflow
  • Any unique aspects of your business, industry, or local market

Make it conversational:

  • Don't feel you need to share everything at once
  • Encourage the AI to ask follow-up questions
  • Share specific examples when they help illustrate your context (be mindful of sensitive business data — we'll cover privacy in a later lesson)
  • It's okay to think out loud and refine your thoughts as you go

Creating a reusable document:

  • Ask the AI to synthesize the conversation into a structured context document you can paste into future conversations
  • Review it together and add anything missing or make corrections
  • Request a format that's easy to copy and reuse — this becomes your "AI briefing sheet" for your business

Lesson reflection

  • Did the AI conversation surface anything new about your business?
  • Which parts of your operations stand to benefit most from AI collaboration?
  • What values or standards should guide how you use AI in your business?

What's next

In the next lesson, you'll learn the 4D Framework — the four competencies at the heart of effective AI collaboration.

Feedback

As you progress through the course, we'd love to hear from you about how you are using concepts from the course in your work, plus any feedback you may have. Share your feedback here.

🎬 Video transcript

Source video: 42zQaA-j9b0

No transcript available — see lesson body for narrative content.

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