To start using AI you need one free AI chat account (ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini) and 20–30 minutes a day for a week. On day one you set up privacy, then each day you do one real task: an email, an explanation, a summary, a fact check. By day seven you will know where AI saves you time and where you should not trust it.
You do not need to code, own an expensive computer or speak perfect English. Every exercise works on a phone. Copy the prompts below and adapt them to your own task.
What is AI, in simple words?
Behind an AI chat sits a large language model (LLM). It was trained on enormous amounts of text and learned which word most likely comes next. That is why it writes, translates, summarises and explains well. But it is not a database: when it does not “know” something, it can produce a confident answer that is wrong.
Remember two things. First, a model’s knowledge stops at a certain date; it only learns about recent events when web search is switched on. Second, it does not know you. The more context you give, the better the answer.
The 7-day plan at a glance
| Day | Topic | Exercise | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Account and safety | Set up privacy settings | 20 min |
| 2 | Writing | A work email | 20 min |
| 3 | Learning | Explain a hard topic, then quiz me | 25 min |
| 4 | Documents | Summarise a PDF | 25 min |
| 5 | Checking | Catch AI making a mistake | 30 min |
| 6 | Voice and images | Translate a photo, talk by voice | 20 min |
| 7 | Routine | Three prompt templates | 30 min |
Day 1: account and privacy settings
Pick one chat and create an account. All three big assistants have a free tier, and all work online in a browser (chatgpt.com, claude.ai, gemini.google.com) and in a phone app. Our ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini comparison explains which suits what. Then open the settings and decide whether your chats may be used to train models:
- ChatGPT: Settings → Data controls, “Improve the model for everyone”. A Temporary Chat is not saved to history and is not used for training.
- Claude: in Privacy settings, the model-training setting, “Help improve Claude”. Anthropic says data is kept for five years with the setting on and 30 days with it off.
- Gemini: “Keep Activity”. With it off, chats are not used for training but are still kept for 72 hours. Google also warns that while the setting is on, human reviewers read a sample of chats to improve its services.
A simple rule: do not type into an AI chat anything you would not post on a public forum. ID numbers, card details, passwords, a client’s name and address, medical information and confidential work documents do not belong there. If you need help with a document, strip out names and numbers first.
Day 2: your first useful task
Start with an email you would write anyway. “Write me an email” is a weak prompt. A strong one looks like this:
“You are an experienced office manager. Write a short, polite email to a client whose order will be 3 days late. Reason: a supplier delay. Offer free delivery. Tone: professional and apologetic without grovelling. Maximum 120 words.”
Notice the four parts: role, task, context, format. Google’s prompting guide uses the same structure. After the answer, ask for changes: “shorter”, “warmer”, “add a subject line”. Working with AI is a conversation, not a single command. Ten rules with examples are in our guide on how to write a good prompt.
Day 3: learning and explanations
Pick a topic you never quite understood: interest rates, photosynthesis, inflation. Type:
“Explain inflation the way you would to a 14-year-old. Use one everyday example. Then ask me 3 questions to check I understood. Don’t give the answers yet.”
Answer the questions and ask it to correct you. AI becomes a personal tutor this way, but always check numbers and dates.
Day 4: summarising a document
Upload a long PDF: a manual, a report, terms and conditions (without confidential information). Write: “Summarise this in 5 points. Give the page number for each point. List deadlines and amounts separately.” Page numbers make checking easy: open two or three of them and see whether the text is really there.
For work across many documents there are dedicated tools such as Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM), which answers from the sources you upload.
Day 5: checking, or where AI gets it wrong
This is the most important day. Ask AI about something you know very well: your town’s history, details of your profession, a local regulation. Count the mistakes. Then ask: “List the sources you are relying on”, and check whether they exist at all.
A 2025 paper by OpenAI researchers explains why this happens: training and evaluation reward guessing more than saying “I don’t know”. So make one sentence a habit: “If you are not sure, say so.”
A quick checking routine: verify numbers, dates and names in an official source; find any quote in the original text; for laws, compare the answer with the current official text (in Georgia, matsne.gov.ge). If you cannot find the source, assume it does not exist.
What is AI bad at?
By the end of the week you will know the weak spots. The most common ones:
- Exact facts and sources: invented quotes, books, links and court cases.
- Recent news: without search, the model does not know what happened yesterday.
- Counting and arithmetic: it slips on complex calculations unless it uses a calculator or code.
- Smaller languages: grammar, idioms and formal style are weaker than in English.
- Medical, legal and financial advice: general information helps, but make decisions with a professional.
Day 6: voice, photos and images
Try voice mode on your phone and talk to the chat as you would to a person, for example to practise a language. Photograph a foreign menu, manual or label and ask for a translation. Then try image generation: “Create a simple illustration for a child’s space-themed birthday invitation, no text.”
Why no text? AI still garbles letters in many scripts, Georgian included. Add text afterwards in Canva or another editor.
Day 7: your own routine
Choose three tasks that repeat every week: a report, a social media post, meeting notes. Write a prompt template for each and save it. Many chats have projects or custom instructions where you describe once who you are and what style you need.
Three templates you can copy right now:
- Meeting notes: “Below are notes from a meeting. Pull out the decisions, the action items (who, what, by when) and open questions. Format: three headings with bullet points. Notes: …”
- Social media post: “Write a Facebook post about our new service. Audience: small business owners. Tone: friendly. Length: 60–80 words, ending with one call to action. Give me 3 versions.”
- Weekly report: “Using these numbers, write a short weekly report for my manager: what improved, what got worse and what we plan next. Don’t change the numbers or add anything. Data: …”
If these tasks take a lot of your working week, the next step is automation: a form, a sheet and an email that run by themselves. Concrete ideas are in our list of 15 AI use cases in business.
Using AI in Georgian: 5 tips
- Name the language. Write “answer in Georgian”, or it may reply in English.
- Name the style. “Literary Georgian, formal address” or “conversational, friendly tone”.
- Hard tasks in English. If the result is weak, try the task in English and ask for a Georgian translation at the end. Research shows language models perform worse in low-resource languages.
- Check grammar and terms, especially in official letters and public texts.
- Same prompt, two chats. Models differ in Georgian, and a side-by-side test quickly shows which one suits you.
Frequently asked questions
Is ChatGPT free?
ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini all have free tiers that are enough for this 7-day plan. Paid plans give you more messages, stronger models and extra features. Prices and limits change often, so check current terms on the official sites.
Does AI understand Georgian?
Yes. The big assistants read and write Georgian reasonably well, though not as well as English. They sometimes slip on grammar, terminology and idioms, so always proofread official text.
Is it safe to type personal information into an AI chat?
It is not worth it. You can switch off training in the settings, but chats are still stored for a period. Keep ID numbers, card details, passwords and other people’s personal data out of the chat.
Which AI chat should a beginner choose?
Start with one you already have access to (Gemini with a Google account, for example) and try a second within the week. The key habit is comparing the same task in two chats.
Where can I learn AI online?
Start with this plan and a free online course such as Elements of AI or Anthropic Academy. If you need AI for work, choose a practical course for your role; our guide to AI courses compares them. Our own courses, by profession, are on our AI courses page.
Next step
Do all seven days and note which task saved you the most time. If you want to use AI at work systematically but do not know where to start, contact us for a free consultation and we will pick the right next step together.
Sources
- Updates to Consumer Terms and Privacy Policy, Anthropic
- Gemini Apps Privacy Hub, Google
- Why Language Models Hallucinate, Kalai et al., arXiv
- Writing effective prompts, Google Workspace
- ChatGPT MT: Competitive for High- (but Not Low-) Resource Languages, ACL Anthology
- NotebookLM is now Gemini Notebook, Google
