Workshop 01 Beginners Half day

Practical AI foundations

Most teams know AI matters — but the noise is overwhelming. This beginners session is about the fundamentals: what AI and LLMs actually are, how prompting works at a basic level, which kinds of tasks they handle well, where they go wrong, and how to use tools like ChatGPT or Claude without putting client data at risk. No workflow redesign, no coding — just a clear-headed grounding before anyone goes further. No prior AI experience required.

In person or remote Up to 12 people

Who it's for

Business owners and directors who want to understand AI before buying tools or rolling it out to staff
Managers and team leads who will be asked to "use AI" but need the basics and guardrails first
Staff who have experimented informally and want a proper foundation, not more trial and error

Agenda

9:00 AM

What AI is — and what an LLM does

Plain-English explanation of large language models, how they generate text, and why they are not search engines, databases, or infallible experts.

9:45 AM

What AI is good at — and where it goes wrong

Drafting, summarising, explaining, brainstorming, and preparing work for human review. Hallucinations, outdated knowledge, and tasks that still need a person in charge.

10:30 AM

Break

10:45 AM

Prompts, tools, and accounts

How to write a simple useful prompt, what free vs paid tools offer, and a quick tour of the main options (ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot) without picking a winner for your business yet.

11:30 AM

Using AI safely

What not to paste in, checking output before you trust it, confidentiality, and sensible team rules everyone can follow.

12:15 PM

Try it — questions and next steps

Short hands-on examples from the room, Q&A, and agree a few safe experiments to try in the next couple of weeks.

You leave with

A shared vocabulary — LLM, prompt, hallucination, human review — without jargon overload
Clear sense of what AI can and cannot do in everyday office work
Simple prompt patterns your team can reuse straight away
Agreed ground rules on data, checking output, and when not to use AI