Practical AI for Small Businesses: Save Time Safely

What's inside

1. Level 1: AI in Small Business: Evidence, Hype and FearFree
   Learn to tell dated, sourced evidence about AI's effect on small firms apart from vendor hype and alarmist claims, using the course's three sample firms as reference points.
2. Level 2: What AI Tools Can and Cannot Do ReliablyFree
   Understand how generative AI assistants produce text, why they make confident errors, and which kinds of business task suit them or need careful checking.
3. Level 3: General AI Assistants: Comparing Your Options
   Compare general-purpose assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Copilot on features, plan types, data settings and price, using their current help pages instead of marketing claims.
4. Level 4: AI Built Into Software You Already Use
   Review the AI features already built into your accounting, email, office, website-builder and booking software, and decide whether to use them, switch them off or buy a separate tool.
5. Level 5: Marketing Content, Social Posts and Adverts
   Use AI to draft social posts, newsletters, web copy and advert variations in your own brand voice, with human review for accuracy, claims and tone before anything is published.
6. Level 6: Customer Emails and Written Replies
   Speed up customer emails, review responses and complaint replies with AI drafts and templates while keeping replies personal, accurate and approved by a person.
7. Level 7: Chatbots, Phone Answering and Human Handover
   Assess AI website chat and phone-answering tools, set clear limits on what they handle, and design handover rules so customers can always reach a person.
8. Level 8: Quotes, Proposals and Everyday Admin
   Use AI to draft quotes, proposals, meeting notes, job sheets and routine admin from your own templates, with checks on prices, terms and scope before anything goes to a client.
9. Level 9: Bookkeeping and Finance Help, and Its Limits
   Learn where AI helps with bookkeeping, such as categorising transactions, explaining reports and drafting reminders, and where tax, VAT and filing decisions need your accountant and official HMRC guidance.
10. Level 10: Documents, Policies and a Simple Knowledge Base
    Use AI to draft and tidy procedures, FAQs and internal documents, then organise them into a small, maintained knowledge base that staff and tools can rely on.
11. Level 11: Hiring and HR With AI, Fairly
    Use AI for job adverts, interview questions and HR admin while avoiding discrimination, keeping human decisions, and meeting UK employment and data protection duties.
12. Level 12: Staff AI Guidelines and Training
    Write a short, practical AI use policy for your team and plan training so staff know which tools are approved, what they can paste in, and when to check output.
13. Level 13: UK GDPR, Confidentiality and What Not to Paste
    Apply UK GDPR principles and client confidentiality to AI use, using ICO guidance to decide what data may go into which tools and what checks and records you need.
14. Level 14: Costs, Subscriptions and Measuring Return
    Control AI subscription spend and measure return honestly by recording time saved, quality and errors against a baseline instead of relying on vendor claims.
15. Level 15: Avoiding AI-Washing and Over-Selling
    Spot AI-washing in suppliers' pitches and avoid overstating your own use of AI to customers, so that claims about your products and services stay accurate.
16. Level 16: Disclosure and Honesty in Marketing: ASA and CAP
    Apply the CAP Code and ASA guidance on misleading advertising, substantiation and AI-generated content to your adverts, images, testimonials and AI disclosures.
17. Level 17: Building Your 90-Day AI Adoption Plan
    Combine everything so far into a phased 90-day plan with priorities, owners, safeguards, budget and review points for your own business.
18. Level 18: Final Challenge: Whole-Course Review Exam
    Apply the whole course to a combined scenario covering the three sample firms, testing evidence checks, tool choice, customer and back-office use, people, data protection, costs, honesty and planning.

Access

The first 2 levels are free with a free account. Every level, the podcast edition and the AI tutor come with All Access at £4.99/month or any Creator plan — see pricing.

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