Lab: Hands-On AI Challenge

This will take 15-20 minutes. No theory today. You're going to use AI on a real work task and see what happens.

Here's the deal. You've spent the past few lessons reading about what AI is, how it works, and why it matters. That's important context. But context without action is just trivia. So today you're going to stop reading and start doing.

The exercise is simple. You're going to take one real task from your actual work week and run it through two different AI tools. Then you'll compare the results.

What you need

Two browser tabs:

1. ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com (free account works fine)
2. Claude: https://claude.ai (free account works fine)

If you don't have accounts yet, sign up now. It takes about 60 seconds each. You don't need a paid plan for this.

Step 1: Pick your task (2 minutes)

Think about your last work week. Pick ONE task from this list that you actually did or need to do:

• Drafting an email (a tricky one, not "sounds good, thanks")
• Summarizing a document or report
• Prepping for a meeting (background on attendees, talking points)
• Writing a project update or status report
• Creating an outline for a presentation
• Analyzing a decision (comparing options, weighing tradeoffs)

Pick something real. Not a hypothetical. The whole point is to see how AI performs on your actual work.

Step 2: Try it in ChatGPT (5 minutes)

Open ChatGPT. Describe your task in plain English. Don't overthink it. Just explain what you need like you'd explain it to a smart colleague.

For example:

"I need to write an email to my team about our Q1 priorities. We're focusing on three things: launching the new product line, reducing customer churn by 15%, and hiring two senior engineers. The tone should be motivating but honest about the challenges ahead."

Or:

"I have a meeting tomorrow with a potential vendor for our CRM migration. I need to prepare 10 good questions to ask them. We're a 200-person company currently on Salesforce, considering HubSpot. Our main concerns are data migration, training time, and total cost."

Hit enter. Read the response. Don't iterate yet. Just take the first thing it gives you.

Step 3: Try the same task in Claude (5 minutes)

Open Claude. Give it the exact same prompt. Copy and paste if you want. It's actually better if the input is identical so you can compare fairly.

Read the response.

Step 4: Compare (5 minutes)

Now look at both outputs side by side. Here are the questions to ask yourself:

Which one was more useful right away? Not which one was longer or sounded smarter. Which one could you actually use with the least editing?

Where did each one struggle? Did either one get something wrong? Miss the point? Go off on a tangent? Sound too generic?

What surprised you? Most people doing this for the first time have at least one "wait, that's actually pretty good" moment. Notice where that happens.

What felt off? AI output often has a certain quality to it. Too polished, too generic, too eager to please. Notice when that happens. That feeling is your quality filter, and it's going to be important going forward.

What to expect

Here's what most people find during their first real AI session:

The output is better than they expected on a first pass. Not perfect. But a solid 70-80% of the way there. For a task that took you zero effort beyond typing a few sentences, that's significant.

Both tools are good, but they have different personalities. ChatGPT tends to be comprehensive and structured. Claude tends to be more natural-sounding and nuanced. Neither is objectively better. It depends on the task and your preferences.

The biggest gap isn't in the AI. It's in the prompt. If you gave a vague ask, you got a vague answer. If you gave specific context, you got something much more targeted. We'll dig deep into this in Week 2. For now, just notice the pattern.

One more thing

If you have a few extra minutes, try this: take the output you liked better and ask the AI to improve it. Say something like:

"This is good but too formal. Make it more conversational."

Or: "Can you make this shorter? Half the length."

Or: "The third paragraph doesn't sound like me. Make it more direct."

Watch what happens when you iterate. This is the real unlock. AI isn't about getting a perfect answer on the first try. It's about getting to a great answer faster than you could have alone.

Reflection prompt

Take 60 seconds and answer these three questions. Write them down. Seriously. Even just in your notes app.

1. What surprised you most about using AI on a real task?
2. What felt immediately useful?
3. What still felt like it needed a human touch?

Hold onto these answers. They'll be your baseline as your skills improve over the next three weeks.

See you in the next lesson. We're going to learn how to ask AI better questions, which is where things get really interesting.

You don't learn AI by reading about it. You learn by using it. You just took the first real step.