New to AI? Start here (a 5-minute guide for business owners)

You don't need to code, buy anything or install an "agent" to get value from AI this week. You need one free chat assistant, one job you repeat every week, and a prompt that tells the AI exactly what you want.

Curated by AgentPlaybook Real Estate · How we make and check prompts

Step 1: open a free AI chat assistant

Any of these works for every beginner prompt on this site: ChatGPT (chatgpt.com), Claude (claude.ai) or Gemini (gemini.google.com). Create a free account. Before you paste anything about your business, open the settings and check whether your chats are used to train the model; turn that off if you can.

Step 2: pick one job you repeat every week

Not sure which? The first prompt below scores your weekly tasks and picks the safest one to start with. These five are the easiest first wins, and each has a worked example so you can see what to paste and what a good answer looks like:

1. Find your best first agent (with a worked example)
2. Draft replies from your FAQ (with a worked example)
3. Call notes to follow-up email (with a worked example)
4. Summarize a long document (with a worked example)
5. Overdue invoice follow-ups from your books (with a worked example)

Step 3: fill in the [brackets] and paste it in

Copy the prompt, replace every [bracket] with your real details (the more specific, the better), paste it into the chat and press enter. If the answer is close but not right, reply in the same chat: "shorter", "friendlier", "use only the facts I gave you".

Step 4: check the answer before you use it

• Check every number, date, price and name against your own records. AI can get these wrong while sounding confident.
• Send nothing to a customer you haven't read yourself.
• Keep a person responsible for money, legal, medical and safety decisions.

What never to paste into an AI chat

• Passwords, one-time codes or recovery codes
• Full card or bank account numbers
• Customers' private details you don't need for the task (remove names, phone numbers and health or financial details)
• Anything a contract or professional rule says must stay confidential

Ready for an AI agent?

An agent is an AI that takes steps for you (opens websites, drafts emails in your inbox, updates a sheet) instead of only answering. Once a prompt works reliably in a chat, these three help you hand it to an agent safely:

1. Write a complete agent task brief (with a worked example)
2. Decide which accounts your AI agent may log into and which actions still need your OK, before you hand over any passwords (with a worked example)
3. Test a customer support AI in "shadow mode" on real emails before it ever replies to a customer (with a worked example)

Where to go next