AI Fundamentals
Your Path to Productivity, Creativity,
and Future-Readiness.
​​AI is transforming personal and professional life, but getting started can be overwhelming. In our AI Fundamentals workshop, you’ll find a welcoming, interactive experience designed for professionals ready to explore AI's potential. We will guide you through practical applications using the most common AI tools. Through hands-on exercises and real-world examples, you’ll leave equipped with the skills to enhance productivity, creativity, and adaptability—now and in the future.
What Makes This Workshop Different?
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We focus on what truly matters: personal connection and deep, hands-on learning. Our small, intimate workshop gives you access to expert guidance and personalized feedback that larger classes and video tutorials can't provide.
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What Guides This Workshop:
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Behavior Over Learning Curves: Using AI effectively isn’t about mastering tools or memorizing techniques—it’s about forming habits. Think of AI as an infinitely patient coworker, ready to explore and assist. By experimenting naturally with AI in your daily tasks, you uncover its true potential through experience, not theory.
Trust Through Exploration: True AI adoption begins with trust. Start by asking AI personal or meaningful questions, like you would a trusted advisor, to build confidence in its capabilities. This trust becomes the foundation for integrating AI into your professional workflows.
Guide, Don’t Prescribe: Transformation comes when individuals discover AI’s possibilities for themselves. Our role is to provide a framework that encourages exploration, fosters curiosity, and builds habits—ensuring AI is not just a tool but a trusted partner in achieving lasting results.
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Workshop Structure
I. AI Essentials & Inspiration
1 hour​
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You'll be introduced to the most popular AI tools, like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and others. You'll learn why they're popular and how to get started with them.
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You'll learn the fundamentals of prompting, which will ensure you're productive when you leave the first session.
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We'll also review the potential risks that come with AI to ensure you safe and enjoyable entry into the world of AI
II. AI Applications
2 hours.
We’ll take an expansive look at how AI can support you across all areas of your life. We’ll show you how AI can do much more than just handle tasks—it can act as clerk, colleague, and coach. Examples and exercises will demonstrate using AI to support you in a variety of personal and professional situations:
I asked ChatGPT to create a game. It's not really a game but it's interesting it got this far on its own
Meet the Instructors
This workshop is led by Matt Strain and Doug Nelson, who bring extensive experience in helping humans integrate new technologies in ways that are actionable and accessible.
Independent Film & Television Producer
"Aside from the beyond user-friendly, ease of entry into ChatGPT, I thought the sense of community and the way you interacted with the group and the individuals was super welcoming and made everyone feel very comfortable and willing to comment and ask questions, which is quite a rarity." -
Bibi, Owner of consulting business
"That was the most well-presented, humorous, informative, concise and creative presentation I've seen...maybe ever."-
Leiha D, President of Laulima Process Architect Firm
Matt's exceptional ability to simplify complex principles led to improved work quality and efficiency. The investment paid for itself within weeks. I highly recommend Matt Strain for businesses seeking elevated operations and team performance through deeper AI understanding.
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How can I get started in AI?Getting started is easy. You can do it right now. Start with the basics. Sure, you can use the free version of ChatGPT but I urge you to treat yourself and upgrade to ChatGPT4. Don't overthink it. Ask it the same kinds of questions would you aska smart friend. I recently lead a session titled, "AI for Real People -- A light and accessible Intro to AI". This is a non-technical introduction to AI. It's a good place to start if you'd like some guidance. There are many other dedicated apps that leverage AI. Some of my current favorites: Fathom -- for capturing action items and transcripts in Zoom meetings Beautiful.ai - for auto-magically creating entire presentations from a prompt Yoodli - I like how Yoodli has applied AI to training for public speaking. * I look forward to hearing about your favorite tools.
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What can I do to protect my job?Adapting to the changing world of work in the era of AI involves a multi-faceted approach. Here are some practical steps you can take: Understand AI and its Impact on Your Industry: Learn about AI's fundamental concepts, how it works, and how it's affecting your industry. Understanding AI and its potential will help you foresee how it may affect your job and allow you to anticipate changes before they happen. Online courses, webinars, or industry-specific AI publications can provide a wealth of information. Become the AI Go-To Person: Familiarize yourself with how AI is being utilized in your field. You could look into how other companies in your industry are deploying AI. Start by identifying opportunities in your current role where AI could help streamline processes or enhance results. By becoming the "go-to" person for AI, you not only make yourself indispensable, but also position yourself as a forward thinker in your organization. Acquire New Skills: AI often replaces repetitive and routine tasks, while jobs that require complex decision-making, creativity, and human interaction are less likely to be fully automated. By focusing on these areas and acquiring relevant skills, you can make your role more robust against automation. This could involve taking courses on critical thinking, communication, leadership, or creativity. Embrace Change: AI is here to stay, and the workplace is changing as a result. By being open to new ways of working and readily adopting new technologies, you can show your adaptability and flexibility. This can make you more valuable in a rapidly evolving workplace. Keep Learning: The world of AI is continually evolving, with new technologies and applications appearing all the time. By keeping up to date with these changes, you'll be better equipped to understand how they could impact your job and your company. Network: Connect with other professionals in your industry who are also interested in AI. This can give you a broader perspective on how AI is impacting your field and provide opportunities for collaboration. By adopting these strategies, you can help protect your job and even thrive in the AI era. Remember that the goal is not just to "survive" but to find ways to leverage these changes for your personal and professional growth.
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What are some of your favorite AI examples?There are so many. Some of my current favorites include Channeling Anthony Bourdain to create a five-day food-centric road trip itinerary. Using AI for guidance on how to communicate with a difficult client who is constantly making changes Providing blue sky ideas for radically new ways of doing something — product launches, business models, travel ideas. For the small nonprofit, using ChatGPT to analyze donor records and draft custom outreach based on the specific donation patterns of unique supporter. And, my favorite, using ChatGPT, Dall-e, and Adobe’s Firefly to generate custom cocktails based on the tenets of Chinese medicine. (And, that’s a longer story).
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Why are you fascinated with artificial intelligence?I’ve been fascinated with the application of AI for decades. Early in my career at Apple, we explored ways of improving education with early AI. The concept of a personal AI-tutor may have just arrived. This is transformative. For most of the past seven years, I've at the intersection of AI and Creativity at Adobe’s Research lab. Much of this work can now be seeing in Adobe’s Firefly AI offering. I also had the opportunity to be on the forefront of AI-driven marketing based on predictive modeling. Now, with the acceleration of Generative AI, we’re able to deploy AI to transform our lives, improve problem-solving capabilities, and push the boundaries of human understanding. Change is hard -- especially when it involves peoples' jobs and a company's underlying value proposition and even business model. These are exciting times !
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What's the story behind the New York Times article?ChatGPT and Dall-e allowed me to do things that I never thought possible. More than just generating tech and images, this is about using Generative AI as a creative co-pilot.
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Why should I hire The Prompt?Please talk with us if you’re interested in simplifying complex AI concepts, making them accessible to non-technical professionals, including those at the C-Suite. Our engaging and conversational approach to teaching, coupled with our focus on accessible and actionable use cases, often leaves participants feeling inspired and ready to apply AI tools like ChatGPT and Dall-e in their everyday life and work. Our extensive experience in working with a diverse range of companies, from small creative agencies to major corporations and leading investment firms, speaks to our adaptability and efficiency. Importantly, our commitment is to future-proof your capabilities, helping you stay relevant in a rapidly evolving technological landscape by encouraging lifelong learning, fostering tech-savviness, and predicting trends for sustained relevance and employability. If you're reading this far, I hope to have the chance to talk with you.