Talk of AI is everywhere. Yet there’s so much noise it’s difficult to determine what’s worth actioning. With a consistent time commitment, you can be well on your way to building AI fluency. The more you learn and explore now, the better you’ll be able to keep up with new developments.
Here are five steps for increasing your understanding and use of AI:
#1: Work to Build Context
Work to build context around what AI is, and the bigger picture of the opportunities and risks artificial intelligence invites. Two ways to do this include:
- See the documentary, The AI Doc, at a theater near you. In this movie, a father-to-be explores what’s happening with AI and how it’s likely to impact the generation being born today. It offers a range of insights and explores potential positive and negative outcomes from this rapidly emerging technology.
- Read The Atlantic’s article on how AI could impact the future of jobs and work.
Keep in mind that every piece you read or watch on AI will be speculative, could be politicized, and might contradict what you’ve already discovered. Noticing those nuances means you’re building fluency.
#2: Subscribe to an AI platform
Subscribe to an AI platform and begin using it. While ChatGPT is likely the first platform you heard about, I recommend Claude as the one to explore. It has an intuitive way of interacting with you and can be more nuanced and comprehensive in its responses. Average costs are about $100/month, depending on the plan you choose. Learn more here.
#3: Ask Your Platform to Teach You How to Use It
Once you’ve subscribed to Claude, ask it to teach you how to use it. A prompt you can just cut and paste into the context window is:
- I need to learn Claude fast. Please build me a 5-hour plan focused on the 20% that drives 80% of results. Break the plan into 5, 1-hour sessions with the best resources and a 10-minute review at the end of each.
In response, Claude will create a course complete with hyperlinks, learning prompts, and review questions so that you can elevate your capability in a structured way.
#4: Understand How Companies are Leveraging It
After you’ve gotten a feel for what AI is and have started exploring how to use it, spend some time understanding how companies are beginning to leverage it. Microsoft’s 2025 piece entitled “The Frontier Firm” explains how organizations are seeking to embed AI agents into workflows to support efficiency on the job. Perhaps someday you’ll be an “agent boss” leading both humans and intelligent machines. To learn more about what an AI agent is, visit n8n.io and spend 15-20 minutes clicking around. This is an open platform that technical teams are using to create custom AI agents to automate tasks in their companies.
#5: Stay Consistent with Your Learning
Plan to stay consistent with your learning. AI is moving fast, yet once you build your fluency around the fundamentals of what’s actually possible now and what is still speculative, you’ll be much better prepared to discern what’s hype and what’s helpful.
Founded in 2004, Lead Star is the company behind the best-selling books SPARK, Leading from the Front, and Bet on You. Lead Star helps professionals reach new levels of success through its innovative leadership development programs.
