Free guides for AI beginners

Get everyday stuff done with AI. No jargon required.

Pick a task, copy a prompt, and check the result. Our guides walk you through dinner plans, road trips, and more, one plain step at a time.

Fresh guides

See all guides
  • Tech help

    How to use AI to clean up your Gmail inbox

    Your inbox says 14,382 unread. Somewhere in there is the email from your kid's school about picture day, buried under 40 messages from a mattress store you visited once in 2019.

    ~30 minutes · First-timer · Last checked October 16, 2026

  • Home

    How to use AI to declutter and organize your home

    The garage technically has a path to the car. There's a treadmill holding up three coats, a box labeled "MISC" that has survived two moves, and a bread maker you used once.

    ~20 minutes to plan, then 20-minute sessions · First-timer · Last checked October 15, 2026

  • Home

    How to use AI to design or decorate a room

    Your living room has a couch facing a wall and a rug that's been "temporary" for four years. Every furniture website wants you to fall in love with a $2,400 sofa.

    ~45 minutes · First-timer · Last checked October 15, 2026

  • Home

    How to use AI for landscaping ideas

    Your front yard is patchy grass, one heroic shrub, and a strip by the driveway where nothing grows. You'd settle for a yard you like walking past.

    ~40 minutes · First-timer · Last checked October 15, 2026

  • Tech help

    How to use AI to fix computer problems

    Your laptop has started doing something new, and not in a good way. Maybe it's a fan that sounds like a hair dryer, or a printer that has decided you two are no longer on speaking terms.

    ~20 minutes, plus time to try the fixes · First-timer · Last checked October 16, 2026

  • Parenting

    How to use AI to help your kid with homework (without doing it for them)

    It's 8:30 p.m. Your fifth grader is stuck on a fractions worksheet, and the method on the page looks nothing like the one you learned. You'd like to help without either of you crying, and without the AI quietly doing the whole thing.

    ~20 minutes · First-timer · Last checked October 15, 2026

  • School

    How to use AI to learn a language for free

    You've meant to learn Spanish since high school. You remember "¿Dónde está la biblioteca?" and a song about colors, and neither has come up much. Maybe there's a trip coming, or a new neighbor, or a grandkid who's switching languages on you mid-sentence.

    ~15 minutes a day · First-timer · Last checked October 16, 2026

  • Small business

    How to use AI to make a flyer

    The library bake sale is Saturday. Someone said "you're good with computers, can you make the flyer?" and now you are, apparently, the design department. You have the details on a sticky note and no idea what goes in big letters.

    ~30 minutes · First-timer · Last checked October 15, 2026

  • Money

    How to use AI to make a monthly budget

    It's the 28th, and your checking account looks like it went on vacation without you. You know roughly what comes in. Where it goes is more of a mystery, the kind with a lot of takeout receipts.

    ~30 minutes · First-timer · Last checked October 15, 2026

  • Everyday writing

    How to use AI to make an email sound more professional

    You wrote the email. Everything you need to say is in there. It also has three "sorry"s, a "lol," and one sentence that runs for four lines without stopping to breathe. You'd like it to sound like it came from someone who owns a blazer.

    ~10 minutes · First-timer · Last checked October 16, 2026

  • Life admin

    How to use AI to organize your important documents

    Somewhere in your home is the warranty for the dishwasher. It might be in the kitchen drawer with the takeout menus. It might be in a shoebox labeled "TAXES?" with a question mark that has been there since 2017. You'll find out the day the dishwasher floods.

    ~30 minutes to plan, then an afternoon to sort · First-timer · Last checked October 16, 2026

  • Tech help

    How to use AI to organize your photos

    You have 23,000 photos on your phone. About 9 of them are the ones you'd save in a fire. The rest are screenshots of parking spots, 11 nearly identical shots of a sunset, and a blurry close-up of the inside of your pocket.

    ~30 minutes to plan, then 20-minute sessions · First-timer · Last checked October 16, 2026

  • Travel

    How to use AI to plan a trip itinerary

    You booked five days in Rome. You have a list of "must-sees" from three different friends, and a growing suspicion that you can't fit the Vatican, the Colosseum, and a cooking class into one Tuesday.

    ~40 minutes · First-timer · Last checked October 15, 2026

  • Travel

    How to use AI to plan a road trip

    You have five days off, a car with decent tires, and a plan that reads "drive somewhere nice." Your sister wants mountains. Your kids want a pool. You would like to not drive 9 hours in one day.

    ~30 minutes · First-timer · Last checked October 15, 2026

  • Travel

    How to use AI to plan a vacation on a budget

    You have $2,000, a week off in June, and a group chat where everyone wants "somewhere warm, but not expensive." That's the whole plan so far.

    ~30 minutes · First-timer · Last checked October 15, 2026

  • Life admin

    How to use AI to plan a wedding

    You're engaged. Congratulations. Within about a week, three relatives have asked about the date, a cousin has volunteered a band you've never heard, and you've opened a planning checklist so long it needs its own table of contents.

    ~45 minutes to set up, then a few minutes a week · First-timer · Last checked October 16, 2026

  • Cooking

    How to use AI to plan a week of dinners on a budget

    It's Sunday evening. You have $75, a fridge that contains half an onion and some optimism, and five people who will each ask "what's for dinner?" every night this week. You need a plan and a shopping list.

    ~20 minutes · First-timer · Last checked October 15, 2026

  • Life admin

    How to use AI to plan your day (and actually stick to it)

    It's 7:40 a.m. You have a dentist appointment at 2, a report due at 5, no milk, and a vague feeling you promised someone a casserole. Your to-do list is a sticky note and a text to yourself that says "DON'T FORGET."

    ~15 minutes in the morning, 5 minutes at night · First-timer · Last checked October 16, 2026

  • School

    How to use AI to study for an exam

    Your biology exam is in nine days. You have 40 pages of notes, a highlighter that ran dry somewhere around chapter four, and a strong feeling that "reread everything" is not a plan.

    ~20 minutes to set up, then about 30 to 45 minutes a day · First-timer · Last checked October 16, 2026

  • Work

    How to use AI to tailor your resume to a job description

    You have a perfectly good resume. You also have a job posting that asks for "experience coordinating vendor schedules," and somewhere on page one you wrote "handled suppliers." The person skimming 200 applications may not notice.

    ~30 minutes · Got-the-basics · Last checked October 15, 2026

  • Health questions

    How to use AI to understand a confusing medical bill

    The bill arrived. It has a total that made you sit down, a column of five-digit codes, and an abbreviation that might be "ADJ" or might be a typo. You want to know what you're paying for and whether it's right.

    ~30 minutes · First-timer · Last checked October 15, 2026

  • Getting started

    Five prompt habits that work for any AI task

    You typed "help me with a budget" into a chatbot, and it gave you a cheerful essay about the importance of budgeting. Accurate. Also useless. The tool wasn't being difficult. It had nothing to go on.

    ~10 minutes · First-timer · Last checked October 16, 2026

  • Work

    How to use AI to write a cover letter

    You found a job you actually want. The application asks for a cover letter, and you've been staring at "Dear Hiring Manager" for twenty minutes like it owes you money. Fair enough. Almost nobody enjoys writing these.

    ~20 minutes · First-timer · Last checked October 15, 2026

  • Everyday writing

    How to use AI to write a hard email

    You need to tell your manager the report will be late. Or tell the school you can't run the bake sale again. Or answer the email that's been sitting in your inbox for 9 days, quietly judging you. You've written the first line four times and deleted it four times.

    ~15 minutes · First-timer · Last checked October 15, 2026

  • Everyday writing

    How to use AI to write a letter of recommendation

    Dana, who volunteered at your food pantry for two years, needs a letter of recommendation by Friday. You'd be happy to write it. You also haven't written one since a coworker named Gary needed one in 2014, and you're fairly sure that one said "hard worker" five times.

    ~30 minutes · First-timer · Last checked October 16, 2026

  • Work

    How to use AI to write a resume

    Your last resume was saved on a computer that made a noise when it started up. Since then you've changed jobs twice, learned three new systems, and trained half the new hires. None of it is written down anywhere.

    ~30 minutes · First-timer · Last checked October 15, 2026

Build a prompt

Open the full builder

Fill in a few boxes and your prompt builds itself as you type, ready to paste into any AI chat tool. Only the first box is required.

One sentence is plenty. Start with a verb, like "write," "plan," or "explain."
The facts it can't guess: names, dates, numbers, what's already happened. Leave out anything private.
Who will read or use the result. "Me" counts.
Pick one, or type your own.
A list, a table, an email, steps? Give a rough length if it matters.
Words, topics, or habits you don't want.

What you type stays in your browser. We don't save or send it. Still, don't type passwords, account numbers, ID numbers, or health details here or into any AI tool. Swap in a placeholder like [ACCOUNT NUMBER] instead.

Your prompt

Your prompt shows up here as you type. Start with the first box.

The AI can still get things wrong, and it sounds equally sure either way. Check every name, date, number, and price before you use what it writes. You're the editor.

Paste it into your AI tool. If the answer misses, tell it what's wrong in plain words and ask again. Our guide to writing a good prompt shows how.

How every guide works

  1. Copy the promptEach guide has prompts you can paste into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. Fill in the parts in [BRACKETS].
  2. See an exampleWe ran the prompts in a real AI tool and show you a trimmed sample answer, so you know roughly what to expect.
  3. Check the resultThe AI is a fast, eager intern that sometimes makes things up. Every guide tells you what to double-check.

Looking for something?

Search every guide. Try "budget," "maps," or "grocery list."

Still nothing? Ask us for a guide.