COURSE OVERVIEW
AI Basics for Business Owners
By Andrew Heldenmuth, founder and operator of Ascension AI.
Six short lessons. Practical business tasks. One repeatable workflow you can review and trust.
Running a business means switching between customer questions, marketing, paperwork, and daily decisions. AI can help you get a first draft onto the page and organize information. This course shows you how to try it on small, practical tasks while keeping control of the result.
Who this is for: Business owners, independent professionals, and small-team leaders who are new to AI.
What you need: A computer or phone, access to an AI chatbot you are allowed to use for work, and somewhere to save your work. If you run the business yourself, that means a tool whose data settings you have read and accepted. No coding or technical background is required. Every exercise uses a fictional bicycle repair shop; once an exercise works, run it again with a fictional version of your own business.
Suggested pace: Six lessons of about 8–10 minutes each, including a five-minute exercise, followed by a 15-minute final project. Work at your own pace.
By the end, you will be able to:
- Recognize a sensible first task for AI
- Give a chatbot useful business context and clear instructions
- Check important claims and protect business information
- Create a customer reply, a marketing draft, and an operational checklist
- Test one repeatable workflow and measure the time it actually takes
Before you begin: Use fictional information for these exercises. Do not paste real customer records, staff information, passwords, payment details, or confidential business documents into a chatbot. Check your business policies and the tool’s current terms before using real information.