Last week I taught a half-day workshop in partnership with the Regional Business Partner Network at Enterprise North Canterbury. We gathered dozens of entrepreneurs and business owners together for an afternoon of AI training.

They had heard the hype, seen the demos, and played around with a few tools. But they were still trying to understand how AI could actually help them in their own work.

During our workshop, we answered questions like:

  • How do I write better prompts?
  • How do I know if I can trust the answer?
  • What can AI actually do for me?
  • Where do I start?

I work really well with newbies, because I am not a technologist.

Lots of AI experts are technical – they talk about the tech, and the mechanics, and their explanations go over the heads of the layperson.

But in university, I studied classical philosophy. I ran away and joined the circus when I was a kid. When I use AI, it is through the lens of the humanities.

How do we, as humans, interface with this new technology?

This makes me well equipped to teach the basics to non-technical professionals, especially those who feel like they are falling behind. My Foundations of AI Certification uses interactive games and simple copy/paste prompts to build capability without overwhelm.

By the end of the half-day workshop, we were able to document:
​
+ 36.5% in Confidence using AI
+ 91.3% in Prompting skill
+ 38.9% in Strategic thinking
+ 185% in Tools used fluently
+ 40.9% in Average capability lift
​
Before someone can use AI well, they need to understand what role it plays in their work. Is it a research assistant? a writing partner? a strategy sparring partner? a spreadsheet gremlin? or a second brain with suspicious confidence?

💸 “The cost to use a given level of AI falls about 10x every 12 months, and lower prices lead to much more use.” – Sam Altman

The real AI advantage won’t belong to the people collecting the most tools. It will belong to the people who know how to think clearly, ask better questions, and build better systems around their work.

ai foundations

 

If you’d like to upskill your team, review my AI Training workshops.

  • 100-level workshops for Foundations
  • 200-level workshops for Applications
  • 300-level workshops for Agents

​Get in touch to discuss a customised AI Training curriculum for your team.

 

💡 Great New Zealand AI Roadshow

Last week, Justin Flitter completed his second nationwide AI tour, sharing implementation strategies from New Zealand businesses. At the final stop in Christchurch, I attended to learn the latest insights.

“You can’t just sprinkle AI confetti around your organisation. Deployment needs discipline.” – ​Richard Kenyon​ of Datacom

 

the security challenges AI

“Autonomy must be earned.” Cybersecurity expert ​Sang Byun​ 

 

edwin lim

“We don’t use the free version of these tools. The enterprise version lets us turn off training, and turn off data retention.” – ​Edwin Lim​

​Justin has been an outspoken advocate of AI in New Zealand for years, and he’s done more to educate the country about AI than anyone.

justin

 

📃 Career-Ending Document Drop

 

On her final day as Director of the Office of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard released thousands of documents implicating Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Let’s use AI to go through the documents. [21:36]

Watch Now

 

Links in description: 1) source docs, 2) NotebookLM, 3) OpenAI GPT 5.5 Extra High reasoning

 

👓 What I’m Reading

 

opus 4.6