How to get started with AI at work: five first moves

In brief

Start with a single assistant, a free one, and with a real task from your week. The first five moves: set your privacy options, have one of your texts rewritten, have a document summarized, ask a question you know how to check, then keep the prompt that worked. You will quickly see what AI changes in your role, and where it gets things wrong.

What to know before you open a tool

An AI assistant is a tool you write or talk to as you would to a colleague. It drafts, summarizes, searches, and reads your files. Three ideas are enough to start well.

It does not know your work. Not your company, not your customers, not your habits. What you do not tell it, it assumes, and often wrongly.
It can be confidently wrong. A figure, a date, a quote: it states what is false in the same tone as what is true. You always review.
What you write to it leaves your computer. No customer names, salaries, or passwords in a personal account.

No technical knowledge is needed. If you can write an email asking a colleague for a favor, you can use an assistant.

Choose a first tool, and only one

The choice matters less than the practice. Take the one you already have at hand.

Your company has Microsoft 365: open Copilot with your work account. The chat is included in eligible subscriptions.
Your company has Google Workspace: open Gemini with your work account. It is already included.
You are choosing for yourself: ChatGPT is the first tool to try when you are starting out. A free account is enough, and there is nothing to install. Claude suits people who handle a lot of documents, and Mistral Vibe those who prefer a European vendor.

Before you use a tool at work, ask your manager whether there is a list of approved tools. If the company provides an account, use that one: your data is better protected there than in a personal account.

The first five moves

Set your privacy options. Before the first question. In ChatGPT: profile icon, “Settings,” “Data controls,” then turn off “Improve the model for everyone.” Claude, Gemini, and Copilot have a similar setting.
Have one of your own texts rewritten. Paste an email you have just written and ask: “Make it shorter and more direct, without changing the substance.” Then: “Warmer.” You discover the basic move: you correct by talking, as many times as needed.
Have a document summarized. Attach a PDF with no sensitive data using the + button and ask: “Summarize this document in five points for someone who has not read it, then list the questions it leaves open.” Check two points in the original text.
Ask a question you know how to check. A topic from your job, where you know the answer. You will see where it is right, where it makes things up, and how it reacts when you correct it. For a web search, insist on the links: Perplexity ties each claim to its source.
Keep the prompt that worked. When a result is useful to you, copy the request into a note and replace what changes with brackets: [customer], [date]. Next time, you will start from there.

These five moves fit into a single sitting, on your own documents. They will teach you more than a long lecture, because they are about your work.

Beginner mistakes

Six common mistakes, and the fix for each.

A five-word request. Say who it is for, what it is for, and in what form. See how to write a good prompt.
Believing the answer because it is well written. Check what matters: figures, dates, names, quotes.
Pasting in a customer file, just to see. Practice on documents with no names or amounts. See what not to share with AI at work.
Paying on day one. Stay on the free plan until a limit blocks you several times a week.
Opening ten tools at once. A single assistant, until it has become a reflex.
Giving up after one bad answer. Say what is wrong and ask again: the first answer is a draft.

Next: one task from your job each week

Once these moves are second nature, progress comes from a simple habit: every week, hand the assistant one task that comes back in your role. Choose one that is repetitive and easy to check.

You write a lot: answer your email without losing your voice.
You go from meeting to meeting: AI meeting notes.
You live in spreadsheets: what AI can do in Excel.
You present often: make a presentation with AI.

Use cases are not the same from one role to another. Our pages by job give the tasks concerned, the tools, and the rules to follow, for example for an administrative assistant, a team manager, or a freelancer.

What Nova brings

Nova is subscription software made for people who are starting out. You give your job and your level; “My path” then guides you step by step, with demos to recreate on your own tasks and the prompt ready. It is software, not an accredited training provider, and it issues no certification: it is a tool for practicing, and for staying up to date. Try the interactive demo.

Frequently asked questions

Do you need training before you use AI?

Not to get started. You learn the first moves by practicing on your own tasks: rewrite an email, summarize a document, check an answer. Guidance becomes useful afterward, to find the use cases specific to your job and to build good habits.

Which AI tool should a beginner choose?

The one your company provides, if there is one: Copilot with Microsoft 365, Gemini with Google Workspace. Otherwise ChatGPT, which is the first tool to try when you are starting out. What matters is choosing a single one and using it every day.

Can you get started without paying?

Yes. The free plans of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Mistral Vibe are enough to learn. Pay only when a limit stops you several times a week on a tool you really use.

Do you need technical knowledge?

No. You write your request in everyday language, as you would to a colleague. What makes the difference is not technique but precision: saying who you are writing for, what you want, and in what form.

Am I allowed to use AI at my company?

It depends on your company. Ask whether there is a policy or a list of approved tools. If there is none, stick to tasks with no confidential or personal data, and ask your manager or the data protection officer.

Sources

Data controls FAQ, OpenAI, help center
ChatGPT pricing, OpenAI
Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing (France, in French), Microsoft
Google AI plans (France, in French), Google
CNIL’s questions and answers on using a generative AI system (in French), CNIL, the French data protection authority
Prompting best practices, Anthropic, Claude documentation

Getting started with AI at work: the first five moves