What is this AI thing all about? Claude Tips for Beginners.

July 6, 2026 / in How To, Information Technology / by Jason Terry

Hello friends! Over the past month or so I’ve gotten even deeper into my use of AI. I’ve started sharing what I’m learning with clients and there are a couple of nuggets that keep popping up that I wanted to share with you today.

One thing I know… many people are a bit scared to try AI tools. Some think that they’re too complicated. Others think that they will mess things up and lose data. The good news is that you can try a few things, while keeping good guard rails in place, to experience how an AI tool like Claude can make your life so much easier. All you have to do is try… and if you do, you will be amazed at what is possible.

On the other hand, I should also share that I have plenty of clients who are actively using AI tools to improve how they do business. They are bringing these capabilities into our working sessions together. Awesome.

Why Claude specifically?

You’ve probably heard of ChatGPT – it gets most of the press. But I use Claude, made by a company called Anthropic, and I recommend it to clients for a simple reason: it tends to be more conversational, more careful with facts, and just easier to work with for everyday business tasks. It’s not about which one is “best” – they’re all improving rapidly – it’s about finding one that clicks for you and building a habit around it. Claude clicked for me.

If you’re curious about how Claude compares to other tools, this straightforward breakdown from PCMag is a good starting point without getting too technical.

Getting Started with Claude

The simplest way to start using Claude is to visit claude.ai and start typing – no technical knowledge needed.

Here’s the quick path: Go to claude.ai and create a free account (all you need is an email address). Type what you need in plain conversational English as if you’re asking a knowledgeable friend. That’s it.

A few tips for someone just starting out:

• Don’t overthink the prompt – just describe what you need naturally. “Help me write an email to my landlord about a broken heater” works perfectly.
• You can paste text in – articles, emails, documents – and ask Claude to summarize, rewrite, or respond to them.
• It’s a back-and-forth conversation – if the first response isn’t quite right, just say so and refine it.
• You can upload files and images on paid plans – more on that below.

A few prompt ideas to get you going on day one:

• “Can you help me write a professional out-of-office email for next week?”
• “I need to follow up with a client who hasn’t responded in two weeks. Help me write something friendly but direct.”
• “Summarize this article for me in three bullet points.” (then paste the article)
• “What are some good questions I should be asking my accountant at tax time?”
• “Help me write a LinkedIn post about a project we just finished.”

None of those require any technical skill. They’re just conversations.

Free vs. Paid

The free plan is genuinely useful for everyday tasks. The Claude Pro plan ($20/month) gives you more usage, access to more powerful models, and features like Projects (which let you organize ongoing work by client or topic) and extended context for longer documents.

For someone brand new, start free. Use it for a week. If you find yourself bumping into limits or wanting to do more, the upgrade is a no-brainer. I make up that $20 every single day.

Ask Claude to guide you through how to use it!

If you’re still struggling with where to even begin, my favorite prompt to suggest for new users is this: “What kinds of things can you help me with?” You’ll get a list of ideas from Claude, and hopefully one will grab your attention.

Keep in mind – a mistake many people make when using AI tools is trying to come up with a complicated prompt. That really isn’t necessary. You don’t have to be a technical person AT ALL.

People have learned over the years how to ask Google for help – type in a question, get a list of results, refine and try again. Claude is different on a fundamental level. As you chat with it, the results take into account the whole conversation. Let me show you with a simple example.

My first prompt: “Create a list of the top five website resources I could read for travel tips.” I hit enter and got a solid list — but no clickable links. So my next prompt was: “Please update this list with URLs I can click on.” Done. Then: “Now add one image from each resource to the list.” And it did that too.

Notice that everything in that example uses simple, plain-English prompts. It’s like talking to a friend who knows everything about travel and is happy to keep refining their answer until it’s exactly what you need. That’s how Claude works.

Some Real World Examples

Here’s a quick list of things I’ve personally used Claude for, roughly in order from simple to more involved:

1. Coming up with better story titles and excerpts for blog posts for my clients.
2. Researching how to use and pay for train rides in Tokyo, Japan – I was planning a trip and needed to understand the IC card system, JR Pass options, and how to navigate stations. Claude walked me through the whole thing conversationally. (For reference, Japan Guide is also a great resource for this.)
3. Uploading a picture of a data table and getting back the actual text. You can’t copy text out of an image – but Claude can read it and give you clean, copyable text to paste into Word, Excel, or anywhere else. This alone has saved me significant time.
4. Writing a 500-word summary of the best BBQ restaurants in Kansas City. The results: Joe’s Kansas City, Arthur Bryant’s, Gates, Q39, and Jack Stack. All well-deserved. 🔥
5. Fixing a website styling problem. I added an “In the News” section on a client’s website with a dark background – which meant the text was invisible. I used the Claude for Chrome extension to let Claude inspect the page’s HTML and generate the exact CSS code I needed to make the text white. Problem solved in minutes, not hours.

A few more business use cases worth mentioning – because I see these come up constantly with KC business owners:

• HR and hiring: Draft job descriptions, create interview question lists, or summarize resumes. “Help me write a job posting for an experienced office manager at a 10-person professional services firm.”
• Customer communication: Craft responses to difficult customer emails or reviews without spending 30 minutes agonizing over wording.
• Meeting prep: Paste in an agenda or background document and ask Claude to help you prepare questions or talking points.
• Proposals and summaries: Upload a long RFP or contract and ask Claude to pull out the key points in plain English.

Wrapping it up for now…

In my experience, the biggest challenge for people adopting a new technology is forming the habit. Most of us are used to heading to Google or YouTube when we need answers. Now that I’ve gotten more proficient with Claude, I usually start there instead.

Building that habit takes a little time and intention – but it is absolutely worth it. I’m saving countless hours every month. And the $20/month Pro upgrade was a no-brainer. I make that back every single day.

If you want to go deeper, here are a few resources I’d recommend:

• Anthropic’s official guide to Claude – straightforward help articles directly from the makers
• Claude’s prompt engineering overview – don’t be scared off by the term “prompt engineering.” It’s basically just tips for asking better questions.

Claude is having a profound impact on my life personally and professionally. And I hear the same from a lot of people in our KC business community. So please don’t miss this opportunity. Start with something simple. Work on making it a habit. And you will be amazed at how much you learn, how much time you save, and how shockingly capable Claude really is.

And guess who edited this blog for me? :)