The 60-Minute Chatbot · Lesson 5 of 5
Lesson 5 — Ship It
> 4 minutes · what to do next, how to talk about what you built, and where to go from here
You did it. There's a working AI chatbot for an SMB running on your laptop right now. That puts you ahead of about 95% of people who say they're "interested in AI."
This lesson is short and it's the one most students skip. Don't skip it. The difference between "I built this for a course" and "I shipped real AI work" is what you do in the next 30 minutes after closing this video.
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Future you will thank present you for these.
Take a screenshot. Get the full chat card visible, with at least one good Q&A in the conversation. Save it as `comfort-zone-chatbot.png`. This goes on LinkedIn, in a portfolio, in a pitch deck.
Record a 60-second Loom. [Loom](https://www.loom.com) is free. Click record, talk through the chatbot answering 3 questions:
- A simple pricing question
- An emergency
- Something the bot doesn't know (so it punts gracefully)
That recording is infinitely more credible than any resume bullet you could write.
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Pick one of these:
Option A — LinkedIn post
``` Spent an hour this morning building a working AI chatbot for a fictional HVAC company. Real Express server. Real Anthropic API. Branded for the business (hours, pricing, emergency line, the works). Built off the Applied AI Insider "60-Minute Chatbot" course.
If you've been telling yourself "I should learn AI" for the last six months — An hour. That's all it takes to get started.
[link to the course or to your Loom] ```
Option B — Tell one person
DM a friend who's been "thinking about AI" the screenshot or Loom. Ask if their company could use something like this. Either they say yes (and now you've got your first real conversation) or they say no (and now you know more about what they actually need).
Option C — Write your own README
Fork the starter repo, rebrand it for a business you actually know — a friend's restaurant, your kid's sports league, a contractor you use. Even just changing `BUSINESS_FACTS` to a real local business is a portfolio piece.
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You're at a real fork in the road. Three honest paths:
Path 1 — "I want to build for myself or my company"
You're now equipped to build basic AI chatbots. The next two things to learn:
- Memory across messages — your bot answers each question fresh right now, with no memory. Adding a conversation history is 15 lines of code. *(Covered in Chapter 3 of the Applied AI Playbook.)*
- Document knowledge (RAG) — when your facts block grows past a thousand lines, you switch from "everything in the system prompt" to "look up relevant chunks per question." *(Chapter 4.)*
Path 2 — "I want to do this as a side hustle or career"
You're now equipped to demo something real to a client. The next things to learn:
- Pitching and selling AI work to small businesses — the discovery call, ROI math, scoping. *(Chapter 13 of the Applied AI Playbook.)*
- Pricing AI projects — how to charge for something that takes you 2 days to build but saves the client $50K/year. *(AI Service Line for IT Partners course, coming soon.)*
Path 3 — "I'm an AI champion at my company"
You're now equipped to walk into a leadership meeting and demo something real instead of pitching theory. Next:
- The 30-Day AI Champion Bootcamp — takes you from this prototype to a budget-approved internal initiative in 30 days. *(Coming soon — registered course members get notified first.)*
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This course is the wedge. The rest of AAT Insider is where the depth lives:
- The 5-Book Library — ~1,275 pages of practical AI content
- AI Daily Briefs — what changed in AI today, why it matters for SMBs
- Resource Library — the templates, prompt packs, pitch decks, and ROI calculators that the books reference
- Community channels — share what you built, ask the dumb questions, learn from people one chapter ahead
[Create a free account](/register) to save this course completion, get the certificate, and unlock free-tier resources.
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Click the Mark Course Complete button below this lesson to get your "Built My First AI App" certificate as a PDF. Add it to LinkedIn. Print it out. Frame it. Whatever — it's yours.
You did the work. Welcome to building AI.
— John E. Martines, Applied AI Technology