AI in 60 Minutes — Your First Real Workflow · Lesson 2 of 6

Lesson 2 — Pick your tool

10 minutes. Pick one. Sign in. Move on.

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You're picking among three. They're all good. Don't agonize.

Option 1 — Claude (claude.ai)

Pick this if: you want the best writing partner. Claude is the strongest at long reading, careful drafting, and following instructions about tone and format. Made by Anthropic.

  • Free tier: Yes — generous enough for daily use.
  • Paid: $20/month for Claude Pro (more usage, larger files).
  • Strength: Thoughtful prose. Long documents. Following detailed instructions.
Option 2 — ChatGPT (chatgpt.com)

Pick this if: you want the most-talked-about tool with the broadest ecosystem. Made by OpenAI.

  • Free tier: Yes — usable for daily work.
  • Paid: $20/month for ChatGPT Plus (faster, more features, image generation).
  • Strength: Broad capability, lots of integrations, voice mode.
Option 3 — Microsoft Copilot (copilot.microsoft.com)

Pick this if: your business already runs on Microsoft 365. Copilot lives in Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams.

  • Free tier: Yes — through copilot.microsoft.com.
  • Paid: $30/month per user for Microsoft 365 Copilot (the one inside your Office apps).
  • Strength: It's where your work already lives. No tab-switching.
My recommendation if you're truly choosing today

If you don't already have a Microsoft 365 subscription: Claude. It writes the best, and the free tier is plenty for this course.

If you do have Microsoft 365 and use Outlook + Word daily: Copilot. It's where you already are.

If you've already heard of ChatGPT and want to go with what's familiar: ChatGPT. All three will work for this course.

Sign in. Right now.

Open one of the URLs above. Create an account if you don't have one (email + password, takes 60 seconds). Sign in.

When you can type a message into the box and see it respond, you're done with Lesson 2.

Don't customize anything yet. Don't read the documentation. Don't sign up for the paid plan. Don't browse the "explore prompts" gallery. Just sign in.

I'll wait.

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Signed in? Good.

Next lesson is where it starts being useful. We're going to write one prompt — a real one — that pays off in your business by the end of the lesson.

→ Lesson 3 — The first prompt that pays off

Previous: Lesson 1 — What AI actually does for your business · Next: Lesson 3 — The first prompt that pays off