Getting Started with AI When You're Not a Tech Person
The most common thing I hear from small business owners in Las Cruces when the subject of AI comes up is some version of: "I know I should be paying attention to this, but I don't even know where to start."
That's a completely reasonable place to be. The coverage of AI is loud, contradictory, and mostly written for people who are already deep in the tech world. Meanwhile you're trying to run a business.
Let me try to cut through it.
First: You Don't Need to Understand How It Works
You don't understand how your microwave heats food at a molecular level. You don't understand how your accounting software calculates depreciation. You don't need to.
AI tools work the same way. You don't need to understand neural networks or training data or large language models. You need to understand what the tool does, whether it's reliable enough for your purposes, and what it costs. That's it.
Anyone trying to sell you on AI by explaining how it works is probably selling you something you don't need. The question to ask is: "What specific problem will this solve, and how do I know it's working?"
Start With One Specific, Repetitive Task
The mistake I see most often is trying to understand AI in the abstract before trying it concretely. You end up reading articles, watching videos, attending webinars, and never actually doing anything.
Instead: pick one thing you do that's repetitive and somewhat generic.
Good candidates:
- Drafting emails you send often — client follow-ups, inquiry responses, appointment reminders
- Writing social media captions — especially if you hate doing it
- Summarizing things — meeting notes, long documents, customer feedback threads
- Answering common questions — if you have a FAQ page, AI can help you write and refine it
Pick one. Go to ChatGPT (free at chat.openai.com) or Claude (claude.ai, also has a free tier). Write a description of what you need. See what you get.
The goal of this first experiment is not to immediately save hours of your life. The goal is to have a concrete experience to think about.
Evaluate Honestly
After your first experiment, ask yourself these questions:
Was the output usable, or did I have to completely rewrite it? If you had to rewrite it entirely, the prompt (your instructions) probably needs work, not the tool.
How long did giving instructions take versus just doing the task? For some very short tasks, AI doesn't save time. That's fine. Not everything should be automated.
Would I trust this output without checking it? The honest answer should be no, at least at first. AI makes factual errors. Never publish AI output without reading it.
A Note on Privacy
Don't paste customer information, financial data, or anything sensitive into a general AI tool like ChatGPT. The free versions of these tools may use your inputs to improve their models. Treat them the way you'd treat a conversation with a contractor you've just met — professional, but not confidential.
For anything that involves sensitive data, talk to someone (like me) about enterprise-grade options with proper data handling agreements.
Build From There
Once you've had one useful experience with AI, you'll start noticing other places it might help. That's the natural progression. You don't need a grand AI strategy to start — you need a first concrete win, and the curiosity to build from it.
If you've tried a few things and you're not sure what to do next, or you're trying to evaluate a specific tool someone pitched you, that's the kind of thing I help people with. See how consulting works, or get in touch — I'm happy to do a free 20-minute call just to point you in a useful direction.