Want to know how to use AI but don't know where to start? In 2026, even a beginner can leverage artificial intelligence daily for writing, coding, researching information, creating visuals, and automating tasks.
In this practical guide, I'll show you how to use AI step by step. From creating your account to your first prompts, including mistakes to avoid. The key is to choose 2-3 main assistants, learn to formulate your requests properly, then apply them to your professional use cases.
Why Learn to Use AI?
Artificial intelligence is no longer reserved for experts. In 2026, not knowing how to use AI is like not knowing how to use the Internet 20 years ago. Here's why you need to get started now:
- 10x Productivity: Automate repetitive tasks (emails, reports, research)
- Boosted Creativity: Generate ideas, visuals, and text in seconds
- Time Savings: What used to take 2 hours now takes 10 minutes
- Competitive Advantage: Those who master AI move faster than others
- Accessibility: Tools are free or inexpensive and easy to learn
Realistic Goal: With 30 minutes per day for 2 weeks, you can master the basics and save several hours per week on your daily tasks.
Step 1: Choosing the Right AI Tool
Free tiers change often, but there's a basic "stack" covering text, search, code, and images. For a beginner, the goal is mainly to have a generalist assistant, an augmented search tool, and one or two image generators.
Generalist Assistants (text, code, multimodal)
| Tool | Publisher | Strengths | Free? |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | OpenAI | Versatile, writing, code, explanations | Yes (limited) |
| Claude | Anthropic | Writing quality, reasoning, long texts | Yes (limited) |
| Gemini | Google integration, search, multimodal | Yes | |
| Copilot | Microsoft | Office integration, Bing search | Yes |
My recommendation for beginners: Start with ChatGPT (the most popular) + Claude (best for long texts). These are the two references in 2026.
Image Generators
- Midjourney: Best for artistic quality (paid)
- DALL-E 3: Integrated into ChatGPT Plus
- Canva AI: Ideal for non-designers
- Adobe Firefly: For Adobe creators
Step 2: Creating Your Account
Account creation is simple and free for most tools. Here's how to do it for the main ones:
ChatGPT (OpenAI)
- Go to chat.openai.com
- Click on "Sign up"
- Use your email or sign in with Google/Microsoft/Apple
- Verify your email
- You're ready! You can start using ChatGPT for free
Claude (Anthropic)
- Go to claude.ai
- Click on "Start for free"
- Sign in with Google or create an email account
- Accept the terms of use
- You have free access to Claude
Gemini (Google)
- Go to gemini.google.com
- Sign in with your Google account
- That's it! Gemini is integrated into your Google ecosystem
Step 3: First Steps - Simple Tasks
Start with simple tasks to familiarize yourself with AI. Here are some concrete examples:
Writing an Email
Prompt:
"Write a professional email to request postponing a meeting to next Monday. Tone: cordial but direct."
Summarizing a Long Text
Prompt:
"Summarize this document in 5 bullet points. [Paste the text]"
Rephrasing a Paragraph
Prompt:
"Rephrase this text to make it clearer and more professional: [your text]"
Translating a Text
Prompt:
"Translate this text to French while keeping a professional tone: [your text]"
Step 4: Intermediate Tasks
Once comfortable with the basics, move on to more complex tasks:
Generating Ideas
Prompt:
"Give me 10 LinkedIn post ideas on the topic of productivity for entrepreneurs. Format: catchy title + 2 teaser sentences."
Analyzing Data
Prompt:
"Here are my quarterly sales figures [data]. Identify trends and give me 3 concrete recommendations."
Creating a Structured Plan
Prompt:
"Create a detailed outline for a blog article about [topic]. Structure: intro + 5 sections + conclusion. For each section, give the H2 title and 3 sub-points."
Step 5: Advanced Tasks
You're now ready for more sophisticated uses:
Generating Images (Midjourney/DALL-E)
Midjourney Prompt:
"A professional business woman working on laptop in modern office, soft natural lighting, minimalist design, photorealistic --ar 16:9 --v 6"
Writing Code (ChatGPT/Claude)
Prompt:
"Write a Python function that takes a list of numbers and returns the average, min, and max. Add explanatory comments and a usage example."
Creating a Presentation
Prompt:
"Create content for a 10-slide PowerPoint presentation on [topic]. For each slide: title, 3-4 bullet points, speaker notes."
Step 6: Using Effective Prompts
The quality of your results depends directly on the quality of your prompts. Here are the basic principles of prompt engineering:
Basic Principles
- Be clear: State precisely the task, target audience, and goal (e.g., "blog article for beginners", "B2B client email")
- Give a role: "Act as an expert in [domain]" to frame the perspective
- Structure in steps: Request an outline first then details, or numbered steps
- Specify constraints: Length, format, tone, language, output type (list, table, outline)
- Iterate: Start simple, review, then refine ("Rewrite it shorter", "Add concrete examples")
GOLDEN Template for Your Prompts
Structure your prompts like this:
- Goal: What you want exactly
- Output (Format): Bullet points, outline, article, commented code...
- Limits: What not to do, max length, language level
- Data: Minimal context (your situation, your persona, your audience)
- Examples: An example of what you expect
- Nuances: Tone, style, specifics
Step 7: Correcting and Refining Results
AI doesn't always give the perfect result on the first try. Here's how to iterate effectively:
Iteration Techniques
- "Rewrite it shorter": If the text is too long
- "Add concrete examples": If it's too abstract
- "Simplify the vocabulary": If it's too technical
- "Keep only the 3 most important points": To synthesize
- "Rephrase point 2 with a more direct tone": To target a specific part
Important: AI can "hallucinate" - make up facts, numbers, or sources. Always verify critical information, especially numerical data, proper names, and legal or medical references.
Step 8: Practical Use Cases by Profession
Recent studies show that knowledge-based professions (IT, sales, administrative, communications) are among the most positively exposed to generative AI.
| Profession | Recommended Tools | Typical Uses |
|---|---|---|
| Office / Administrative | ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot | Emails, meeting notes, document summaries |
| Marketing / Communications | ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Midjourney | Campaign ideas, marketing copy, visuals |
| Dev / Data / IT | Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini | Code, debugging, technical documentation |
| Education / Training | ChatGPT, Gemini | Course materials, quizzes, educational explanations |
| Content Creators | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Midjourney, Canva | Scripts, articles, thumbnails, posts |
Mistakes to Avoid
Feedback from companies and studies on AI at work always reveals the same pitfalls. Here are the common mistakes beginners make:
Common Mistakes
- 1. Accepting everything without verifying
AI hallucinates, especially with numbers, proper names, legal or medical references - 2. Prompts that are too vague
"Write me an article about AI" produces generic texts. Be specific! - 3. Becoming dependent too quickly
AI is an assistant, not a replacement for your thinking - 4. Ignoring privacy
Don't share sensitive data with AI - 5. Not iterating
The first result is rarely perfect, refine your requests
Best Practices
- 1. Always verify facts
Especially for numerical data and references - 2. Provide context
The more specific you are, the better the results - 3. Create reusable prompts
For your repetitive tasks - 4. Test multiple tools
Each AI has its strengths - 5. Maintain critical thinking
AI helps, you decide
Free AI Tools to Try
Here's my selection of the best free AI tools to get started in 2026:
Text Assistants (free)
- ChatGPT Free: Access to GPT-4o with usage limits
- Claude Free: Excellent for long texts
- Gemini: Free and integrated with Google
- Copilot: Free with Microsoft account
- Perplexity: Augmented search with sources
Images (free options)
- Canva AI: Built-in image generator (limited credits)
- Leonardo AI: Generous free tier
- Playground AI: 100 free images/day
- Ideogram: Good for logos and text
Productivity
- Notion AI: Free trial
- Otter.ai: Free audio transcription (limits)
- Gamma: Automatic presentations
Conclusion
Learning how to use AI has never been more accessible. With the free tools available today (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini), you can start saving time on your daily tasks right now.
To get started concretely:
- Choose 1-2 free assistants (ChatGPT + Claude for example)
- List 5 repetitive tasks from your daily routine
- Create 1 reusable prompt for each
- Schedule 30 minutes per day for 2 weeks to test
- Keep only what actually saves you time
Want to go further? Check out our article on the differences between Machine Learning and Deep Learning to understand how AI works under the hood.
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