3 Getting Started — Your First AI Conversation

The best way to understand AI is to use it. Not to read about it, not to watch a demo, but to sit down and have a conversation.

3.1 Accessing an AI Tool

Many institutions now provide enterprise AI tools through existing software agreements — commonly MS Copilot Enterprise (through Microsoft 365) or Google Gemini (through Google Workspace for Education). Check with your IT department first, because enterprise tools keep your data within institutional boundaries.

If your institution does not provide one, several free tools are available: ChatGPT (chat.openai.com), Claude (claude.ai), and Google Gemini (gemini.google.com). All work directly in your web browser — no installation, no configuration. Create a free account and you will see a text box waiting for your instructions.

For institutional work involving student data or course materials, use your enterprise tool. For general exploration and learning, any tool works — they all have similar core capabilities.

3.2 Your First Prompt: The Weak Version

Open your chosen AI tool and type this exactly:

Write a case study about business.

You will receive something generic — maybe a story about a marketing campaign or a financial decision. It is fine, but it is not useful for your specific teaching needs. “Business” covers everything. “A case study” could be 100 words or 5,000. The AI had to guess what you wanted.

3.3 Your Second Prompt: The Powerful Version

Now try this instead:

You are an expert marketing lecturer at a
university level.

I need you to create a case study for my
undergraduate students that will help them
practice strategic market analysis and
competitive positioning.

Here are the requirements:
- The scenario should involve a product launch
  decision where the company faces competitive
  threats
- Include enough detail that students need to
  identify which market analysis principles apply
- The scenario should be 300-400 words
- End with three discussion questions requiring
  students to analyse the market strategy and
  positioning

Begin.

The output should be dramatically more useful. The difference is that you told the AI who you are, what you need, what constraints matter, and what format to use. The AI did not get smarter between your first prompt and your second. You got clearer.

3.4 The CRAFT Framework

What made that second prompt powerful? It included five elements that you can remember with the acronym CRAFT:

Letter	Element	What it does
C	Context	Sets the situation — your course, your students, their level
R	Role	Defines the AI’s perspective — expert lecturer, consultant, practitioner
A	Action	Specifies the task — create, analyse, critique, explain
F	Format	Describes the structure — word count, number of questions, table format
T	Tone/Target	Sets the style and level — professional, introductory, sophisticated

You do not need every element every time. But when a prompt gives you something vague or generic, check which CRAFT elements are missing. The answer is usually context or format.

CRAFT is not the only prompting framework. The companion book Conversation, Not Delegation (available free at books.borck.education) compares several frameworks side by side. The goal is not to follow CRAFT rigidly — it is to think intentionally about what you are asking the AI to do.

3.5 Conversation, Not One-Shot

Here is the most important idea in this chapter: CRAFT is your first message, not your only message.

When you send one prompt and take the output as-is, you get generic content that could work for anyone. The AI produces safe, middle-ground responses. It misses your specific teaching voice and context.

The solution is to have a conversation:

PROMPT 1 (CRAFT):
"You are an experienced marketing director.
Create a market analysis case study for my
second-year students. 500 words with 4
discussion questions."

[AI produces a case study]

PROMPT 2 (Refine):
"Good. Make the discussion questions more
specific — ask students to identify which
of Porter's Five Forces apply and what data
they would need to support their recommendation."

PROMPT 3 (Expand):
"Add a section comparing three analytical
frameworks and how each leads to different
conclusions."

PROMPT 4 (Repurpose):
"Turn this into a 10-minute classroom activity
with a 2-minute intro, 5-minute group task,
and 3-minute discussion."

You did not write four prompts from scratch. You had a conversation where each follow-up built on what was working. This is what conversation, not delegation looks like in practice.

3.6 Discover Your Strategy: Using AI to Help You Use AI

Here is something most tools cannot do: AI can teach you how to use itself.

Instead of reading generic advice, you can have a personalised consultation where AI interviews you about your teaching context and then recommends both obvious and unexpected applications. Copy this prompt and try it now:

You're an AI expert consultant for business
educators. I'd love your help discovering
how I could better use AI in my teaching.

Please ask me one question at a time. I'll
answer, then you'll ask the next question.
Keep asking until you understand:

- My discipline and the students I teach
- My main teaching challenges
- My key teaching goals
- My constraints (time, resources, skills)
- What I've already tried with AI

Once you have enough context, provide TWO
types of recommendations:

1. OBVIOUS OPPORTUNITIES: Clear, straightforward
   AI applications most educators think of

2. NON-OBVIOUS OPPORTUNITIES: Unexpected or
   creative uses specific to my discipline
   that I might not have considered

Format your recommendations clearly with
implementation tips for each.

Please start by asking your first question.

Spend 10-15 minutes answering honestly. The value is not just in the AI’s recommendations — it is in the clarity you gain about your own teaching by having to explain it. Educators consistently report that articulating their teaching philosophy to an AI helped them see how AI could enhance it, not replace it.

Try this (15 minutes)

Run the consultation prompt above. Answer the questions honestly — don’t polish your responses. Then pick one obvious recommendation and one non-obvious recommendation to try this semester. Return to the same conversation after you have tried them and report what happened. The AI will help you iterate.

3.7 The Foundation

If you have followed along, you have accessed an AI tool, written a structured prompt, had a conversation that refined the output, and discovered personalised recommendations for your teaching. That is not a small thing. Everything else in this book builds on this foundation.

The quality of what you get from AI depends almost entirely on how you work with it. Give it a vague instruction and you get a generic response. Work with it through a structured conversation and you get something genuinely useful. The tools will change. This skill transfers to all of them.

# Getting Started — Your First AI Conversation > The best way to understand AI is to use it. Not to read about it, not to watch a demo, but to sit down and have a conversation. ## Accessing an AI Tool Many institutions now provide enterprise AI tools through existing software agreements — commonly MS Copilot Enterprise (through Microsoft 365) or Google Gemini (through Google Workspace for Education). Check with your IT department first, because enterprise tools keep your data within institutional boundaries. If your institution does not provide one, several free tools are available: ChatGPT (chat.openai.com), Claude (claude.ai), and Google Gemini (gemini.google.com). All work directly in your web browser — no installation, no configuration. Create a free account and you will see a text box waiting for your instructions. For institutional work involving student data or course materials, use your enterprise tool. For general exploration and learning, any tool works — they all have similar core capabilities. ## Your First Prompt: The Weak Version Open your chosen AI tool and type this exactly: ``` Write a case study about business. ``` You will receive something generic — maybe a story about a marketing campaign or a financial decision. It is fine, but it is not useful for your specific teaching needs. "Business" covers everything. "A case study" could be 100 words or 5,000. The AI had to guess what you wanted. ## Your Second Prompt: The Powerful Version Now try this instead: ```text You are an expert marketing lecturer at a university level. I need you to create a case study for my undergraduate students that will help them practice strategic market analysis and competitive positioning. Here are the requirements: - The scenario should involve a product launch decision where the company faces competitive threats - Include enough detail that students need to identify which market analysis principles apply - The scenario should be 300-400 words - End with three discussion questions requiring students to analyse the market strategy and positioning Begin. ``` The output should be dramatically more useful. The difference is that you told the AI who you are, what you need, what constraints matter, and what format to use. The AI did not get smarter between your first prompt and your second. You got clearer. ## The CRAFT Framework What made that second prompt powerful? It included five elements that you can remember with the acronym **CRAFT**: | Letter | Element | What it does | |--------|---------|--------------| | **C** | **Context** | Sets the situation — your course, your students, their level | | **R** | **Role** | Defines the AI's perspective — expert lecturer, consultant, practitioner | | **A** | **Action** | Specifies the task — create, analyse, critique, explain | | **F** | **Format** | Describes the structure — word count, number of questions, table format | | **T** | **Tone/Target** | Sets the style and level — professional, introductory, sophisticated | You do not need every element every time. But when a prompt gives you something vague or generic, check which CRAFT elements are missing. The answer is usually context or format. **CRAFT is not the only prompting framework.** The companion book *Conversation, Not Delegation* (available free at books.borck.education) compares several frameworks side by side. The goal is not to follow CRAFT rigidly — it is to think intentionally about what you are asking the AI to do. ## Conversation, Not One-Shot Here is the most important idea in this chapter: **CRAFT is your first message, not your only message.** When you send one prompt and take the output as-is, you get generic content that could work for anyone. The AI produces safe, middle-ground responses. It misses your specific teaching voice and context. The solution is to have a conversation: ``` PROMPT 1 (CRAFT): "You are an experienced marketing director. Create a market analysis case study for my second-year students. 500 words with 4 discussion questions." [AI produces a case study] PROMPT 2 (Refine): "Good. Make the discussion questions more specific — ask students to identify which of Porter's Five Forces apply and what data they would need to support their recommendation." PROMPT 3 (Expand): "Add a section comparing three analytical frameworks and how each leads to different conclusions." PROMPT 4 (Repurpose): "Turn this into a 10-minute classroom activity with a 2-minute intro, 5-minute group task, and 3-minute discussion." ``` You did not write four prompts from scratch. You had a conversation where each follow-up built on what was working. This is what *conversation, not delegation* looks like in practice. ## Discover Your Strategy: Using AI to Help You Use AI Here is something most tools cannot do: **AI can teach you how to use itself.** Instead of reading generic advice, you can have a personalised consultation where AI interviews you about your teaching context and then recommends both obvious and unexpected applications. Copy this prompt and try it now: ``` You're an AI expert consultant for business educators. I'd love your help discovering how I could better use AI in my teaching. Please ask me one question at a time. I'll answer, then you'll ask the next question. Keep asking until you understand: - My discipline and the students I teach - My main teaching challenges - My key teaching goals - My constraints (time, resources, skills) - What I've already tried with AI Once you have enough context, provide TWO types of recommendations: 1. OBVIOUS OPPORTUNITIES: Clear, straightforward AI applications most educators think of 2. NON-OBVIOUS OPPORTUNITIES: Unexpected or creative uses specific to my discipline that I might not have considered Format your recommendations clearly with implementation tips for each. Please start by asking your first question. ``` Spend 10-15 minutes answering honestly. The value is not just in the AI's recommendations — it is in the clarity you gain about your own teaching by having to explain it. Educators consistently report that articulating their teaching philosophy to an AI helped them see how AI could enhance it, not replace it. ::: {.callout-tip title="Try this (15 minutes)"} Run the consultation prompt above. Answer the questions honestly — don't polish your responses. Then pick one obvious recommendation and one non-obvious recommendation to try this semester. Return to the same conversation after you have tried them and report what happened. The AI will help you iterate. ::: ## The Foundation If you have followed along, you have accessed an AI tool, written a structured prompt, had a conversation that refined the output, and discovered personalised recommendations for your teaching. That is not a small thing. Everything else in this book builds on this foundation. The quality of what you get from AI depends almost entirely on how you work with it. Give it a vague instruction and you get a generic response. Work with it through a structured conversation and you get something genuinely useful. The tools will change. This skill transfers to all of them.