Getting started with AI: a practical first week for a contractor

Most 'getting started with AI' advice is either too vague or too technical. This is a plain, five-day plan you can run with a free chatbot account and the work already on your desk.

Day 1 — Pick one painful, repetitive task

Don't try to 'use AI.' Pick a specific chore you do every week that's mostly words: writing bid follow-up emails, summarizing a spec section, turning notes into a clean scope, drafting a subcontractor message. One task. Write it down.

Day 2 — Do that task with a chatbot, badly

Open any major AI chatbot and do the task. It'll be mediocre the first time — that's expected. The goal today is just to see where it helps and where it misses. Paste in real (non-sensitive) context: the email you're replying to, the scope, the notes.

Day 3 — Learn to give it context

The difference between garbage and gold is context. Tell it who you are, who it's writing to, the goal, the tone, and the format you want. Compare:

"Write a follow-up email." vs. "You're a commercial fence contractor. Write a short, friendly follow-up to a GC's estimator about a bid we sent Monday for a school athletic-fence package. Offer to answer questions on scope or schedule. Keep it under 90 words."

The second one gets you something you'd actually send.

Day 4 — Build a reusable prompt

Once you've got a version that works, save it as a template with blanks: '[GC name]', '[project]', '[what we sent]'. Now the task takes 30 seconds instead of 15 minutes, every time. Keep a simple doc of your best prompts.

Day 5 — Add one more task, and set a boundary

Pick a second task and repeat. Also set your rule: AI drafts, a human approves. Never send anything with numbers, prices, or commitments without checking it. AI is a fast first draft, not a signature.

That's it

In a week you'll have two chores that are 10x faster and a small library of prompts. That's a real return with zero spend. When a task starts happening dozens of times a day, that's when it's worth automating it properly — which is a different post.