How do you train employees to use AI?

By Stacy Maynard

Train employees on AI using their own work. Pick one approved tool, set it up with your organization's documents, then have each person finish a real task they do every week while someone shows them how. Write a one page policy, and check back a month later to see what stuck.

That's the short answer. Here's how it works in practice.

Why most AI training doesn't stick

A lot of teams have already had the AI lunch and learn. Someone showed a few impressive prompts, everyone nodded, and by the following Tuesday nobody had opened the tool again.

Interest is rarely the problem. People leave without having used it on anything that matters to them, and without knowing what they're allowed to paste in. So they go back to the old way, which feels like the safe choice.

Step 1: Pick one tool and set it up first

Before anyone is trained, decide which tool the team will use and get it ready. Half the staff on different free accounts, each starting from nothing, goes nowhere.

Create a shared project or workspace and load it with what makes your organization yours: your style guide, a few strong examples of past work, the documents people search for most, and plain instructions on tone. When training day comes, everyone starts from the same place.

Step 2: Train on real work

Ask each person to bring one task they do every week and don't love. Meeting notes, a monthly report, replies to the same questions, a first draft of a proposal. In the session they finish that task with AI, with help at their elbow.

This does more than any feature tour. Once someone has saved an hour on their own report, they don't need convincing. Our sessions end with a working project and real tasks finished for exactly that reason.

Step 3: Write the rules on one page

People hold back when they aren't sure what's allowed. A one page policy clears that up. It names the approved tools, says what must never go in (client personal information, health details, anything confidential), and tells people who to ask when they're unsure.

Add two habits. A person checks everything before it reaches a client, member or the public. And anything published under the organization's name has been read in full by someone who knows the subject.

Step 4: Keep it small and keep it going

Training works best in short sessions with small groups, ideally by department, so the examples fit the work in the room. Ninety minutes is enough for a first session.

Then pick a champion in each team, someone who enjoys this stuff, and give them twenty minutes at a team meeting each month to share one thing that worked.

Step 5: Check what changed

You don't need a dashboard. Before training, ask how long the chosen tasks usually take. A month later, ask again. If the monthly report went from a day to two hours, you know it's working, and you know what to train next.

In person or online?

Both work. In person suits teams who are nervous about the tools and need the energy of a room. Live video works well for spread out teams, and people get to practise on their own screens. Every one of our workshops runs either way.

Where to start

If you'd like your team trained on their own work, see our AI training page or the full list of workshops. If you want the whole setup built for one department and handed over, that's an AI Unit.

Not sure where your team sits? The free AI Readiness Scorecard takes about four minutes and gives you the first three things we'd fix.

Questions people ask about training employees on AI

How long does AI training for employees take?

A first hands on session can run in 90 minutes and still end with real work finished. Most teams then benefit from a short follow up a few weeks later, once people have used it on their daily work and have real questions.

Do employees need technical skills to learn AI?

No. If someone can write an email, they can learn to use an AI assistant. What matters most is knowing their own work well enough to judge whether the answer is right.

What should employees never put into AI tools?

Client or patient personal information, health details, passwords, financial account details and anything marked confidential. Your one page policy should list these plainly, next to the tools that are approved.

Should we train everyone at once or one team at a time?

One team at a time usually works better. The examples fit the work in the room, people ask more questions, and the first team becomes the proof for the next one.

Which AI tool should we train staff on?

The one your organization has approved and can support. Training people on a tool they can't use at work afterwards wastes the session, so settle the tool and its setup before training starts.