Tools and courses
Everything below is free, and none of it is ours.
The companies building these tools write genuinely good training material and give it away. Rewriting it would produce a worse copy that goes stale, so we link to theirs and tell you which parts are worth your time.
How to use this page. Don’t comparison-shop. At this stage the differences between the major assistants matter far less than picking the one your business already pays for and using it on a real task this week. Come back and compare when you have a reason to.
Claude
Section titled “Claude”AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations · free · certificate
The non-technical starting point, and the best one we’ve found for someone who isn’t going to write code. Linked directly on purpose: Anthropic’s catalog leads with Claude Code and Claude Platform courses, which are for developers and not for you.
If you want something shorter first, Claude 101 in the same catalog covers everyday work tasks. AI Fluency is the better use of an hour — it teaches you how to work with the thing, not which buttons exist.
ChatGPT
Section titled “ChatGPT”OpenAI Academy — Small Business · free
Role-based and practical rather than theoretical: marketing, customer service, basic operations.
OpenAI also runs in-person small business academies around the US, plus webinars on accounting, marketing and ecommerce. If you get more out of a room of other owners than a video, that’s the more valuable half of what they offer.
Microsoft Copilot
Section titled “Microsoft Copilot”Relevant if your business runs on Microsoft 365, which many trades and service businesses do. Copilot works on the mail, files and meetings you already have, which makes it the cheapest thing to try.
Get started with Microsoft Copilot · free — a single short module, the right first click.
Copilot Chat learning path · free — longer, task-shaped, once the first one lands.
Copilot Skilling Center · free — on-demand webinars and live one-day events.
Google Gemini
Section titled “Google Gemini”Relevant if you’re on Google Workspace. Same logic as Copilot: it’s already sitting in your Gmail and Docs.
Workspace Learning Center · free — Google’s own end-user material, organized by the app you’re already in.
Skillshop · free · certificate — search for the Gemini for Workspace track. Roughly two hours, and it covers Gemini inside Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Meet.
A note on certificates
Section titled “A note on certificates”Most of these issue one. It’s worth about what you’d expect — nobody is hiring on it. Take the course for the hour of structured practice, not the PDF.
Something missing?
Section titled “Something missing?”If you found material that belongs here, or something we linked has gone stale, tell us. Keeping this page honest is most of the value it has.