Heather Murray

AI For Non-Techies | nontechies.ai

I believe AI should be accessible to everyone. 
So I built a business that teaches it in a simple, honest way. 

AI for Non-Techies (does what it says on the tin, really) offers: 

- AI training for teams (in-person or online)
- AI Academy for small businesses/freelancers 
- "Train the AI Trainer" courses 

Have a little look at what we do: https://nontechies.ai/

Oh, and a bit about me: 

- $75m revenue generated for clients using AI
- Working with brands such as Toyota, Mitsubishi, Google, Salesforce and many others 
- AI Consultant to UK government + local authorities
- Top 5 MarTech influencer globally
- On the ISO panel for AI and cyber security globally
- Winner: AI Trailblazer at the AI Revenue Summit 2024
- Winner: Top Women in SaaS 2024
- Featured regularly in Forbes Magazine
- International keynote speaker
- 20 years in marketing and sales (legal + finance)

I'm a humungous believer in doing your bit for your local community. I run Festive Friends, which provides free social events for older people who have no friends or family.  I believe AI has huge potential to reduce digital exclusion, too. 

To book training, speaking or a chat, contact my EA, Katie, who you can access via my email: heather@nontechies.ai.

Founder

AI for Non-Techies, born from a newsletter of the same name, was launched out of a clear need for non-technical AI education.   I'm deeply passionate and enthusiastic about helping non-technical people understand and integrate AI into their work and personal lives.

From £25/mo to £0/mo
Why I'm making our AI Academy free: 


As you may or may not know, at AI for Non-Techies we do 3 things: 

1. We devise and deliver AI training
2. We train new AI trainers 
3. We have an AI Academy for individuals

Now...that last one has always been a bit of a passion project for me rather than a revenue generator (between me and thee, it made about 5-7% of our income). 

I packed as much value as I possibly could into our Academy: twice-weekly lives, library of classes, interactive courses, ready-made Custom GPTs, prompt library, loads. 

All for £25 per month - when most others charge at least £95 per month (for a lot less stuff). 

Bang for yer buck wise - I was very proud

BUT

£25 per month is still a barrier for many - especially the exact people we want to help: those tentatively dipping their toes into AI (or having their toes dipped for them at work). 

SO

...well, we're making everything FREE 🎉

The idea being that we can help a LOT more people.

Now, logistically, that means some changes...
Our stuff is moving to where people already spend time. 

So, we'll soon have: 

• Free interactive workshops, every month (on Zoom)
• Free webinars for specific roles/industries, every month (on Zoom)
• Free masterclasses and expert interviews (YouTube)
• Free "Tiny Trainings" - sub 5-min classes (LinkedIn)
• Free AI Literacy for All course (on our site)
• Free ready-built AI assistants (on our site)

...and I'll still keep posting all the prompt books, playbooks, cheat sheets and all that lovely stuff here on my LinkedIn, too. 

This way, you never need spend a penny learning AI with us. 💜

(But...if you want training for your team, or you're looking to become an AI trainer yourself - we'll be the first people you think of - that's the business model 😉)

PS All of these changes are coming in the next 6-ish weeks. 

Naturally - I'll yap on about it here as we release stuff, but if you want an email-shaped nudge: https://lnkd.in/eQ92rxBU

PPS Happy Friday everyone!

Something exciting this way comes..
It’s free, and it’s for everyone
Your kids, your colleagues, your nan

(After the horrendous £4.1m misstep by the government, I wanted to throw our AI for Non-Techies-shaped hat into the ring to actually help people, not confuse them.) 

Today I’ve been in the studio filming our brand new AI Literacy for All course. 

It’s a simple, human and honest introduction to: 

What GenAI actually is
What it’s good at (and terrible at)
How to speak to it
How to stay safe using it 

It’s designed to be shared far and wide for everyone- whether you’re a jobseeker, a student, a retiree, a freelancer or an employee. 

It needs zero prior knowledge or tech skills, and I explain everything in the most human, honest way I could think of. 

It’s designed to take about 2 hours and you get a lovely certificate at the end. 

It’s highly interactive, easy to understand and best of all - completely FREE. 

It’s coming soon, so keep your eyes peeled. 👀

PS We are offering an LMS-ready version of it too for corporates, universities and networks - if you’re interested, pop me a DM

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Here's a 24-page guide to Copilot for 365
Yours free - take it! 'Ave it! 

I used to think Copilot was rubbish. 
(And it was, for a long time.) 

BUT the Copilot folk clearly listened and learnt. Over the last 9 months or so, they've pretty radically transformed Copilot into a very useful tool that I now use daily myself.

My very non-techie guide below guides you around all 5 core features: 

Chat
Agents
Notebooks
Create 
Apps

You also get a mini prompting lesson in there too as a bit of a bonus. 

A few extra bits: 

1. You can customise how it writes your emails in Outlook (go to Settings >> Copilot >> add your greeting, sign off and tone) 
   
2. I will say Copilot for Excel is pretty poor and glitchy BUT Agent Mode for Excel is coming to the EU soon. US already have it (US friends, how is it?)
   
3. Notebooks are brilliant. The name is confusing, they're not just notes. They're interactive folders with memory, like a mini NotebookLM.

I'll do a series of Tiny Trainings on Copilot stuff in the coming weeks. 

For all the fellow Copilot haters of yesteryear - how do you feel about it now? 👇

♻️ Please share if you found this useful!

***

Looking for Copilot training for your team? 
We've built our own practical, interactive course. 
Choice 1: We'll deliver it to your team 
Choice 2: **NEW** License it for your LMS

Drop me a DM or email training@nontechies.ai for more.

A Non-Techie Guide to Copilot for 365 (5)

My husband and I have separate bedrooms.
And living rooms. 
And even fridges.

I get some very strange looks when I tell people, but it works so well.

Firstly, we have totally different circadian rhythms: 

I'm up at 5am every day, including weekends. I'm one of those PING - instantly awake and hyperactive type of people. I'm also in bed by 8pm every night.

He is more of a night owl: preferring to lie in later. A massive NFL fan, he watches games until late and goes to bed when he's actually tired. 

My dog is also massive and she established her bed space next to me before I even met my husband 😉

Second, we have totally different taste in entertainment. 

While I watch epic dramas and documentaries (and yes, very secretly have a Heyu subscription - I hate myself for it), he can watch sports 24/7, without any compromise. I like to read in total quiet, he likes to listen to podcasts.

Third, we're both introverts and need lots of alone time to recharge. I am super happy on my own and although I love people, socialising exhausts me like nothing else.

This way, the time we spend together (which is plenty!) is always by choice, and it feels so much better than being forced into the same space. 

(The fridge thing wasn't actually deliberate - we bought a fridge and then our new house already had one, so we just kept both!)

Happy Valentine's Day to my perfect partner, Paul Upton. 
Thank you for giving me space to stay exactly who I am. ❤️

Any other fellow introvert couples happily co-existing out there?

Can AI make decent slide decks yet?
There’s one brand way ahead of others:
Let’s see what’s possible 👇

I've tested a lot of AI presentation tools over the past year and most of them promise speed but deliver very ‘meh’ results.

By far the leader is Gamma - and they’ve just levelled up by adding Google’s brilliant Nano Banana Pro image generator, built directly into the tool.

I wanted to give it a road test.

I asked it to create a generative AI training for lawyers, an intro to prompting, something practical I could actually use.

• Speed - genuinely impressive, about 2 minutes to generate a full deck.
• Control - improved substantially. You can configure audience, tone, outline, slide count and visuals before you hit generate, then easily edit after.
• Content - very solid: good structure, clear narrative, usable as a real starting point.
  
And unlike some tools, you can actually edit everything afterwards. Change fonts, re-prompt individual slides, add your own branding.

For context, NotebookLM also uses NanoBanana Pro for slides. But you can't edit the output, export options are limited, and it takes about 10 minutes, not 2.

Is it perfect? No. Nothing AI-generated is. But the time to perfect is definitely much faster now. 

If you dread the faffy slide creation process, try NanoBanana in Gamma and see what you can make in 5 minutes: https://gamma.app/

💬 What do you reckon?

#gammapartner

I get asked for my AI stack a LOT
So here it is (with real costs) 👇

(Caveat: I run an AI training business, unless you do too you don't need all of these)

GENERAL CHATBOTS

• 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗚𝗣𝗧 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀: Business Strategy, Analysis, Shareable CustomGPTs, Deep Research - £57/mo
• 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼: Anything that will be read by others: socials, proposals, landing pages - £20/mo
• 𝗚𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱: Longer queries, love their Workspace integration too - £20/mo
• 𝗖𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝟯𝟲𝟱 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘂𝗺: Integrated brilliantly with emails and apps- £24/mo

ORGANISATION

• 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗟𝗠: Client Hubs, Training Hubs, Skills Hubs - [cost included in Gemini above]
• 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻: My AI note taker - great security, fast, reliable and accurate - £30/mo
• 𝗖𝗼𝘃𝗲: Planning things visually - £8/mo

PLANNING WORLD DOMINATION

• 𝗟𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗹𝘆: Record long rambly thoughts while walking - £15/mo

SEARCH

• 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗣𝗿𝗼: Instead of Google - £16/mo

LEAD GENERATION

• 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗸: Creating interactive lead magnets and web page mock-ups + research with AI sheets + unlimited chat - £25/mo
• 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰: Analysing people on LinkedIn - I get this free from the lovely founders
• 𝗛𝗲𝘆𝗚𝗲𝗻: AI avatars - £20/mo

CONTENT CREATION

• 𝗘𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗹𝗮𝗯𝘀: For client demos and experiments - £4/mo
• 𝗥𝘂𝗻𝘄𝗮𝘆: Video generation - £20/mo
• 𝗠𝗶𝗱𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆: Image and short vid generation - £20
• 𝗡𝗮𝗽𝗸𝗶𝗻: Quick diagrams - free
• 𝗣𝗶𝗸𝗮: Silly videos for social posts - £8/mo

𝗧𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘁: £𝟮𝟴𝟳/𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵

So there you go, folks.
That's probably about 5000% ROI at least.

And another question I get asked a lot: "if you had to pick just one tool, which would it be?" 

My answer right now is Claude. I'm using Skills, Co-Work, Projects and now it's super clever 4.6 model - it's blowing everyone else out of the water right now. 

PS If you ARE looking to run an AI training business - come and join me in our 3 day Become an AI Trainer bootcamp: https://lnkd.in/eYJWrPYB

Well, would you look at that…
I hit 80,000 followers yesterday 🎉

Now, I'd love to be like: "here's exactly how to do it too in this 12-step blueprint" but I'm afraid I don’t really have one.

But here are the things I do routinely do:

My little 3H check for my posts.  
For each one I ask is it:

H1: Helpful
Giving something useful to the person reading ✅
Moaning about stuff ❎

H2: Human
Sounding like I actually talk in real life ✅
Sounding like a weird corporate robot ❎

H3: Heather
Something I actually know/care about ✅
Talking about stuff I’ve just researched ❎

I’ve also found that: 

1. People like to see your face  - it builds trust 
2. People are busy - make your posts easy to read
3. You can’t please everyone, so don’t try to

Ooh and I believe very much in the Give - Give - Give - Give - Ask school of thought. 

That means 80% of the time I’ll give: that can be advice, prompt books, tiny trainings, playbooks - or even saving someone precious time by reading + summarising a report or attending + reporting on an event for them.

Then 20% of the time I’ll ask: remind people of the services AI for Non-Techies offer, and how they can find out more or book a call.

Sometimes that 80/20 is in one post. 
Sometimes it’ll be 4 give, 1 ask post in a week.

Final thing - only 1% of people post regularly on here, so you can stand out by making sure you get something out say 4 or 5 times a week. (I’ve tried 7-10 posts a week and it really does work, but honestly…I can’t be arsed.)

And that's basically it, really. 

I’m very happy to answer any questions anybody might have 👇

Right, 3 Hs ticked for this post. 

Now…let’s find a nice photo of when I was wearing make up and had actually brushed my hair to add to this post and we're done.

Yesterday, Microsoft invited me to their AI tour
(and they gave me a press pass)
Here's what happened:

It was a very early start with doors opening at London’s Excel centre at 7:30am. I’ve never had a press pass before, but it unlocked all sorts of wonder:

• Skip the long queues for badge collection
• Access to a lounge with coffee, food and fast internet
• First access to embargoed news from Microsoft 
• (Almost) front row seats for the packed keynote
  
As a bonus, I also got to meet the lovely Will Francis, one of my AI heroes from TikTok (hugely recommend his videos). 

The main event was a keynote from the big man himself, Satya Nadella, alongside Darren Hardman, the UK CEO. There were also live demos from Anne Krupke showing Copilot in action, including the new agent mode in Excel, and a more techie one from Marlene Mhangami around Github Copilot.

I used Letterly to record all of the keynotes and scribbled alongside. 
Here were my 5 key takeaways:

𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝟭: 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁’𝘀 ‘𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸'
Satya spoke about 4 elements crucial for success: 

Mindset - approaching AI the right way.
Skillset - building core skills
Toolset - the right tool for the right job
Dataset - AI amplifies what you put in

𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝟮: 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 (𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳) 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰.  
They have worked with OpenAI’s (ChatGPT) models for a while, and have just started working with Anthropic’s (Claude) too. In the more techie demo, they mentioned Deepseek, Mistral and many others, though Gemini was notably absent. 

𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝟯: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗲.
In an NHS trial of 30,000 workers, Copilot saved an average of 43 minutes per day. 26 minutes per day for civil servants. Barclays saved 1 million hours in a year. Balfour Beatty reported 77% less mental effort on routine tasks.

𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝟰: 𝟴𝟰% 𝗼𝗳 𝗨𝗞 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘀𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗔𝗜.
That's from Microsoft's own new research. A year ago, that number was 40%. The gap between those adopting and those waiting is getting wider, fast. 

𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝟱: 𝗔𝗜 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂. 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱.
Satya talked about bringing AI to where people are already working, not asking them to learn something new. Just making the workflows they already have smarter. (Which of course fits perfectly with Copilot’s main strength - which is its integration into where you already are, not flimsy connectors). 

I also managed to grab a snap with the Premier League trophy for “him indoors”. 

***
If your organisation has invested in Copilot and are struggling to get results, speak to my team about our highly rated Copilot training programs. 

Email Sharona on training@nontechies.ai or send me a DM.

#MicrosoftAITour

We're hiring (yet again!)
Training Manager
£50k, full-time (remote, UK) 

If you're a super organised type who loves spinning multiple plates, this would be a fantastic challenge for you. 

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗪𝗲 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿

• Fully remote, genuinely flexible work (35 hrs/wk)
• 38 days holiday (plus bank holidays too)
• Free AI training + support from our in-house team
• Opportunity to work with exciting big brands

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗝𝗼𝗯

Everything’s in the PDF below, including initial guidance on KPIs.

𝗧𝗼 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 

Send your application (in whatever form you think best represents you: slides, video, letter, song, interpretive dance) to 𝗷𝗼𝗯𝘀@𝗻𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘀.𝗮𝗶 telling us: 

1. Why you’re applying for this role specifically 
2. Why you think you’d be a great fit 
3. Anything that would be good for us to know  

𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Wednesday 18 March 2026 5pm
𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀: Monday 23 March 2026 (PM)

We’re looking to bring someone on ASAP, so decisions will be made quickly after interviews. 

Please share with your network if you know anyone who might be interested

Any questions: drop me a DM

Thank you!

AI for Non-Techies_ Training Manager (1)

We tend to think:  
Humans = very biased
And AI = not biased 

But that's very wrong.

It's pretty obvious we humans are biased. 
We experience it, we feel it ourselves, don't we?

But is AI biased?
Most of us initially think no. 

We see AI as a sort of robot-type-thing. It can't actually feel anything, it's never been anywhere, it's never done anything. So how could it possibly be biased?

Well, it's actually VERY biased indeed. 

GenAI bias usually comes from four places:
 
1. The fact its "brain" is made up of human-written data. Think of all of those blogs, articles, books, social posts...riddled with human bias.
   
2. Design choices made by the people who built these tools. Their values, assumptions and blind spots get baked right in.
   
3. How people prompt. The way you word a question steers the answer, and most of us don't even realise we're doing it.
   
4. The real-world systems it's deployed into. A model built for general chat behaves very differently when it's suddenly making decisions about health or hiring.

I've done lots of research into GenAI bias, and this (non-exhaustive) sheet shows just how many types of bias exist in generative AI. 
 
I've separated them into 5 categories: data, design, thinking, use and impact.
 
Yes, some overlap a little, it's not perfect - but I wanted to show just how wide and deep this problem really is. 
 
Can we eliminate bias in our AI results? Not completely, no.
 
But I did create a handy mini prompt to help highlight when it happens.
 
When you've got your final response in your chatbot, copy/paste the below prompt AND attach the bias doc from this post (click + download).

***

𝘈𝘤𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘈𝘐, 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘐-𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺.

𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺, 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘈𝘐 𝘣𝘪𝘢𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦. 𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘈𝘐 𝘣𝘪𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘯𝘦.

***

As I say, it doesn't eliminate but it definitely does help shine a light on an issue so many don't realise is there. 

PS If you're into your AI and fancy becoming an AI trainer, come and join my 3-day online bootcamp, it's only £72/$97: https://lnkd.in/eYJWrPYB

The UK government spent £4.1m with PWC to create a free AI skills platform for everyone 👏 
Is it any good, though?

TL;DR: Nope. 

(Massive glaring caveat: Obviously, I'm speaking from a biased place. I own an AI training company.)

👍 The Good Stuff 

→ It’s easy to sign up
→ It’s got Andrew Ng stuff on it

Erm…honestly, I’m struggling for any more. 

👎 The Bad Stuff 

→ The design and UX is poor, it’s hard to move around
→ The learning pathway questions don’t make sense
→ There’s lots of non-AI content in there, e.g. maths 
→ It seems 70% of it isn’t actually free

In all honesty, it doesn’t feel like a £4.1m project in partnership with a goliath like PWC, it feels like it’s been made in a rush by someone who wasn't paying attention (and doesn't use GenAI themselves). 

Yowch.

Have I missed something important?

I’m sick of seeing free AI courses that promise the world but aren’t very good. Most of them don’t actually help people with the 3 things that matter: 

1. What it is (and isn’t!)
2. Real, practical use cases
3. How to stay safe using it 

…so I’m building my own. 

On demand.
Free for everyone.
Constantly updated.

It’ll have an assessment at the end, and a certificate of AI Literacy for those who pass. 

I plan to get it out far and wide to as many people as I possibly can - so please keep your eyes peeled! 👀

It’s designed to be useful for (almost) everyone - from teenagers to job-hunters to retirees and everyone in between. (I haven’t made this one proper kiddy-friendly but that’s a project for later.)

So...

Have you tried the new AI Skills Boost platform yet? 
How was your experience? Have I missed something?!

Please let me know below 👇

So there I was, in my tiny home office
Dressing gown over my clothes
Eating organic almonds (alright, alright...crisps)

..and then I get sent an email. 

And in that email is a screenshot of the Economic Times newspaper in India. 

And there on the front cover is my silly Brummy face. 

It's just one thing in an endless series of mental things that happen to me nowadays.  

A selection from the last couple of weeks: 

1. I wangled a call with (the very kind and surprisingly down-to-earth) Grant Lee, Founder of the £2.1bn Gamma, where he gave my co-Founder Alice and I some excellent business advice

2. I bumped into Will Francis, who I'm a huge fan of on TikTok (he does brilliant AI videos) - and he somehow knew who the heck I am

3. I got invited by Channel 4 to come and train a group of women in all things generative AI (that's next week - photos to come, of course)

4. The Microsoft Copilot team inviting me personally to be their guest at the Microsoft AI Tour last week and giving me a press pass

5. BBC Radio Scotland asking me onto their show next week to reassure their listeners about what's happening with AI and the job market (and my delight of being recognised as the AI person who can do that)

I know, I know - I'm meant to be used to this by now, aren't I? 

But I still often just sit and giggle to myself. 

I remember so clearly having the idea for AI for Non-Techies. Legging it into the living room to tell my husband: 

“I think this AI thing is going to be HUGE. I’m going to go all in on it! Like…obsessively!!”

And I did. 
And here I am. 
In my dressing gown.
Eating crisps.
Giggling.

***

Teaching people AI is very exciting. If you're looking into it, hop onto my next 3-day 'Become an AI Trainer' bootcamp: https://lnkd.in/eYJWrPYB

In case you missed it, Claude released a 33-page guide to Claude Skills 🔥

❓𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗲 𝗦𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻, 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿? 
 
Great question, Heather. AI chatbots can't read our minds, they need context to do the best possible job. To do that, we:

1. We put lots of detail into our prompt, and/or
2. We attach documents of useful info

It's great, but it's faffy. 

Skills are like mini SOPs - a set of instructions you give Claude once, so you never have to explain it again. Teach it once, and it'll use it whenever it needs.
 
I've been completely lost in building these over the past week, and the difference is mental. 

❓𝗜 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂, 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲!
 
Bit concerning you're speaking to yourself in posts, but alright:
 
I'm building a 6-part flagship course right now.
Without AI, that takes me about 4-5 days. 
With Claude Projects, I got it down to 2-3 days.
With Projects AND Skills, I did it in 7 hours. 
 
Seven. Hours. For a full course build.🤯
 
Other Skills I'm building:
 
Proposal creation in our exact company format.
Course outlines in our signature style.
Slide notes written specifically for our graphic designer. 
Our AI for Non-Techies tone-of-voice guide.
 
And there's so much more I can dig into. 
 
❓𝗢𝗞, 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵? 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗜 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱? 

A few ideas...

SME Owners
Client onboarding checklists
Quote or proposal templates
Weekly reporting templates

L&D Leaders
Training needs analysis reports 
Post-training evaluation summaries 
Learner progress reports 
Pre-training questionnaires 
 
AI Champions
AI tool evaluation reports 
Training session plans
AI policy documentation
 
❓𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝗜 𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝘂𝗽? 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹...
 
It's not at ALL. 

There is literally a Skill inside Claude that builds Skills for you. 
 
Here's how:
 
1. Go to Settings, then Capabilities, then scroll to Skills
2. Turn on the "Skill Creator" skill
3. Start a new chat and say "Help me build a skill for [what you want]"
4. Answer its questions conversationally
5. It generates the Skill file for you
6. Download it, go back to Settings, click Upload Skill, and you're done
 
That's it. No techie knowledge needed. 
 
I've linked the full 33-page guide below, it's well worth a read. 
 
Would a video walkthrough of me setting up a Skill from scratch be useful? 

💬 Let me know below - and let me know the Skills you're building yourselves

The-Complete-Guide-to-Building-Skill-for-Claude

Fellow AI trainers, educators, course creators: 
Do you use AI to help build your courses?
I use it a LOT. 

My workflows usually go a little like this: 

Step 1: Walk the dog and record all my ideas for a course into an AI note taker (this is the gold, never get AI to think for you)

Step 2: Come back and run those ideas through one of my Claude Projects (I have different projects for different course types: traditional training, e-learning, webinars, keynotes)

Step 3: Run through the results with a fine toothcomb, checking facts, adding flourishes, removing AI-sounding wanky bits.

Step 4: [Critical] Feed that back into the Project and ask how the instructions could be amended to get results closer to that in future

I also use a range of prompts to ideate, refine pricing, create landing pages, etc.

And here they are for you. Here's what's inside:

📌 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗮 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 - stress-test your idea before you build anything 
📌 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘂𝗺 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁 - logical learning journeys using Bloom's Taxonomy 
📌 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗲𝗿 - turn messy feedback into a clear action plan 
📌 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗿 - activities that actually engage 
📌 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁 𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿 - bullet points to proper scripts
📌 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗣𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 - write copy that sells the transformation 
📌 𝗤𝘂𝗶𝘇 & 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿 - design assessments that test real understanding
📌 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗢𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿 - ABCD-format objectives with Bloom's verbs 
📌 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁 - price with confidence, not guesswork 
📌 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿 - get crystal clear on exactly who you're teaching

Remember - you’ll need to put good stuff in (ideas, thoughts, examples of previous content) in order to get the good stuff out. 

Here's a G Doc version for ease: https://lnkd.in/erN9yQsB

PS If you're looking to become an AI trainer, join me in my 3-day bootcamp starting 9 March: https://lnkd.in/eYJWrPYB (it's only £72/$97 - absolutely bargain)

Course Creator Prompts (1)

The question I get asked most of all: 
“How the heck do you keep up with AI?”  

First of all: I’ve just found an excellent tool for my AI arsenal: Google Workspace Studio.  

It’s Google Workspace's brand new automation tool and it’s extremely easy to use across Gmail, Docs, and other apps.  

The video shows me building my very own AI news tracker:  

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭: 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲  Every day at 6am, search for AI news  

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟮: 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲  Write a Heather-friendly overview  

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟯: 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲  Check it for any inaccuracies + edit  

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟰: 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲  Email it to myself to read over a coffee  

And as with everything I do - there’s not a single jot of code involved anywhere. 
It’s just conversational human language and a couple of clicks.  

And it’s brilliant! Check for yourself!  

#sponsored #googleworkspacewithgemini

Forcing a proper work/life balance in 2026
Part 2: Bring BOTH parents on tour

I'm now in week 3 of my speaking tour with the lovely Timeline folk, working our way around the UK. 

With AI for Non-Techies doing so very well (woohoo!), I've been working more hours than ever keeping our standards high and our clients happy. That's meant sacrificing time with family and friends, and making myself sick and burnt out in the latter half of last year.

Ever the problem solver, this year, I vowed to myself that I'd have a much better work/life balance in 2026. I'm also actively reducing Founder dependence so we can scale properly.  

Two weeks ago, I brought my dad with me to the Belfast leg. He loved it. 

This week, I've brought mom AND dad to the final 3 venues. As you can see, they're having the time of their lives swinging in chairs, exploring gardens and splashing about in fancy hotels. They've retired and become playful kids again, and it's lovely to see.

It's been a totally different experience for me to be bigged up before I go on stage, get a big hug when I come off, and have their warm, giggly company to explore these beautiful venues.

I was a nightmare teenager, so we didn't always get along - but now I'm very lucky to say we're really close. And stuff like this makes us feel even closer. It's precious beyond anything else.

After a cracker in Cheshire and Harrogate, we have just one venue left today - in my favourite city: Edinburgh, at the very cool Hoxton hotel. 

I'm going to make it a corker.

I'll really miss what has been a wonderful few weeks. A huge thank you particularly to Georgia Beckett who has been the most cool and calm event organiser I've ever met. (You've made me feel so warmly welcome - thank you!)

Any other work/life balance tips, fellow Founders? 
And how are others reducing Founder dependence?

AI-generated LinkedIn comments. 
AI-generated LinkedIn posts. 
Bleurgh. Bleurgh.

LinkedIn is a daily showcase of how NOT to use AI.

Those awful posts littered with em dashes, rhetorical "the best part?" style questions, "if not X, it's Y" style comparisons. 

And don't get me started on those awful AI-generated comments. They don't sound remotely human, it surely can't help in relationship building, so why are they still even a thing?!  (It'll be interesting to see if I get any on this post...)

The thing is:

LinkedIn = revenue when done right
(I've made millions on here over the last 10 years)

BUT

It takes time + writing skills + ideas 
A trinity of things most of us lack at least one of

So can AI actually help - without making you sound like a really boring robot?

Yup. 
Yup, it really can. 
Case in point = me.

In just a few weeks, I'll be speaking at UpLift Live, the best LinkedIn conference in the UK.

I'll be speaking alongside a smorgasbord of LinkedIn nerds: 

John Espirian 
Gus Bhandal 
Dave Harland 
Mic Adam 
Phill Agnew 
Guy Strijbosch 
Nicole Osborne
Brenda Meller 
Tony Restell 

In my talk, I shall build...live (let us pray to the demo gods)...a LinkedIn Post Machine. Something that learns what you do, sounds like you and saves you TONS of time every day.  

I'll show you how to build one, and give you step-by-step instructions to take away after, too. 

Come and join me and this beautiful bunch in my hometown of Birmingham on Thursday 26 March: https://lnkd.in/e7QtGqJ3

Now...let's look out for the AI-generated comments, shall we! I'll mark them with a 🤖 if I see any...

Which one am I really holding? 

1. A cat
2. A pug
3. A chicken
4. A baby goat

It’s getting much harder to tell, isn’t it? 

That little CR button LinkedIn adds helps, doesn’t it? It stands for Content Credentials - and you’ll usually see it when you’re looking at an AI-generated image. 

BUT I’d say it only pops up on about 40% of my AI-generated images, so it’s far from perfect. 

We’ve also got the little Gemini star in the corner of the AI ones too, revealing I am indeed holding a pug (at the dopamine thrill ride that is the Pug Cafe in Edinburgh). But Midjourney doesn’t have these, nor ChatGPT. 

I made these in 2 minutes, on my phone, with zero design skills and a terrible prompt. Imagine what I can make in an hour. 

We simply can’t believe what we see online anymore.

So how do we deal with this? 

Some argue it’s just like the Photoshop, filtering, touch ups, the body slimming, the teeth whitening we’ve had for years - so we just need to accept it. 

Others push for proper disclosure of AI-generated imagery. But where AI detectors are disappointing (and very easily evaded by tweaking metadata and screenshots), how do we do that? 

I’m interested to hear your thoughts 👇

Yesterday's free Copilot guide did so well...
Let's do a full, free masterclass too 👇

Join me on Tuesday 17 Feb at 2pm GMT (9am EST) for one of my notoriously action-packed masterclasses: 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗖𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗨𝘀𝗲𝗿.

We'll tour through the 5 big features of Copilot for 365: 

Chat - proper prompting, research, analysis
Agents - Researcher, Analyst and building your own
Notebook - your AI-powered second brain
Apps - help in Outlook, Word, Excel and more
Create - design diagrams, images + video

I cram a LOT into my masterclasses so grab your notepad and a giant coffee to keep up.

Register Here: https://lnkd.in/eu_mcWu2

❓𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗔𝘀𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 

1. Do I need the paid version to attend? 
Nope - BUT that's the version I'll use, so you can see it in action and decide if you'd like to buy. 

2. Is it beginner-friendly? 
Absolutely - at AI for Non-Techies we specialise in non-techie AI training for beginners. We won't assume any prior knowledge of AI, or prompting skills, or anything.

3. I can't make it. Will it be recorded? 
If you register, you'll get access to an on-demand recording. But we will be closing registrations at 1pm on 17th Feb. Make sure you register now so you can catch it later.

♻️ See you there and tell your friends!

Heather Murray, Kim Davies and 349 other attendees

If Carlsberg made Marketing Managers
They'd probably make our Dorota 😍

I got this Slack message last week. 

Only 6 weeks into her role, and Dorota is instinctively doing EXACTLY what businesses of all sizes need to be doing right now. 

When you're presented with a problem, make sure you're including AI in your range of potential solutions. 

In this case - we've got a beautiful new AI training brochure (and we've got space for new clients, so drop me a DM if you're looking for AI training for your team 😉). 

But a flat PDF download feels old-fashioned. It's also about 8 clicks before someone could send a training enquiry. 

"Let's reduce the friction" I suggested to Dorota. "How about one of those interactive ones, where they can click to book?"

She did some research, and found every option is either super expensive or crap. 

Then she came back having built her own, custom to us, using AI - and saving us £77 per month.

Absolute genius.

It's such an exciting time for non-techies - we can build our own bespoke stuff to solve our own bespoke problems.  In hours.

New, flippable brochure coming very soon! (In the meantime you can find the flat PDF here: https://lnkd.in/gtiT-vDb) 

💬 What have you been building?
I'd love to know about your prompts, your GPTs, your tools!

Providing IT Solutions to your IT problems | Efficient and Remarkable Recruiting | Featured Contributor, BIZCATALYST 360°| Senior Representative at TekBank

When IT staffing goes wrong in public-sector and enterprise environments, the consequences are real. There are missed deadlines, delivery risk, and teams that look good on paper but struggle in execution.

That’s the gap I work in.

At TekBank, I help leaders navigate complex IT hiring decisions with clarity, honesty, and long-term thinking; especially when timelines are tight and the margin for error is thin.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲:

  • Slowing down to understand the real problem before proposing solutions

  • Being transparent about tradeoffs, risks, and expectations

  • Prioritizing teams that can deliver under pressure, not just interview well

Too often, staffing decisions are optimized for speed or volume instead of outcomes. I work deliberately against that because continuity, institutional knowledge, and trust matter more than short-term wins.

If you’re responsible for systems that have to work, teams that have to last, and decisions you’ll be accountable for long after go-live, this approach will feel familiar.

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