Start here

Follow Allie K. Miller on LinkedIn to keep up with AI news and releases. Allie offers information at the optimal altitude and volume. She shares example use cases, some of which may be use cases in her own professional and personal life. Allie’s information helps you stay informed of AI change without having to spend the large amount of time required to keep up with these things yourself.

Learning

Use this learning companion PDF. The boxes in the PDF are clickable with embedded links to the corresponding resource.

  • Columns (left → right): executive → technical
  • Rows (top → bottom): increasing depth of knowledge

You should go to the main site to acquire a refreshed version of the PDF about every 2 to 3 months (the PDF content is routinely updated).

Responsible AI first

You must learn about impacts, implications, and risks associated with AI prior to using AI, learning about AI tools, model training, etc. The following LinkedIn (+ Microsoft) courses are an excellent starting point to a learning journey of responsible AI that must never end:

Microsoft Learn

Microsoft Learn is a valuable resource for learning AI among many other technical categories. Much of the content revolves around real-world applications and currently available tools versus theory and concepts:

Experiment with generative tools

Step 1: Adopt an AI-first mindset

Reference: Allie K. Miller’s “Getting started with AI-first” LinkedIn course.

Every time you want to search for something — anything — use a generative AI tool first. We are used to searching in terms of “7 words or less” and only for things we think will have a high probability of having some sort of results returned.

Generative AI is different, so we must think differently. Instead, think in sentences or concepts versus “7 words or less.” Search for things you never have thought about searching for before, or never thought you would get a good search result for.

Step 2: It’s not a search engine

Start to realize that generative AI is not a search engine. It is a creation engine that generates responses to your input (prompts).

With that in mind, after practicing “AI-first searching,” start prompting AI tools for more than just search results. Prompt it to generate output for things that are beyond just searching — things that you are currently not in the habit of asking about.

Verify and use safely

  • Validate outputs, especially in sensitive or high-stakes contexts.
  • Ask for sources and cross-check important claims using multiple independent references.
  • Don’t paste or enter private data (personal, medical, financial, confidential work info). Most general-purpose tools are not private by default.

Starter generative AI tool list

(By no means exhaustive.)