AI Fluency: a working course for managers and team leaders

This is a short, practical course on working well with AI. It pairs Anthropic's AI Fluency videos with my notes on what each idea means for a team that has to use this in real work, and it is written for managers and team leaders rather than engineers. You can watch it end to end in about an hour, or take one lesson at a time. Each lesson is one video and a short read.

The lessons

Work through them in order, or jump to whichever one you need.

1. 01Introduction to AI FluencyWhat AI fluency actually means, and why knowing the tools is not the same as working well with them.4 min
2. 02Why AI fluency matters, and the 4D frameworkWhy AI fluency matters, and the 4D framework the rest of the course is built on: Delegation, Description, Discernment, Diligence.11 min
3. 03How generative AI actually worksHow generative AI works in simple terms: a non-technical mental model for what it is doing under the hood, and where its real capabilities stop.13 min
4. 04Delegation: deciding what to hand to AIThe first D. How to decide which parts of a task to give to AI and which to keep under human judgement.6 min
5. 05Description: briefing AI like you mean itThe second D. How to brief AI clearly enough to get useful work back, and the loop that makes each attempt better.4 min
6. 06Effective prompting techniquesHow to write effective AI prompts: the practical moves that matter most, context, examples, constraints, and asking the model to think before it answers.12 min
7. 07Discernment: judging what AI gives backThe third D. How to judge AI output for accuracy and fit, and why fluent, confident writing is easy to mistake for correct writing.5 min
8. 08Diligence: using AI responsiblyThe fourth D, using AI responsibly at work: honest disclosure, careful data handling, and owning what goes out under your name.7 min
9. 09Putting the 4 D's to workBringing the four D's together, and how to build them into the way a team works rather than the way one keen person works.6 min

Common questions about this course

What is AI fluency?

AI fluency is working with AI in a way that is effective, efficient, ethical and safe. It is not about knowing every feature of a tool. It is the judgement that sits around the tool: deciding what to hand over, asking for the right thing, spotting when the answer is off, and owning what you do with it. Most of the friction teams feel with AI is one of those four words going missing, not a tooling problem.

Is this AI fluency course free?

Yes, the course is free. It is nine short lessons, each one a video plus a short read, and you can watch the whole thing end to end in about an hour or take one lesson at a time. There is nothing to buy and no technical setup to work through first.

Who is this AI fluency course for, and do I need a technical background?

It is written for managers and team leaders, not for engineers, so no technical background is needed. If you can describe what good work looks like for your team, you already have what this course builds on. It pairs Anthropic's AI Fluency videos with my plain-English notes on what each idea means for a team that has to use this in real work on Monday.

What is the AI fluency 4D framework?

The 4D framework comes from Anthropic, the work of Rick Dakan and Joseph Feller, and it breaks working with AI into four habits, the four D's:

• Delegation: deciding what to hand to AI and what to keep.
• Description: telling the AI clearly what you want, with enough context to get something useful back.
• Discernment: judging the output, knowing when it is good enough, when it is subtly wrong, and when to start again.
• Diligence: owning the result, checking facts and staying responsible for what goes out under your name.

They build on each other, so the weakest of the four is usually where a team's AI problems are coming from.