Your team already pays for AI. Let’s make it do real work.
A plain-English, step-by-step guide to choosing the right AI tool, setting it up for your whole team, and using it safely. Written for any business, with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Microsoft Copilot.
- Claude (Anthropic)
- ChatGPT (OpenAI)
- Gemini (Google)
- Microsoft 365 Copilot
Most teams use only a fraction of the AI they pay for.
Someone buys a few licences. A handful of people try it, get a generic answer and go back to the old way. The tool can read your documents, draft in your house style, work with your email and files, and share one set-up across the team. But nobody has set it up for how your business actually works.
Everyone starts from a blank page.
No shared instructions, no shared files — so every answer is generic.
Nobody knows what's switched on.
Features that would save hours sit unused in a settings page.
People don't trust the output.
Without a simple checking habit, AI drafts feel risky — so they don't get used.
Four strong tools. The best one is usually where your team already works.
Claude (Anthropic)
- Best fit if…
- You draft, analyse and work with long documents
- Shared workspaces
- Projects with instructions and files; shared on the Team plan
- Team plan
- Team / Enterprise
- Works with your apps
- Connectors (Google Drive, Gmail, Microsoft 365 and more)
- Deep research
- Research
- Business data used for training?
- Not by default on business plans
Features change often. These were checked on each vendor’s own pages in October 2026, so always confirm on the vendor’s site before you buy.
The 8-step path to real AI adoption.
Do these in order. Each takes an hour or less, and every step works in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot. Only the button names differ.
Step 1: Choose one tool for the team
One shared tool beats five personal ones. Use the comparison above, and start with a business plan, not personal accounts.
Step 2: Set up the team account
One owner creates it with a work email, invites everyone with their work email, and keeps admin rights to one or two people.
Step 3: Create workspaces for each kind of work
Projects in Claude and ChatGPT, Notebooks in Gemini and Copilot. One per type of work — “Client proposals”, “Monthly reporting”, “HR letters” — not one per person.
Step 4: Write the standing instructions
Tell the AI once who you are, how you write and what to always flag. Company-wide at the top, workspace instructions underneath, personal preferences at the bottom.
Step 5: Add your best files
Templates, past work you're proud of, policies, product sheets. The AI copies the quality it can see.
Step 6: Connect the apps you already use
Email, Drive or SharePoint, calendar. Each person connects their own account, so the AI only sees what they can see.
Step 7: Agree the privacy rules
Business plan only. Share the minimum. No sensitive personal data unless the task needs it. Keep shared links inside the company.
Step 8: Check every output before it leaves the building
Facts, numbers, names, dates and sources. AI drafts; people decide.
What it looks like in your business.
Real tasks, ready to copy. Replace anything in [square brackets].
Build a chronology
From the attached documents (emails, reports, contracts or notes), prepare a chronology in date order. For each entry give the date, the event in one line, and the source (document and page). Where documents disagree, add a separate entry marked CONFLICT and quote both. Don't fill gaps with assumptions.
Explain the month
Here is this month's management report and last month's [attach]. List the five biggest changes, explain each in plain English for the directors, and flag any number that looks inconsistent so I can check it.
Patient-friendly letter (no patient data)
Rewrite this appointment and preparation note [paste, with no patient details] as a short, friendly letter a patient can understand. Reading age 12. Keep every instruction and time exactly as written.
Brief to first draft
Using our brand voice in this project, turn the attached client brief into three campaign directions. For each: the idea in one line, the headline, three supporting lines and the risk. Ask me up to three questions first.
Product pages that sell
From this product sheet [attach], write a product page: a 10-word headline, three benefit bullets, a 60-word description and five FAQs. Don't invent features or claims that aren't in the sheet.
Policy into a checklist
Turn the attached policy into a one-page checklist a new starter can follow, in numbered steps. Then list anything in the policy that's unclear or contradicts itself.
The five-part brief
You are [role]. The situation is [context]. Attached is [material]. Please [task]. Give it to me as [format], then list anything I must check.
Take the full guide with you.
A step-by-step PDF with screen-by-screen set-up, ready-to-paste instructions, prompts for every role and a one-page quick-reference card. Free, no strings attached.
- Exact clicks for setting up a team account
- Ready-to-paste company instructions
- Prompts for leaders, specialists, support and admin staff
- Privacy and checking habits on one page
Training that sticks.
Hands-on sessions for your whole team, built around your own (anonymised) work, so people leave with workspaces already set up and habits they’ll keep.
Leaders
Where AI saves the most time, how to review AI-assisted work, and what to switch on.
Specialists
Drafting, analysis and research in your own formats, with a checking routine.
Support & admin
Letters, emails, scheduling, lists and translations — done in minutes.
Or let us build it with you.
Everything above can be done in-house. That’s why we wrote it step by step. If you’d rather have it tailored to how your business really works, that’s what Aristolac does.
Custom AI set-ups
Your workspaces, instructions and files designed around your services, formats and people.
Team training
Practical sessions for every role, using your own work.
Custom AI tools
Built around your work — for example an AI-powered CRM that drafts follow-ups and keeps client records current, a deadline tracker, or a search across your own documents.
Questions we hear every week.
Which AI tool should we choose?
The one closest to where your team already works: Gemini if you live in Google Workspace, Copilot if you live in Microsoft 365, and Claude or ChatGPT if you want a dedicated assistant with strong drafting and document work. All four work well with the right set-up.
Is our data safe?
Use a business plan, not personal accounts. On business plans, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Microsoft each state that your business content isn't used to train their models by default. Then add your own rules: share the minimum, and keep shared links inside the company.
Do we need technical skills?
No. Everything in this guide is done through normal settings pages and plain-English instructions.
How long does set-up take?
A first working set-up — team account, a few workspaces, instructions and files — usually takes a day or two of someone's time, spread over a week.
Can AI get things wrong?
Yes. It can sound confident and still be wrong about facts, numbers or sources. That's why step 8 — a person checks every output — is non-negotiable.
We already pay for one tool. Should we switch?
Usually not. Most teams get far more from setting up the tool they already have properly.
Do you work with businesses outside our industry?
Yes. The method is the same for any business; the examples and instructions are tailored to yours.
What does Aristolac do exactly?
We set up AI tools for teams, train people to use them well, and build custom AI tools around your work. You can also do it all yourself with this guide.
Let’s make AI useful for your team.
Tell us what your business does and which tools you use. We’ll reply with honest, practical next steps, even if that’s “you can do this yourselves”.