By industryAI for Operations Teams
What you’ll be able to do: After this course you can run operations with AI doing the writing: a meeting recap with owners and due dates, a one-page SOP from rough notes, an incident report in five minutes, a weekly ops review where every task has an owner, contracts reviewed and compared in Foxit, a deck from your notes in Gamma, a daily summary email from a sheet, meeting notes turned into action items by n8n, a vendor follow-up agent, a Custom GPT that writes SOPs from your handbook, and a maintenance request form that routes itself. 34 modules, about 5.5 hours.
- Who it’s for
- Operations managers, office managers and chiefs of staff.
- Time needed
- About 5.5 hours of hands-on practice: 34 modules of 2 to 20 minutes each.
- Cost
- Free. No credit card, no trial, and no sign-up needed to start.
- Level
- Beginner to Intermediate
- Prerequisites
- None for the practice: a web browser on a desktop or laptop. Helpful first: Stop Losing Requests: Run Office Operations with AI Apps and Document Tools and AI for Project Managers: Meeting Notes to Action Items, Status Updates, Scope Creep and Boards. To repeat the modules in your own tools: a ChatGPT account, a SunSed account, a free Smallpdf account, a Clueso account and a PaperOffice AI account.
- Format
- Self-paced and online. Each module runs in a practice copy of the real tool that checks every step, then a checklist walks you through doing it for real.
- Tools you practice in
- ChatGPT, Foxit, Gamma, Make, n8n, Lovable, SunSed, Smallpdf, KDAN, Screenpipe, DigiParser, Runable, Elyx, Capsule CRM, Clueso, Hedra, Floot, SPIRITT and PaperOffice AI.
The business case
The problem
Operations runs on meeting recaps nobody writes, procedures in one person's head, weekly reviews that end with "let's keep an eye on it", and contracts and forms that need checking before they are signed.
The payoff
SOPs, incident reports, meeting recaps and weekly reviews done in minutes, contracts checked, and requests that route themselves with n8n and Make.
What you’ll build
- Module 2: You are Jordan, who manages rentals at Lakeside Property Management (a made-up company). A tenant has emailed her new bank details and a complaint about a leaking dishwasher. You switch off model training, swap her name, unit and bank numbers for placeholders like [TENANT] and [NEW BANK DETAILS], and get a friendly reply drafted.
- Module 3: From the transcript of a team’s Monday meeting: a five-line summary, the decisions, an action items table (task, owner, due date) and the open questions.
- Module 4: A one-page Front-Desk Coordinator SOP for Harbor Point Accounting, a made-up accounting firm, built from one messy paragraph of notes: answer in three rings, take messages in the CRM, tax-season voicemail checked at 8am and 1pm, never give refund status or SSN details over the phone, greet walk-ins in 30 seconds, and ask Dana when unsure.
- Module 5: An internal incident report for Ridgeline Supply Co., a made-up warehouse. On Tuesday’s second shift the top layer of a pallet slid off a forklift; no one was hurt and six cartons were damaged. Your notes and two statements disagree: Andre says about 2:15 and a torn wrap, Bree says around 2:30 and thinks he turned too fast.
- Module 6: You are Imani, the operations manager at Fairline Supply Co., a made-up office-supply distributor, just out of the weekly review: late deliveries from the freight carrier, a box shortage at the packaging vendor and 140 returns waiting to be processed. All the companies and numbers are made up.
- Module 8: You help Dana Reyes, operations manager at Bright Path Marketing, a made-up agency, check version 2 of a software subscription agreement that the vendor called "small cleanups".
- Module 9: You help Jordan Ellis, operations manager at Bright Path Marketing, a made-up agency, return a new client's New Vendor Setup Form so the first $4,800 invoice can be paid.
- Module 16: A recap of the Riverbend Food Pantry board meeting, a made-up pantry: a three-sentence summary, three decisions, six action items with an owner and due date, and two open questions.
- Module 17: A recap of the Kestrel Benefits Group office-move planning call, a made-up company: a three-sentence summary, three decisions, six action items with an owner and due date, and two open questions.
- Module 18: You help Dana Whitfield, who runs the office at Riverbend Office Services, a made-up company. Her purchase orders live in email and a spreadsheet, and last month a print vendor ran nine days late before anyone noticed.
- Module 19: You help Maya Chen, office manager at Larkspur Accounting Group, a made-up 24-person firm with a 25-page managed IT proposal and a 2 PM meeting.
- Module 20: You help Dana Whitfield, office manager at Linden Row Accounting, a made-up firm. A 4-page managed IT agreement at $2,640 a month arrives with a call booked at 2:00 PM, and section 3.2 renews it for another year unless someone gives notice 90 days before the term ends.
- Module 21: A checked and cleaned gift export for Hillside Literacy Project, a made-up nonprofit: 1,212 rows in, 5 duplicate online gifts removed, 14 pledges ($18,750) marked “Pledge - not received” and kept out of every total, 1,193 gifts received.
- Module 22: You help Priya Shah, office manager at Alder & Finch Bookkeeping, a made-up firm that chases about 24 overdue invoices by hand every month-end.
- Module 23: You run the order desk at a made-up foodservice distributor. You build a purchase order parser, add a requested ship date, and add a review stage so every document waits for a person.
- Module 25: You run operations for a made-up company with three warehouses. In three requests, Elyx adds Variance and Variance % columns, a Summary sheet of SUMIFS formulas, a red rule for weeks more than 10% under plan, a chart and a PivotTable.
- Module 27: You help Dana Ortiz, operations lead at Northgate Benefits Group, a made-up benefits broker that teaches every new account manager how to add a client in its portal by hand.
- Module 32: One table comparing three made-up laptop quotes for Brightline Painting on the same basis: 6 laptops, with setup and a 3-year warranty, over 3 years. Totals $6,774, $6,798 and $6,805, with the math under the table and a bar chart.
- Module 33: A supplier comparison for Hollow Oak Landscaping, a made-up small company: a workbook called Hollow Oak Supplier Comparison with a Comparison tab (price per cubic yard, delivery fee and a source link for every number, from three made-up supplier sites) and a Summary tab that prices the usual order and recommends one supplier. Valley Stone & Mulch comes out cheapest at $733.
- Module 34: You upload a made-up supplier invoice (BrightDesk Office Supply Co., INV-2291, $2,494.18) for a made-up 12-person firm, Keystone Ledger Partners, whose rule is that anything over $2,000 needs a partner to approve it.
- Module 1 · Stepthrough · Beginner · ~2 min
Start Here: How Stepthrough Works
Try the practice in under two minutes: watch a step, click, type, get unstuck with Do it for me, and finish.
- Module 2 · ChatGPT · Beginner · ~7 min
Use AI at Work Without Leaking Client Data using ChatGPT
Turn off model training, strip a tenant's bank details and address out of a prompt, then catch the two promises ChatGPT made up before the reply goes out.
- Module 3 · ChatGPT · Beginner · ~9 min
Summarize a Meeting Transcript
Paste a long meeting transcript into ChatGPT and get the decisions, an action items table with owners and due dates, and a follow-up email ready to send.
- Module 4 · ChatGPT · Beginner · ~5 min
ChatGPT: turn rough notes into a one-page SOP in an editable document
Paste your messy notes, get a clean SOP in a document you can edit beside the chat, change one paragraph at a time, and check what the AI added.
- Module 5 · ChatGPT · Beginner · ~9 min
Write an Incident Report in 5 Minutes using ChatGPT
Turn scribbled notes and two witness statements into a clear internal incident report with the facts in order, follow-up actions and every gap flagged, then a neutral update for the team.
- Module 6 · ChatGPT · Beginner · ~7 min
Run a Weekly Ops Review Where Every Task Has an Owner using ChatGPT
Turn a weekly operations and vendor review into the decisions, the next steps with owners and dates, the risks to watch and a team recap, without turning a vendor's "should" into a promise.
- Module 7 · Foxit · Beginner · ~10 min
Review a Client Contract in 10 Minutes using Foxit AI
Skimmed contracts hide auto-renewals, late fees and liability caps. Upload one to Foxit Workspace, get a plain-English summary and every renewal and exit date, check them against the PDF, and hand your boss a one-page watch list.
- Module 8 · Foxit · Beginner · ~8 min
Foxit PDF Editor: Catch Every Change in a Revised Contract
A vendor sends "version 2, just small cleanups". Compare both PDFs in Foxit PDF Editor, see every changed fee, date and clause, and reply with a list.
- Module 9 · Foxit · Beginner · ~8 min
Foxit PDF Editor: Fill and Sign a Form without Printing
A client will not pay until their vendor form comes back signed. Fill in a flat PDF, tick the boxes, sign and date it in Foxit PDF Editor, no printer.
- Module 10 · Gamma · Intermediate · ~9 min
A Presentation from Your Notes in 5 Minutes (Gamma)
Paste rough meeting notes into Gamma, pick a theme, fix one slide by chatting with its AI, and export the deck to PowerPoint and PDF.
- Module 11 · Make · Intermediate · ~12 min
On a Schedule: A Daily Summary Email from a Sheet
Build a Make scenario that runs every day at 5 PM, finds today's rows in Google Sheets, combines them with a Text aggregator and emails one summary with Gmail.
- Module 12 · n8n · Intermediate · ~15 min
n8n: Turn Meeting Notes into Action Items in a Google Sheet
Build an n8n workflow that reads your meeting notes from a sheet, has AI pull out who agreed to do what by when, and adds one row per task to an Action Items sheet.
- Module 13 · n8n · Intermediate · ~12 min
AI Vendor Follow-Up Agent
Build an AI agent for Ridgeline Supply Co. that writes follow-up messages for late or pending purchase orders and saves them to Google Sheets — chat trigger, AI Agent, system prompt, model, memory, and the Sheets tool.
- Module 14 · ChatGPT · Beginner · ~8 min
Custom GPT SOP Writer
See why generic prompts give generic results, then build a Custom GPT that knows your operations handbook and writes clear, numbered SOPs and checklists your team can follow.
- Module 15 · Lovable + n8n · Advanced · ~15 min
AI Maintenance & IT Request Form
Build an internal maintenance and IT request form in Lovable for Ridgeline Supply Co. and connect it to n8n — the AI agent sets the priority, assigns a team, saves the request to Google Sheets and emails a confirmation.
- Module 16 · ChatGPT · Beginner · ~9 min
Turn a Board Meeting into Minutes and Next Steps
Turn the transcript of a nonprofit board meeting into the decisions, an action items table with owners and due dates, and a recap email to the board.
- Module 17 · ChatGPT · Beginner · ~9 min
Turn an Office Move Call into a Checklist
Turn the transcript of an office-move planning call into the decisions, an action items table with owners and due dates, and a recap email to everyone involved.
- Module 18 · SunSed · Beginner · ~12 min
SunSed: Build a Purchase Order Tracker App by Describing It
A business case for small offices that track purchase orders in email and spreadsheets: price the cost of a missed late vendor, then describe a purchase order tracker to SunSed in plain words, add made-up sample orders, filter to what is overdue and check who can get in.
- Module 19 · Smallpdf · Beginner · ~10 min
Smallpdf: Get the Key Points of a 25-Page PDF in 5 Minutes
A business case for anyone handed a long vendor proposal before a meeting: get an AI summary in Smallpdf, ask about renewal, exit fees and extra costs, check each answer on its page and save it all as notes.
- Module 20 · KDAN · Beginner · ~8 min
KDAN: Get a Vendor Contract's Key Terms with AI Chatbot
A vendor agreement arrives with a call booked the same afternoon. Open it in KDAN PDF, ask the AI Chatbot for the fees, renewal and exit deadlines with section numbers, check the renewal clause yourself and save the answer as a note on the contract.
- Module 21 · ChatGPT · Beginner · ~11 min
Give Your Board Giving Numbers They Can Trust: Analyze a Donor Gift Export with ChatGPT
Upload your donor database’s gift export to ChatGPT, catch gifts that synced twice and pledges that were never received before anything is added up, then get giving by source, a chart and three takeaways for the board.
- Module 22 · Screenpipe · Intermediate · ~10 min
Screenpipe: Map a Recurring Task Before You Automate It
Use Screenpipe's screen history to see how a month-end invoice chase is really done: set privacy rules, search the recording, get a step list with timestamps and pick what to automate in n8n, Make or Zapier.
- Module 23 · DigiParser · Beginner · ~9 min
DigiParser: Turn Scanned Customer POs Into a Reviewed Sales Order File
Stop retyping scanned purchase orders. Build a DigiParser parser for a wholesale order desk, add a human review stage, catch a handwritten change that throws off the total, and export a file ready for sales-order preparation.
- Module 24 · Runable · Beginner · ~11 min
Runable: Replace the Clipboard Stock Count with an App (and Test It Before You Approve)
A business case for office managers: describe a phone-friendly stock-count app to Runable's App Builder, catch a plan that would keep the counts in each phone's browser, test the app the way staff would, and fix what the test finds by chat. Real Runable screens, 3 November 2026.
- Module 25 · Elyx · Beginner · ~8 min
Elyx: Build a Plan vs Actual Variance Report Inside Excel
Ask the ElyxAI add-in, in plain words, for a weekly plan-vs-shipped report in Excel: variance columns, a SUMIFS summary, red rows for misses over 10%, a chart and a PivotTable. Then change one number and watch it update.
- Module 26 · Capsule CRM · Beginner · ~20 min
Capsule CRM: Never Miss a Contract Renewal
A business case for a managed IT or services firm: price what a missed renewal costs, then build a Capsule CRM track that sets a call 90 days before each contract ends, a quote at 60 and a signature by 30, add it to new and existing contracts, and pull up the renewal call list.
- Module 27 · Clueso · Beginner · ~10 min
Clueso: Turn a Rough Screen Recording into a Training Video and Help Article
Stop teaching the same task by hand. Upload a rough screen recording to Clueso, add it as the source in Start with Prompt, brief a training video with steps, voiceover and your branding, check the plan, and get a step-by-step help article from the same project.
- Module 28 · Hedra · Beginner · ~9 min
Hedra Inference API: Turn Move-out Notes Into a Punch List in Minutes
Stop writing move-out punch lists by hand. Pick a model in the Hedra Console by price, turn walk-through notes into a punch list by room with priorities and deposit flags, and hand your developer the API call, with the key and the spend under control.
- Module 29 · Floot · Intermediate · ~12 min
Floot: Build an Office Request Tracker from a Claude Chat
Office requests get lost in email and sticky notes. Use the Floot connector in Claude to build a real request tracker from one prompt, test it as staff and as the office manager, then change it by chat and fix what the change broke.
- Module 30 · SPIRITT · Beginner · ~9 min
SPIRITT: Get a Weekly KPI Report Every Monday Without Building It
Stop spending Monday morning copying numbers out of Stripe and HubSpot. In the real SPIRITT workspace, describe the report in one message, check the first run, pause it until the real data is connected, and learn what to put in the first message so you never have to fix it later.
- Module 31 · SPIRITT · Beginner · ~11 min
SPIRITT: Stop Hand-Updating the CRM After Every Call
Let an AI agent read new client emails and call notes, match each one to the right deal, propose the new stage, amount, close date and next step, and log the activity, with your approval before anything changes. Built in a real SPIRITT workspace on a made-up CRM.
- Module 32 · ChatGPT · Beginner · ~9 min
Compare Vendor Quotes Side by Side using ChatGPT
Turn three quotes written three different ways into one table on the same basis, check the 3-year totals yourself, see what each vendor left out, and send the follow-up questions.
- Module 33 · ChatGPT · Intermediate · ~8 min
ChatGPT Work: Have ChatGPT Do a Multi-Step Task
Switch ChatGPT to Work, hand it a real job (compare three suppliers into a spreadsheet), approve the sites it opens, skip a login, answer its question, check the file and make it a weekly task.
- Module 34 · PaperOffice AI · Beginner · ~5 min
PaperOffice AI: Read Every Supplier Invoice and Spot the Ones That Need Approval
A small firm gets supplier invoices as PDFs, and anything over $2,000 needs a partner’s OK. Upload one to PaperOffice AI, watch it name, sort and read the invoice, check the amounts it pulled out, and ask which invoices are over the limit and when they are due.
Prerequisites
- For the practice: a web browser. Each module runs in a copy of the real tool’s screens, so you need no account and no sign-up to start module 1.
- Helpful first: Stop Losing Requests: Run Office Operations with AI Apps and Document Tools, AI for Project Managers: Meeting Notes to Action Items, Status Updates, Scope Creep and Boards.
- To do it for real: a ChatGPT account, a SunSed account, a free Smallpdf account, a Clueso account and a PaperOffice AI account. Each module says which one it uses.
Time to complete
About 5.5 hours of hands-on practice across 34 modules (901 steps in all). Modules take 2 to 20 minutes each, so you can do one in a sitting and come back for the next.
Questions about this course
Is AI for Operations Teams free?
Yes. All 34 modules of AI for Operations Teams are free, and you can start module 1 without signing up.
How long does AI for Operations Teams take?
About 5.5 hours of hands-on practice across 34 modules, beginner to intermediate. Each module takes 2 to 20 minutes, so you can do one at a time.
Which tools will I practice in?
ChatGPT, Foxit, Gamma, Make, n8n, Lovable, SunSed, Smallpdf, KDAN, Screenpipe, DigiParser, Runable, Elyx, Capsule CRM, Clueso, Hedra, Floot, SPIRITT and PaperOffice AI. You practice in a copy of each tool's real screens that checks every step, so nothing touches your real accounts, and no coding is needed.
Who is AI for Operations Teams for?
Operations managers, office managers and chiefs of staff.
Where do I start?
Start with module 1, Start Here: How Stepthrough Works. The modules are in order, so each one builds on the last.
Is there AI training for operations teams?
Yes. AI for Operations Teams is free, hands-on AI training for operations managers, office managers and chiefs of staff. You practise in a practice copy of each real tool: meeting recaps, SOPs and incident reports in ChatGPT, contract checks and weekly reviews, then requests that route themselves with n8n and Make.
Do operations teams need to code for this AI training?
No. The early modules use chat tools such as ChatGPT. The automation modules use n8n and Make, which you build by clicking and dragging, and every step is shown on screen.