# AI Explained Plainly > Plain-English AI help for business leaders, working professionals, service members and veterans, and the AI agents that read for them. One practical workflow a week, with a clear line on what's safe to paste. Every page has a Markdown copy at the same path plus ".md". Time and cost figures are labeled "measured", "estimated", or "vendor-published". ## Tracks - [AI for Business Leaders](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/leaders.md): Plain-English AI help for owners, managers, and executives. Write a simple AI policy, pick tools safely, and get real value from AI without the hype. - [AI for Working Professionals](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/professionals.md): Practical, plain-English AI workflows for everyday work like meetings, email, documents, and research, with honest time and cost numbers and a clear line on what's safe to paste. - [AI for Service Members & Veterans](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/service.md): Plain-English, OPSEC-aware AI guidance for service members and veterans. What's safe to paste, approved vs. commercial AI tools, and using AI for your civilian transition. - [For AI Agents](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/agents.md): Machine-readable access to AI Explained Plainly for AI agents and the people who build them, including llms.txt, Markdown copies of every page, a JSON Feed, RSS, and a structured workflows dataset. ## Newsletter issues - [Issue #1: Before you paste anything into AI: a 10-minute safety setup, then turn messy notes into a clean action list](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/issues/001.md): What you get: a privacy setup for ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, or Claude, plus one prompt that turns meeting notes into an action list. Time: about 5–10 minutes for the setup, then 3–5 minutes per meeting. Both are estimates; we haven't timed them yet. Do this: turn off chat training in your AI assistant today, then try the prompt on your next meeting. ## Guides - [All guides](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/guides.md): every article with its TL;DR, read time, and track. - [What is generative AI? A plain-English explanation](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/guides/what-is-generative-ai.md): Generative AI makes new text, images, or audio by predicting what should come next, based on patterns it learned from huge amounts of data. It's great at first drafts, summaries, and rewording. It's bad at guaranteed facts, so check anything that matters. Before you paste anything in, learn what's safe to share. Issue #1 covers the settings in about 10 minutes. - [How to use AI to write a professional email (with copy-paste prompts)](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/guides/ai-professional-email.md): Give the AI the goal, the reader, and the key facts. It writes the draft; you fix the facts and the tone. Copy the five prompts below for first drafts, hard replies, shortening, tone checks, and follow-ups. Swap names and private details for placeholders before pasting, and put the real ones back after. - [How to use AI to summarize a meeting (safely)](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/guides/ai-meeting-summary.md): Paste scrubbed notes or a transcript with a strict prompt, and get decisions, action items, and open questions back. Tell the AI not to guess owners or dates. Then check its output against what was actually said. Get consent before recording, use your company's approved tool for work meetings, and strip names before using a free one. - [ChatGPT vs. Claude vs. Gemini vs. Copilot: which should you use?](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/guides/chatgpt-vs-claude-vs-gemini-vs-copilot.md): All four have useful free plans. Pick based on where you already work: Microsoft, Google, or neither. Main paid plans run about $20 a month. Gemini and ChatGPT also have cheaper tiers ($4.99 and $8). If your employer provides one, use that for work. It beats any personal plan on privacy. - [Free ChatGPT vs. ChatGPT Plus: is it worth $20 a month?](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/guides/free-chatgpt-vs-plus.md): ChatGPT Plus is $20 a month, billed monthly. It adds stronger reasoning models, higher limits, and extras like projects and custom GPTs. Free covers emails, summaries, and everyday questions. Upgrade only if you keep hitting limits that slow you down. Plus doesn't make your chats more private. Turn off training in settings either way. - [Can I use ChatGPT in the military? What's allowed and what's not](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/guides/can-i-use-chatgpt-in-the-military.md): Commercial ChatGPT is fine for personal, public, non-work stuff. Never paste classified info, CUI, PII, or unit or operational details. For official unclassified work, use GenAI.mil. It's authorized for CUI, but not for PII or PHI. Your command's policy wins over anything here, so check it before using any AI tool for work. - [How to use AI to write award bullets (safely)](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/guides/ai-award-bullets.md): AI is good at rewording your own notes into tight action-impact bullets. It can't know what actually happened, so every fact comes from you. Scrub names, IDs, unit names, locations, and anything operational first. Use GenAI.mil for official work, and keep PII out there too. Check every number and claim before it goes up the chain. Your service's awards guidance and your admin shop's format win. - [How to use AI to translate military experience into a civilian resume](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/guides/ai-military-to-civilian-resume.md): Start with your VMET, evals, and awards, then have AI translate jargon into civilian terms using only what you give it. Scrub your SSN, DoD ID, unit names, locations, and anything classified or operational before pasting anything. Check every line is true and something you can explain in an interview. AI drafts it. You own it. - [AI voice cloning scams: how to protect your family](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/guides/ai-voice-cloning-scams.md): Scammers can copy a voice from a short online clip, so a familiar voice on the phone isn't proof of anything anymore. Set up a family code word, as the FBI recommends. If a call feels off, hang up and call back on a number you know. Pressure to pay by wire, crypto, or gift cards is a scam sign. Report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and ic3.gov. - [What is an AI agent? A plain-English explanation with examples](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/guides/what-is-an-ai-agent.md): A chatbot answers. An AI agent takes actions: it plans steps, uses tools like a browser or your apps, and checks its own progress. Good first uses are low-stakes and easy to check: research, comparing options, drafting things for your approval. Keep approval on anything that spends money, sends messages, or deletes data. Agents can be tricked by what they read. ## Data - [Workflows dataset](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/api/workflows.json): structured steps, prompts, time/cost with a measured/estimated/vendor-published basis, and safety notes. - [JSON Feed](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/feed.json): all issues and guides as JSON Feed 1.1. - [Full text](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/llms-full.txt): every page in one Markdown file. ## About - [About & editorial standards](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/about.md): how the content is made, how we test, and how we label estimates. ## Optional - [Privacy policy](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/privacy.md): what we collect and why. - [Affiliate disclosure](https://aiexplainedplainly.com/affiliate-disclosure.md): how monetization is disclosed.