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Pick one AI tool and learn it properly

Pavel Stejskal · 27 September 2026 · 3 min read

Every week there is a new AI tool, and a new course telling you it changes everything. I felt this pressure too, and for a while I jumped from one tool to the next.

My advice now is simple. Pick one general AI tool, like Claude, ChatGPT or Google Gemini, and learn it properly. It is better than knowing lots of tools only a little.

Time is the real limit

We all get the same 24 hours. Most of us sleep about 8 of them and work about 9 once you count the journey. Then there is cooking, family, the house and a bit of rest. For most people that leaves around an hour a day to learn something new.

06121824 h
Sleep, 8 h Work and travel, 9 h Family, meals, chores, 4 h Rest, 2 h Learning, 1 h
A typical working day. Yours will be different, but the learning slice is usually small.

That one hour is worth protecting. Over a month it adds up to about 30 hours. Spread it across five tools and you know a little about each. Put it into one tool, bit by bit, and you learn it properly.

One hour a day for a month, spent two different ways.

Skill builds up, if you let it

The real skill is knowing how to explain what you want and how to check the answer. That comes with practice in one place. Every time you switch, you go back near the start, and you lose the saved instructions and projects you had built up.

How well you use it new tool new tool new tool 0 4 8 12 weeks One tool Switching
How it felt for me. An illustration, not measured data.

Courses help, trying helps more

There are loads of good courses and I have learnt from some of them. But what works best for me is just trying. I take a real task from my week, give it to the AI and check what comes back. If it is wrong, I ask myself why, change my question and try again.

A real task from my week Ask the AI Check the answer Improve the question repeat
The way I learn: small loops on real work.

If you are starting now

Pick one of the big tools and pay for it. The free versions are too limited to learn anything properly, and about £20 a month is a fair price for something you use every day. Use it for real work, not test questions. Only add another tool when you have a clear job your main one can't do.

The tools will keep changing. The skill of using them stays with you.

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This is my personal experience with AI tools, not professional advice. Prices and features change often, so check the current plans before you pay for one.