01
Choose the right AI tool for the task in front of you
You will be able to look at a piece of work on your desk and know which AI tool to use, why, and where the limits are. You will not be reliant on a vendor to tell you.
AI Literacy
Build the AI capability your business actually needs
A practical capability programme for owners and operators of small businesses. You learn to use AI in the work that already fills your week, with coaching from a senior practitioner. You finish with a working AI Operating Playbook that is yours, that evolves as your business does, and that no one else could have written.
Delivered one-to-one. Six weeks. Four ways you work with the practitioner. NZ$3,800 plus GST.
The gap
Most small business owners have not really started with AI. That is the normal place to start from
Two years of headlines about AI. Conversations at every business event. A friend who swears by ChatGPT, another who tried it once and never went back. You know AI is real. You know it matters. You also know you have not really started, and you worry you are already behind.
The worry is not the technology. The technology is ready when you are. The questions are more practical than that. Where do you begin? Which tools are worth your time and which are not? What is safe to type into them, and what should never go near them? Whether any of this will save you the kind of time people claim, in the kind of business you actually run. Whether you can pick it up without taking a month off to do it.
There is no shortage of people willing to sell you AI. There are very few willing to sit beside you and help you work out what AI does in your business, with your customers, on the kind of week you actually have.
This programme closes that gap. You bring the business and the work that fills your week. We bring the practice. By the end you can use AI confidently in your real work, you know what is worth your time and what is not, and you have a written record of how it all fits, in a document you keep.
Capability outcomes
Six concrete things you will be able to do by the end
02
Ask AI for what you need, and get back work you can actually use
You will know how to talk to AI tools so they produce useful first drafts, accurate summaries, and answers you can trust. The right question is most of the job, and you will learn how to ask it.
03
Build AI into the workflows that fill your week
You will identify the three or four parts of your business where AI saves the most time, and you will set them up so AI is part of how the work gets done, not an experiment on the side.
04
Decide what is safe to put into AI and what is not
You will be able to make clear, defensible decisions about what business information goes into which AI tool. You will not be guessing about privacy or making policy on the fly.
05
Spot when AI is wrong, and what to do about it
You will know the ways AI tools fail. You will know how to check the work, how to catch the mistakes, and how to put guardrails around the parts of your business where AI cannot be trusted on its own.
06
Stay confident as the tools change
New AI tools and updates arrive every month. You will have a method for keeping up that does not put you back at the start each time. You will be able to look at what is new and decide whether it matters to your business.
What you walk away with
You build your AI Operating Playbook. It is yours. It evolves with your business
Across the six weeks of the programme you build a working document called your AI Operating Playbook. It is not a deliverable Cloverbase writes and hands to you. It is a structured document you construct yourself, with structured guidance and practitioner feedback at every stage, that captures everything you have worked out about how AI fits into your specific business. The capability stays with you because you built it.
The Playbook is written in plain Markdown. You can paste sections of it into ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Gemini, or any tool that comes next, and the tool immediately has the context it needs to be useful in your business. It is the document that turns AI from a generic assistant into one that understands your work.
Most importantly, it is a living document. The Playbook is built to be edited. As your business changes, as the tools improve, as you find new workflows that benefit from AI, you update the Playbook. It is not a snapshot of what you knew on the last day of the programme. It is the working record of how your business operates with AI, kept current by you.
A Playbook typically contains
- 01A clear written description of your business, your customers, and the work you do, in the form an AI tool needs it.
- 02The two or three AI tools you have decided to use, and what each is for.
- 03The prompt patterns that work for your most common tasks.
- 04The workflows where AI is now part of how the work gets done.
- 05Your decisions about what information is safe to share with AI and what is not.
- 06The checks you run before AI output goes to a customer.
- 07The method you will use to keep all of this current.
You leave the programme with your first complete version. The version that matters is the one you have three years from now.
The programme
Six weeks. Self-paced building, with two coaching sessions at the points where they make the most difference
The programme combines four ways of working with the practitioner: guided self-paced building in the Cloverbase Builder, asynchronous video reviews from Mark after each build stage, written feedback exchanges between sessions, and two live one-to-one coaching sessions. Each mode does something the others cannot, and together they fit around the week of a working business owner.
- 01Stage 1 · Week one
Getting to know your business
You spend the first week walking through a structured conversation about your business, the work you do, the customers you do it for, and the parts of your week that take the most time. There are no wrong answers and no AI experience required. The output is a working profile of your business, written in plain language, that becomes the foundation for everything that follows.
About three hours, at your own pace.
- 02Stage 2 · Weeks two and three
Drafting your Playbook
You work through the Playbook one stage at a time. Each stage focuses on one capability: choosing tools, asking AI for what you need, workflows, safety, checking, staying current. You build, you draft, you try things in your own work, with structured guidance the whole way. At the end of each capability stage, you receive a short async video from Mark, typically 7-15 minutes, where he walks through what you have built, points to what is strong and what to refine, and explains why. You watch it when it suits, you can re-watch as you apply the feedback, and it is yours to keep.
About five hours across the two weeks. You are not on Cloverbase’s clock.
- 03Stage 3 · End of week three
Coaching session one
By this point you have a draft Playbook. The first coaching session is where you walk Mark through what you have built and where you are stuck. The session is structured, not freeform. You leave the call with clear direction on what to refine before the second session. Between this session and the next, you can bring questions and drafts at any point and receive substantive written feedback, usually within one working day.
Thirty minutes. Live, with Mark, on Microsoft Teams.
- 04Stage 4 · Weeks four and five
Refining and applying
You refine the Playbook based on the first coaching session. You start applying it in your real work. You bring the questions and the friction you find back into the system, where you get fast written feedback between sessions.
About four hours of building, plus guided application of the Playbook in your real work that week. You bring what you are trying, what is working, and what is not, and you get specific written feedback that moves you forward.
- 05Stage 5 · End of week five
Coaching session two
The final coaching session is where you finalise your Playbook and lock in the method you will use to keep it current. You leave the session with a finished v1 Playbook, a clear plan for keeping it alive, and a Credly-issued credential from Cloverbase listing the AI capabilities you have built. The credential is independently verifiable, yours to display on LinkedIn or in any professional record you keep, and recognised across the Credly network.
Thirty minutes. Live, with Mark, on Microsoft Teams.
- 06Stage 6 · Week six and beyond
Your Playbook is yours
Week six is where you consolidate the Playbook, finalise your Credly credential, and use the methodology independently for the first time. The programme is complete. The Playbook is yours. You keep editing it. Cloverbase is available for follow-up engagements if you want them, and not required if you do not.
Fit
This programme is built for one type of participant
This is for you if
- You own or operate a business.
- The work in your business goes through your hands or one or two other key people, not a large team.
- You have done little or nothing with AI so far, or you have dabbled and not got anywhere. Either is the right starting point.
- You want capability you keep, not a contractor on retainer.
- You are willing to put twenty hours of your own time into this across six weeks.
- You want to be able to make your own AI decisions without depending on a vendor or an IT partner.
This is not for you if
- You want someone to set up your AI tools and run them for you. That is implementation work; we can recommend partners who do it well.
- You want a short workshop or a single training session. That is knowledge transfer; this is capability building, and the two are different.
- You are looking for technical training on a specific product. We are platform-agnostic and we do not certify against vendor curricula.
- You are not willing to do the work yourself. The Playbook is built by the participant, with coaching.
Your coach
Mark Smith. Senior practitioner. Thirty years in technology adoption
Mark Smith is the co-founder of Cloverbase and the practitioner who delivers this programme directly. Every coaching session is with Mark.
- 01International technology experience across Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
- 02Government work spans the Australian federal government, the New Zealand government, Australian state governments, and local councils.
- 03Commercial work spans major organisations including the largest banks across Australia and New Zealand.
- 04Co-author of Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption (Microsoft Press, September 2025).
- 05Founder of the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge. 1,500-plus participants across 65-plus countries.
- 06Host of The Intelligence Age Podcast. Eight years and 800-plus episodes of conversation with the people building the future of work.
- 07Thirty years in the Microsoft partner ecosystem.
Mark is the only practitioner you work with through this programme. There is no junior team member, no offshore delivery team, no handover to someone else mid-programme. The coaching sessions, the written feedback between sessions, and the structured method you work through are all his.
Investment
NZ$3,800 plus GST. Per participant. Full programme
NZ$3,800
plus GST. Per participant. Full programme.
The fee covers the entire programme: guided building in the Cloverbase Builder platform; four async video reviews from Mark across the build stages; substantive written feedback between sessions; two live one-to-one coaching sessions with Mark; your finished AI Operating Playbook; and your Credly digital credential.
There are no upsells, no add-ons, no premium tiers, and no follow-on retainer required. The programme is what is described on this page. If you find later that you want to build further capability, we run a companion Digital Literacy programme on the same model. That decision is yours, after this programme has finished.
Questions
Still wondering if this is for you? Keep reading
I have not really used AI. Am I too far behind for this?
No. The programme is built for owners who are starting from little or nothing. The first week of the programme is dedicated to getting to know your business in plain language, with no AI experience required. By the time you are working with AI tools, you have the structured guidance to do it confidently. Most of our participants have done very little before they start.
How is this different from watching AI tutorials online?
Tutorials show you what someone else did with their business. They are useful for getting a feel for what is possible. This programme is different because you get a two-way dialogue and at the end of it you have a working document that is specific to your business, that you built, and that you keep using. Knowing about AI is not the same as being able to use it in your own work. In this programme your AI capability is developed with direct practitioner support that includes guided building, async video reviews on your specific work, written feedback on your specific questions, and live coaching. None of that exists in a tutorial.
What tools will I be using?
Whatever tools fit your business. The programme is platform-agnostic. You do not need to know what these tools are before you start. You will learn what each is for, when to use which, and how to make your own choice. ChatGPT, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Claude, Gemini, and the tools that come next all work with the capability you build here. Part of what you learn is how to choose, which is more valuable than learning any single tool.
What if my business is too small or too unusual?
The programme is built for small businesses across most industries. The Playbook is a structured method that shapes itself around your specific business, your work, and your customers. We have run versions of this method with professional services firms, trades, agricultural operations, governance roles, and Māori enterprise. The smaller and more unusual your business, the more the personalised approach matters.
What happens if I get stuck between coaching sessions?
Between coaching sessions, you have two channels with Mark: async video reviews after each build stage (where Mark walks through your work and explains what to refine and why), and written feedback on questions or drafts you bring in at any point, with substantive responses usually within one working day. The two live coaching sessions are reserved for the points in the programme where live dialogue matters most. The async videos and written feedback in between are where most of the iteration happens.
How is my data treated?
The Playbook is built inside a Cloverbase workspace at builder.cloverbase.com so you do not need to set up your own AI tooling to start working. You decide what goes in. At the end of the programme you download your finished Playbook as a Markdown document. It then lives on your own device, separate from any Cloverbase system, and you use it with whichever AI tools you choose. The judgement you build during the programme about what is safe to put into AI and what is not is the lasting part, and it travels with you.
What if I want to keep working with you after the programme?
Many participants do. The Playbook is the start of a working relationship with AI in your business, and that relationship deepens over time. We offer follow-on engagements for participants who want to build further capability, run a parallel Digital Literacy programme, or take their team through the same method. None of this is required. The Playbook works on its own.
Next step
If this looks like what your business needs, talk to us
The first step is a short conversation. We will not enrol you if the programme is not the right fit. The conversation works out whether it is, and what enrolment timing looks like.
Talk to us
The conversation is free. There is no expectation either way.