Throughout this course, I'll show you how to use AI for status reports, risk management, stakeholder analyses, backlogs, meetings, and forecasts.
The good news: you don't need ten different tools. One modern AI system is enough to work through every exercise and case study in this course.
The goal of this lesson is simple: in the next 5 minutes, you'll set up your AI workspace and be ready for the first exercises.
My recommendation: Claude Pro
This course recommends Claude Pro from Anthropic. All prompts, demos, and screencasts were created with Claude. You can use Claude directly in your browser at claude.ai, no installation required. Everything you learn in this course works just as well with the other major AI tools. If you already have a different subscription, or your company mandates a specific tool — no problem. The principle is the same.
Why Claude? Because it's particularly strong at the tasks project managers handle every day:
- Structured status reports
- Risk matrices
- Stakeholder analyses
- Project plans and WBS
- Meeting summaries
- Extensive project documents
Important: you don't have to use Claude. The methods, frameworks, and prompts in this course work with essentially any modern AI system.
Good alternatives
I work with Claude throughout this course — but maybe your team is set up differently, or you already have an account elsewhere. These alternatives are reliable, widely used, and well suited to productive work.
ChatGPT Plus (OpenAI, GPT-5) The best all-rounder, and the most widely used. Good for structured outputs, tables, and all common project management tasks. If you don't have a tool yet, ChatGPT Plus is a solid way in.
Microsoft Copilot Pro The first choice if you work in Microsoft 365. Copilot is built directly into Teams, Outlook, Word, and Excel. Especially strong for emails, meetings, and Office documents.
Gemini Advanced (Google) If your team works in Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Gmail), Gemini is the natural choice. Web search is built in directly.
What you need
All four tools are worth the paid tier (roughly €20–30/month). The free versions are too limited for productive use — too few requests, no access to the most capable models.
Tip: if you're unsure, start with Claude Pro or ChatGPT Plus. Both offer a trial period.
Setup in 3 steps
- Open the AI tool of your choice.
- Create an account or sign in.
- Activate the paid version (recommended).
- No coding skills
- No API access
- No installation
- No automation tools
You don't need plugins, extensions, or integrations. Everything runs directly in the browser or through the Claude app on your laptop (macOS or Windows).
Your first win in 60 seconds
Copy the following prompt into your AI tool:
I'm a project manager. Ask me five questions about my current project, then create a short summary of the key risks, stakeholders, and next steps.
Answer the AI's questions. Once you've done that, you've already taken the first step toward an AI-supported project management system.
Later in this module, I'll show you how generative AI actually works, where its limits are, and how to use it safely and responsibly in projects.