One assistant, one real reply

A supplier's WhatsApp message has been waiting since morning. You know what you want to say; finding the words is the slow part. By the end of this lesson you will have a free AI assistant on your phone, a real reply sent with its help, and the first note of your Hours-Back Kit.

Choose in one minute

ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude: any of these AI assistants works for this course. ChatGPT is the most widely used in India, Gemini comes with most Android phones, and Claude is a third option. The order is about how common they are, not which is better.

Three questions, then stop:

1. Is it officially available in India? All three are.
2. Can I sign in with an account I already use, such as my Google account or e-mail?
3. Does it answer naturally when I write the way I really write?

You can fill the brackets in Hinglish or in your own language. The assistant understands. Tell it which language the reply should be in. Pick one assistant and keep it for the whole course. How you ask matters more than which one you picked.

Set it up on your phone

1. Open the Play Store or the App Store and search for the name in the box below. Before you install, check the developer name under the title: look-alike apps exist.
2. Open the app and choose a way to sign in that you already use. The free plan needs no payment and no card.
3. Skip any paid plan or trial offer.

Under 18? Read the age rule in the app's terms first.

Think of the assistant as a new colleague on day one: it knows a lot about the world and nothing about you. So say who you are and what you need. One task, one new chat.

Your first real reply

Example: Sneha Kulkarni, 29, an admin executive at a pumps dealership in Nagpur. Since morning, a supplier has been asking on WhatsApp to move Thursday's delivery to next Tuesday. She cannot agree: the dealership's 1 HP monoblock pumps run out by Friday, and a contractor collects on Saturday. On the bus home she uses the prompt below and types her point as it comes: "next week not possible, stock finishes by Friday, can they send at least half on Thursday".

On a phone: tap Copy on the card, press and hold in the message box, then tap Paste. Tap at each bracket, delete it, and type or dictate your own words.

I work as [your job and workplace].
I got this message on [WhatsApp / e-mail] from [a supplier / a customer / my manager]:
"[paste the message. Remove names and phone numbers]"
What I want to say, in my own rough words: [your point]
Write 2 versions of my reply in [the language they wrote in: English / Hinglish / Hindi / Marathi / Tamil …]: one short, one more polite. Each under 60 words, ready to send.
For English: simple Indian English, short sentences, polite. For Hinglish: Roman script, the way people type on WhatsApp, "aap" never "tu" or "tum", "hum" for my company.
Use only what I told you. Do not add promises or details.
If any [bracket] above is still empty, ask me for it before you answer.

When we ran Sneha's version, two short Hinglish replies came back, both asking for half the stock on Thursday. Both opened with "Sir", though she had not said who the supplier was. She changed it to his first name with "ji" and sent the short one.

What comes back is a draft. Read it once, change what does not sound like you, then send it. Once sent, it is your message.

One privacy rule for today: no passwords, OTPs, card or ID numbers, and no other people's details. Lesson 4 covers this properly. If your office does not allow AI, practise on a personal message.

Where this goes next

Each lesson adds one thing to your Kit: the four-part prompt, photos and voice, checking and red lines, replies in your voice, summaries and MoM, reports and slides, and a weekly routine.