What Can AI Do? A Plain-English Guide For Beginners

New to AI? Here are a few things you can do today with free or built-in AI tools:

• Ask it to draft an email or reply for you to check and send.
• Paste in a long document and ask for a short summary.
• Ask it to compare a few options and show the sources it used (see "Let AI Do The Research For You" below).

AI went from a novelty to an everyday work tool in a very short time. Here's a plain-English look at where things stand, where they're going, and what it can mean for a San Diego business like yours.

Jump To: Where AI Is Now · How Fast It's Changing · Where AI Is Heading · What AI Can Do For Productivity · Let AI Do The Research For You · How Franchitti's Fix Can Help San Diego Businesses · Let's Talk About Your Business

Where AI Is Now

Today, AI tools can draft emails, answer customer questions, summarize documents, sort files and help plan your day. Many of them are already built into the phones, email and office apps you use.

The U.S. Census Bureau found that from December 2025 to May 2026, 17% to 20% of U.S. employer businesses had used AI in the past two weeks. Among the smallest firms, those with 1 to 4 employees, fewer than 20% did (U.S. Census Bureau, May 2026). In other words, most small businesses haven't started yet.

For workers, a 2024 survey found 28% of U.S. workers used generative AI on the job (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 2025).

How Fast It's Changing

New AI features show up every few months, and tools that felt cutting-edge last year are now standard. That pace is why it helps to have someone keep an eye on what's worth using.

Stanford's AI Index reports that the cost of running a model as capable as GPT-3.5 fell more than 280-fold between November 2022 and October 2024, and that the computing power used to train AI models doubles about every five months (Stanford AI Index 2025).

Where AI Is Heading

AI is moving from tools that answer questions to assistants that can take care of whole tasks for you, with you approving the important steps.

McKinsey estimates generative AI could add $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion a year to the global economy. That's a modeled estimate, not a measurement (McKinsey, 2023). In its 2026 survey, 60% of respondents expected their organization to spend more on AI next year (McKinsey, 2026).

What AI Can Do For Productivity

Studies show big gains on specific tasks:

• In a randomized experiment, professionals using AI finished writing tasks in 40% less time, and their work was rated 18% better (Noy & Zhang, Science, 2023).
• Customer support agents using an AI assistant resolved 14% more issues per hour on average, and newer, less experienced agents resolved 34% more (Brynjolfsson, Li & Raymond, NBER, 2023).

Gains across a whole business are smaller and depend on how much of the work AI fits. A St. Louis Fed analysis found that people who use generative AI save about 5.4% of their work hours on average (St. Louis Fed, 2025). That's why it pays to start with the tasks where AI helps most.

In controlled studies, AI cut time or raised output by roughly 30–40% on specific tasks, like professional writing (Noy & Zhang, Science, 2023) and newer customer support agents (NBER, 2023). Across whole companies and the economy, the effects measured so far are small, around 1% or less (St. Louis Fed, 2025; Humlum & Vestergaard, NBER, 2025). You may also see "up to 40% by 2035." That's a 2016 forecast from Accenture, not a measured result (Accenture, 2016).

Our goal is 30–40% gains on the specific tasks we help you automate. It's an aim for those tasks, not a promise for your whole business.

Let AI Do The Research For You

Some AI tools have research modes, often called deep research. You give them a question, and they can search the web, read several sources, compare your options and recommend the one that fits best. Then they show you the sources they used.

Where to find it:

• ChatGPT: Deep research
• Claude: Research, on paid plans (Pro, Max, Ultra, Team and Enterprise). Turn on web search first, and note it uses up your limits faster.
• Gemini: Deep Research, for signed-in users 18 and over, with daily limits (higher on Google AI Pro and Ultra)
• Microsoft 365 Copilot: the Researcher agent, on Microsoft 365 Premium and Pro, or a business plan with the Copilot add-on

ChatGPT and Microsoft say their research reports cite sources so you can verify the information.

Keep these limits in mind:

• Always open and check the sources it cites.
• It can be wrong or out of date.
• Don't paste private info, like passwords, account numbers or customer details.
• Final decisions are yours.

Try this prompt:

"I run a [TYPE OF BUSINESS] in [CITY]. Compare [OPTION 1], [OPTION 2] and [OPTION 3] for [NEED, e.g. booking appointments]. My budget is [BUDGET]. Compare price, ease of use and support, then recommend the best fit and explain why. Cite a source for every fact. If you can't find something, say so instead of guessing."

Est. Usage: Medium

How Franchitti's Fix Can Help San Diego Businesses

We run our own repair shop with AI every day, so we share what actually works. We can help you:

• Find the everyday tasks in your business that AI can take off your plate.
• Set up AI assistants and routines with the right access and safety settings.
• Learn to write prompts and give feedback so AI gets things right.
• Keep your data private and stay in control of what AI can do.

Want to see our free guides first? Browse the AI Hub.

We also offer in-person AI setup help, getting an AI app set up on your phone or computer. Use the booking link below to set a time.

Let's Talk About Your Business

Call us at (720) 413-8150, or Book An Appointment and we'll look at where AI can help.

Estimated usage: our rough guide, not an official figure. Est. Usage: Low quick one-off asks; Est. Usage: Medium multi-step tasks or short research; Est. Usage: High long research, many tool calls, browser work or daily routines.

How Grok Bot Usage Works

Franchitti's Fix is run by Steve with help from Grok Bot, so here's the plain version of how its usage works.

• Your Plan Includes A Usage Allowance. Paid plans come with included usage that refreshes every week. Higher-tier plans include more. Unused usage doesn't roll over. (Source)
• Bigger Jobs Use More. In general, long research, tasks that use lots of tools and routines running in the background do more work, so they draw down the allowance faster than a quick question.
• Light Settings Stretch It. Lower effort for simple jobs, fewer and less frequent routines and short, focused requests all help the allowance last. See How To Regulate Grok Bot Usage.
• Checking Your Usage. In Grok Bot, open Settings, then Usage & Billing. On The X Subscription, you can also check Usage at grok.com/dashboard, which shows the weekly pool, the next reset date and any prepaid credit. (Source)

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