Generative AI hit 53% population adoption in three years, faster than the PC or the internet. These 5 moves put you with the people getting ahead instead of the people still watching.
That number comes from Stanford’s 2026 AI Index, and it’s why this week matters. Every big tech shift splits people into two groups. The people who figured out social media early built audiences and businesses. The people who waited showed up to a crowded, pay-to-play game.
We’re in that moment with AI right now. Here are the 5 things that put you in the first group.
Most people open a blank chat every time, give it zero context and get generic output. The people getting ahead build a Project: a workspace with its own files and instructions, so every chat inside it starts already knowing you.
01
Create a Project called My Work
In Claude, click Projects in the sidebar and create one (free accounts get up to 5). Upload 2 or 3 real emails or docs you wrote so Claude can match your voice, plus anything about your current priorities. Then paste this into the Project instructions.
The difference between "write me an email" and "write me an email knowing my role, tone, priorities and audience" is the difference between a toy and a real advantage.
There’s at least one task you do every week that follows the same pattern. A Monday status update, a client check-in, a Friday report, meeting prep.
01
Turn it into a skill
A skill is a saved set of instructions Claude uses whenever your request matches it. Paste this into a new chat, save the skill Claude makes, and check it’s on under Customize (now called Plugins on newer accounts), then Skills. Skills work on every plan with code execution turned on. (Using skills)
02
Put it on a schedule
On a paid plan, open the Claude desktop app, click Scheduled in the sidebar, then New task and Create with Claude. Tell it to run your skill every Monday at 8am. If you have the new Claude experience, you can also just describe the task and timing in any chat and click Schedule. Most tasks run even when your computer is asleep, unless they need files or apps on your computer. (Scheduled tasks)
On the free plan, skip the schedule and just ask for the task each week. The skill still does the heavy lifting.
Perplexity is an AI search engine. Ask in plain language and it searches the web, reads the results and gives you one clear answer with sources you can click. It’s free to start.
Tomorrow, every time you reach for Google, use it instead. Try questions like these:
Always click into the sources on anything important. Fast answers are only useful when they’re right.
Most people use Claude to draft emails. The real power is using it to think. It can stress-test your plan and argue the other side before you commit.
01
More ways to try it this week
Paste a competitor’s homepage and ask where they’re beating you and where they’re vulnerable. Drop in 6 months of sales data and ask what trends you should be watching. Rehearse a hard conversation and have Claude play the other person. Paste a contract or job offer and ask what you might be missing.
Claude can build working tools you can click through, called Artifacts. Dashboards, trackers, calculators and planners, right in the chat. You describe it, Claude writes the code, and you never have to look at it.
Good first builds include a monthly budget tracker with a spending breakdown, a project dashboard that flags what’s at risk, a meal planner that spits out a grocery list, a client pipeline tracker, or a savings goal calculator that shows when you’ll hit your number.
If something’s off, just say "add a notes column" or "make it simpler" and it updates. Once you build your first one, you’ll stop paying for templates that do less.