Futurestay Lunch & Learn
From Understanding to Action
January 2026
The Reality
Weekly ChatGPT users
of US adults use AI weekly
of companies using AI in 2025
Your team is probably already using it. Let's use it well.
Understanding AI
Think of it as a pattern completion engine trained on most of the internet.
"Imagine you shout a question, and everyone in the world hears it. They all start answering — but one word at a time. You hear everyone's first word and pick the most popular one. Then everyone hears that word and suggests the next word... and so on."
It's not thinking. It's predicting what word comes next, informed by patterns from billions of examples.
Key Concept
Everything the model learned before you started chatting.
Like everything you vaguely remember from your life — you absorbed patterns, but can't quote specific pages from books you read years ago.
Fuzzy. Pattern-based. Can't be updated mid-conversation.
What you put in this conversation — your prompts, pasted docs, previous messages.
Like documents open on your desk right now — you can quote them, reference specific parts, reason about details.
Precise. Can be referenced directly. Limited by size.
This is why giving good context matters — it's the difference between vague recall and working with real data.
Be Aware
AI can confidently state things that are completely false. It doesn't "know" — it predicts plausible-sounding text.
Always verify important facts.
It doesn't have access to the internet in real-time (usually). Its knowledge has a cutoff date.
Check dates on time-sensitive info.
What you type may be used to train future models (depending on the tool & settings).
Don't paste sensitive data carelessly.
Part 1
What's out there and when to use what
The Tools
| Tool | Best For | Strengths | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | General tasks, creative writing | Most natural text, huge ecosystem | Free / $20/mo |
| Claude | Writing, coding, research | Fewer hallucinations, follows instructions well | Free / $20/mo |
| Gemini | Research, Google integration | Largest context window, real-time info | Free / $20/mo |
The best tool depends on the task. Most people just pick one and stick with it — that's fine too.
The Tools
Beyond chat, there are specialized AI tools for almost everything:
Most of these use the same underlying AI models (GPT, Claude, etc.) with specialized interfaces.
Part 2
A few basics that unlock AI's full potential
Technical Concepts
AI doesn't see words — it sees tokens.
A token is roughly 3/4 of a word. "Futurestay" might be 3 tokens.
"Hello, how are you today?" = 7 tokens
"Antidisestablishmentarianism" = 6 tokens
Rule of thumb: 1,000 tokens ≈ 750 words
Technical Concepts
An API (Application Programming Interface) is how software talks to other software.
Think of it like a restaurant menu. You (the app) tell the waiter (the API) what you want, and the kitchen (the service) makes it and sends it back.
The New Standard
MCP (Model Context Protocol) is a universal way to connect AI to any service.
Before USB-C, you needed different cables for every device. MCP is like USB-C for AI — one standard connection to everything.
| API | MCP |
|---|---|
| Static endpoints | Dynamic — AI can discover what's available |
| Request/response | Persistent, real-time connection |
| You write the code | AI figures out how to use it |
MCP still uses APIs underneath — it's a smarter layer on top that makes AI integration easier.
Putting It Together
With the right setup, you can ask Claude: "Find all contacts in HubSpot who haven't been contacted in 30 days and draft follow-up emails" — and it can actually do it.
Part 3
How this applies to your actual work
Practical Applications
Pro Tips
Let's See It In Action
Claude Code + Real Futurestay Use Cases
Demo 1
This shows how AI can work with your actual business data.
Demo 2
One input → multiple outputs in different formats and tones.
Demo 3
Turn a 10-minute email into a 1-minute review.
Next Steps
Resources
Remember
Let's discuss how AI can help your specific work
Feel free to reach out anytime to explore use cases together