On Wednesday I taught a live training where we went from zero, no account, nothing installed, to a working AI setup in sixty minutes, ending with attendees building their first AI Employee. Nobody needed to be technical. What they needed was the right sequence, because in AI setup, order matters more than effort.
“You don't have to be technical. You just need to show up and ask questions.”
The five steps, in order
- Step 1, Get set up on Claude. A free account is enough to start. Opt out of model training during signup: that's your privacy foundation, laid before anything else touches the box.
- Step 2, Personalize it. Give it instructions for how you communicate, what tone you write in, and how you want answers delivered, before this, you're talking to a stranger.
- Step 3, Build your AI brain. Load your business context once: what you sell, who your clients are, your voice, your standards. This is the step most people skip, and it's the reason most people don't get great results.
- Step 4, Connect your accounts. Your inbox and calendar at minimum, because that's where the real work is.
- Step 5, Build your first AI Employee. One skill, one defined job, like an inbox dashboard that tells you every morning exactly what needs you.
Claire's own numbers
The five-step setup, in the order that matters
- 1
Get set up
Free account, model training switched off during signup
- 2
Personalize it
Standing instructions for tone, format and honesty
- 3
Build the brain
Your business context, loaded once
- 4
Connect accounts
Inbox and calendar at minimum
- 5
Build one AI Employee
A single job it owns every day
Run these out of order and the results degrade. Step three is the one most people skip, and the reason their AI sounds generic.
Source: Claire B. Soares, from her own travel business and live trainings.
Why one tool, learned deeply
People ask why I run my whole setup in one AI tool instead of a stack of ten. Simple: I'd rather learn one tool and do as much as I possibly can with it. Are there tools that do one specific thing a bit better? Sure. But if I can do 90% of my work very well in one place, I'm going to be amazing at that place. Ten half-learned tools lose to one mastered one, and your team can actually follow you there.
The step everyone wants to skip
Step 3 is the least glamorous and the most important. Building the AI's brain is the most work in the whole setup: and once you've done it, what you get out is tremendously different. Load it once, and you never have to re-explain your business again. Skip it, and every chat starts from zero, which is why most people's AI results feel generic.
The full sequence is what my free Travel AI Kit walks through, and it's what we build together, live, with your laptop open, in my AI Masterclass. One hour, in the right order, and you're on the other side of the divide.
Common Questions
How long does it take to set up AI for a travel business?
About an hour for the core setup, following the five steps in order, and one focused afternoon to have your first workflow running.
Do I need to be technical to set up AI?
No. Every step is point and click. Claire teaches the setup live to travel professionals with no technical background.
Which AI tool should a travel advisor use?
Claire's rule is to master one tool rather than dabble in ten. If you can do ninety percent of your work very well in one place, go deep there instead of spreading across a stack you never learn.
Written By
Claire B. Soares
6× Condé Nast Top Travel Specialist, Certified AI Consultant, and founder of Travel AI University. $3.4B+ in enterprise travel software sold to Google, IBM, Boeing, the federal government, and the DoD; $16M+ in luxury travel sales with Up in the Air Life.
About Claire
