You have a client meeting coming up, and you're building the same prep notes you built last week. There are close to 10 things to cover, a few approvals to get and a nagging worry that something will slip during the call. Meanwhile, everyone keeps talking about AI skills, and nobody stops to explain what one is.
Every business prepares for client meetings, and in project-based businesses, such as interior design studios and architecture firms, the work of getting ready for a meeting eats up time from everyone's schedule. The client changes, but getting ready looks much the same each time. Repeat work like this is exactly where an AI skill helps. Let me explain what one is in plain English, using one I built for this problem.
The Two Hours I Didn't Want to Spend
Recently, I had a 30 minute call with an existing client, and we had a long list to get through in that time. Each one needed a decision, an approval or an action item. Some needed dollar figures, and a few needed links ready so I could share my screen.
I knew getting ready would take me a couple of hours. The worst part was the feeling underneath it. I was looking forward to talking with her, and I still had that voice in my head saying, "Oh my God, I'm going to forget something."
Then it hit me. I'd done the same kind of prep for another client a week earlier, and I had one more coming up in less than a week. So I asked myself, "If I'm going to invest 2 hours, why don't I invest that into building an AI skill?" Two hours later, I had one.
An AI Skill Works Like a Recipe
The analogy I use all the time is a recipe. A bakery relies on recipes so its banana bread comes out the same batch after batch. A good banana bread recipe tells you what goes in, how to put it together and when it's ready.
An AI skill is a set of written instructions you give an AI tool like ChatGPT or Claude for one particular job, so you don't have to explain it from scratch each time. The ingredients are the background information the AI needs. Leave one out, and the result won't taste right. The steps tell it what to do, in order.
A good recipe also tells you what to watch for, like baking until golden but before it burns. A good skill sets those limits too. When an important detail is missing, such as the type of oven the banana bread is going in, it will stop and ask instead of guessing so it can make necessary adjustments. Mine does one job, getting me ready for a client call.
What My Meeting Prep Skill Does for Me
Before a meeting, I talk to my skill the way I'd talk to someone sitting next to me. I give it my brain dump, and it sorts everything into topics and asks me questions as we go. If you've read about letting AI interview you, it's built on the same idea. At the end, I get a Word document formatted the way I like, easy to glance at during the call.
It also pairs well with what happens after the meeting. I already use a custom prompt to turn meeting transcripts into clear recaps, and now the prep side has its own recipe too.
The biggest improvement has been the sense of calm during each conversation with clients. Preparing for a meeting is now dedicated thinking time to gather information, instead of time spent formatting documents and building checklists. I can close my eyes, think it through, list anything I want to bring to the call and let the skill organize it and clean it up.
Writing My Own Recipes
Cooking has one more lesson here. Once you've followed enough recipes, you start writing your own, and the first attempt isn't always delicious. The first time I used my skill, I noticed a couple of places to improve and took notes for the next version.
Teams have written down their processes for years, and that work still matters. What has changed is how quickly plain-English steps can become something that does part of the work with you. Doing a task from memory sets a ceiling, because it only goes as well as you remember it that day. A skill gives you a floor to build on, and each improvement raises it.
Where a Skill Fits and Where It Doesn't
You might worry that writing recipes for your work will squeeze out the creativity. Recipes cover only part of the work. Your creative work and the judgment that makes your firm special stay with you, and skills take on the bits and pieces that keep the business moving.
Skills suit tasks you repeat in a similar shape, like meeting prep, weekly updates or recaps. One-off work, or a decision that rests mostly on your judgment, is better handled by you. The first version takes time to build. Mine took two hours, and you should expect a few rounds of tweaking. You'll still look over what it gives you before you use it, the same way you'd check anything going to a client.
Start With One Recipe
Pick one task you repeat. You don't need to capture the whole process at first, so choose one part of it and write down its ingredients and steps in plain English. That list is the start of your recipe. If you're not sure where to look, start with the recurring work that eats up your week.
You don't need to become an expert, either. You'll be surprised how far plain English gets you, and in Part 2 I'll walk through turning that recipe into a working skill.
The hours you used to spend formatting checklists go back to the part of the work you enjoy most, thinking about your client and their project.
If you'd like help choosing the first task to turn into a skill, let's have a 15 minute conversation. We'll look at the work your team repeats and find a good first recipe. If your whole team is ready to start working this way, we also have a program for small businesses to do exactly that.