Getting Started
How to Get Started with AI: What to Set Up First
If you're getting into AI and don't know where to start, this is the order to set it up in, based on helping a lot of people set up AI and automations. Get a Claude or ChatGPT account and start playing with it. Connect your apps: calendar, email, CRM, anything you use. Then start workflows, beginning with sorting your email. Max out the Outlook and Gmail rules you already have, then try File by precedent in Preview, which tags new email with a proposed folder and moves nothing. Once you're comfortable, switch it to Automatic and it files for you, keeping your existing folders and labels, whether you sort by client, account type or property. Skip "to respond" and "action" labels: few people stick with them, and most just want email filed by topic. Next, add email summaries like a daily brief of your inbox and calendar. Then branch out into meeting notes to your CRM, to-dos, and running lists Carly keeps for you.
Step by step
- 01
Get a Claude or ChatGPT account
Start by playing with Claude or ChatGPT so you get a feel for what it's good at.
- 02
Connect your apps
Connect your calendar, email, CRM and anything else you use. Carly connects to thousands of apps.
- 03
Max out Outlook and Gmail rules first
Before adding AI, use the native rules in Outlook and Gmail to sort and file everything they can handle.
- 04
Sort email with File by precedent, in Preview
Turn on the File by precedent template in Preview. It tags each new email with the folder it would go in and moves nothing. It works with your existing folders and labels, whether you sort by client, account type or property.
- 05
Switch it to Automatic
Once the proposed folders look right, switch to the Automatic version and it files for you. Skip "to respond" and "action" labels; most people just want email filed by topic.
- 06
Set up workflows from Claude or ChatGPT
Open a template, choose which email addresses it applies to and press Copy prompt. Paste it into Carly's chat, email it to Carly, or paste it into Claude or ChatGPT. To add Carly there, open the account page, scroll down and press Add to Claude or Add to ChatGPT.
- 07
Add email summaries
Next, add a daily brief of your inbox and calendar, or a digest of email from your key contacts.
- 08
Branch out to meeting notes, to-dos and tracking
Then send meeting notes to your CRM and to-do list, and have Carly keep running lists for you, like opportunities from your inbox tracked in a sheet.
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See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."