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Hands-On AI Tools and Agent Skills

Published by O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Beginner to intermediate content levelBeginner to intermediate

From augmenting research to building a personal assistant for increased productivity

Course outcomes

  • Understand the basics for setting up and using Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini AI offerings
  • Learn how to use Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Gemini, NotebookLM, Claude Projects, Agent Skills to increase productivity across multiple domains—from organizing and analyzing data to summarizing documents and connecting tools like Gmail, Google Drive, and Notion through MCP connectors

Course description

Join expert Lucas Soares to explore the modern landscape of consumer AI tools—Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini—and learn how to combine them with NotebookLM and the emerging world of Agent Skills to multiply your productivity without writing code. You’ll compare how Claude Projects, ChatGPT Projects, and Gemini Gems each handle instructions, files, and memory; use NotebookLM to turn dense source material into navigable knowledge bases, briefings, and audio overviews; and build and install Agent Skills that automate repeatable deliverables like PowerPoint, Excel, and PDF workflows. You’ll also connect these tools to Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, and Notion via MCP and built-in connectors so a single prompt can act across your files and apps. In five hours, you’ll leave with a working playbook for choosing the right AI tool for each task and stitching them together into reliable, repeatable workflows, plus a capstone exercise that combines providers, NotebookLM, Agent Skills, and connectors end-to-end.

What you’ll learn and how you can apply it

  • Compare Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini and choose the right tool for research, writing, analysis, and automation tasks
  • Use Projects and workspaces (Claude Projects, ChatGPT Projects, Gemini Gems) to create specialized assistants grounded in your own documents
  • Turn dense PDFs, papers, and videos into navigable notebooks, briefings, and audio overviews with NotebookLM
  • Install and run Agent Skills to automate repeatable deliverables like PowerPoint, Excel, and PDF workflows
  • Connect AI tools to Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, and Notion via MCP and built-in connectors to execute multi-step tasks across your apps

This live event is for you because...

  • You’re a business user or knowledge worker looking to increase your productivity, automate tasks, and adopt the latest AI tools across Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, NotebookLM, and Agent Skills—without writing code.

Prerequisites

  • Familiarity with a conversational AI interface such as Claude.ai or ChatGPT
  • Basic research skills
  • A paid plan on at least one major AI provider (Claude Pro/Max, ChatGPT Plus, or Google AI Pro) is recommended to follow along with the hands-on exercises involving Projects, Agent Skills, NotebookLM, and connectors (includes a fee; optional but recommended)

Recommended preparation:

  • Read What Are AI Agents? (report)
  • Read Skills for AI Agents (book)
  • Skim the official quickstart docs for Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and NotebookLM, and read the Anthropic overview of Agent Skills

Recommended follow-up:

Schedule

The time frames are only estimates and may vary according to how the class is progressing.

Introduction (60 minutes)

  • Presentation: Introduction to the course; overview of the AI tools landscape—Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, NotebookLM, and Agent Skills—and how to choose the right tool for the job
  • Hands-on exercise: Set up accounts and desktop/web apps for Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini, and run a baseline prompt across all three to compare results

Projects and workspaces across Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini (60 minutes)

  • Presentation: How Claude Projects, ChatGPT Projects, and Gemini Gems handle custom instructions, files, and memory; when to pick each one
  • Hands-on exercise: Build a specialized research assistant grounded in your own PDFs using the provider of your choice
  • Q&A
  • Break

NotebookLM for research and learning (60 minutes)

  • Presentation: Turning sources into structured knowledge with NotebookLM—notebooks, briefings, mind maps, and audio overviews
  • Hands-on exercise: Build a NotebookLM notebook from a paper or report and generate an audio overview plus a study guide you can reuse
  • Q&A
  • Break

Agent Skills: automating repeatable deliverables (60 minutes)

  • Presentation: What Agent Skills are, where they run, pre-built vs. custom, and how they compare to Custom GPTs and Gems
  • Hands-on exercise: Install a pre-built Skill (PowerPoint or Excel) to generate a real deliverable, then create a simple custom Skill for a recurring task
  • Q&A

Connecting AI to your apps with MCP and connectors (60 minutes)

  • Presentation: MCP and native connectors across Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini—linking your AI to Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, and Notion
  • Hands-on exercise: Wire up at least one connector and run a multi-step task that reads from one app and writes to another across your files and calendar
  • Q&A

Your Instructor

  • Lucas Soares

    Lucas Soares is a machine learning engineer who has worked at K1 Digital and Biometrid, where he developed computer vision and NLP models for applications such as document verification, OCR-based applications, and recommender systems. Lucas has also developed various ML models, including neural networks, Siamese networks, convolutional neural networks, LSTMs, and genetic algorithms.

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Skills covered

  • Claude
  • Generative AI