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How to AI: Cut Through the Hype. Master the Basics. Transform Your Work.
A frank, hands-on guide to using AI at work, unpacking for the curious and skeptical alike the “24 Laws” of AI and revealing strategies that businesses of every size can use to free up time, innovate, and add to the bottom line—from a Wall Street Journal tech columnist
“The antidote to AI panic. Read it. You’ll breathe easier.”—Scott Galloway, NYU Stern School of Business professor and co-host of Pivot with Kara Swisher
“A clear, practical, and hype-free guide to the AI revolution that will resonate with anyone trying to figure out the how to make AI deliver real value.”—Ethan Mollick, Wharton professor and New York Times bestselling author of Co-Intelligence
AI is nothing to be afraid of. After all, AI is merely software. It’s great at some things and (at least right now) terrible at others. But for workers who take time to experiment with AI and develop expertise, AI will make them more productive and more creative, saving them time, giving them job security, and boosting their income.
In How to AI, Wall Street Journal columnist Christopher Mims introduces readers to people just like them who are at the forefront of using AI in the world of work. Imagine a freelance lawyer who suddenly has a whip-smart assistant to help her nail every deposition. Or a mom-and-pop contractor whose new software tool is automating construction bids that used to eat up hundreds of hours.
But even as half a billion people around the world have leapt at the chance to use ChatGPT and other tools, millions of us have stayed on the sidelines. Are you one of them? Maybe you feel you should be using AI tools, but you don’t know where to begin. Or maybe you love AI but find yourself struggling to get your co-workers or employees on board. In How to AI, Mims teaches readers twenty-four simple but eye-opening “laws” about AI and how we should approach it,
• AI is an assistant, not a replacement.
• AI isn’t creative, but it can help you be.
• Give AI your least favorites things to do.
• AI can’t create finished products, but it’s great at prototypes.
Animated by the wit and brilliant explanatory power that have earned Mims’s Wall Street Journal columns a devoted following, How to AI will prepare readers to become a part of the AI revolution—and, most important, arm them with the tools to make it work for them.
“The antidote to AI panic. Read it. You’ll breathe easier.”—Scott Galloway, NYU Stern School of Business professor and co-host of Pivot with Kara Swisher
“A clear, practical, and hype-free guide to the AI revolution that will resonate with anyone trying to figure out the how to make AI deliver real value.”—Ethan Mollick, Wharton professor and New York Times bestselling author of Co-Intelligence
AI is nothing to be afraid of. After all, AI is merely software. It’s great at some things and (at least right now) terrible at others. But for workers who take time to experiment with AI and develop expertise, AI will make them more productive and more creative, saving them time, giving them job security, and boosting their income.
In How to AI, Wall Street Journal columnist Christopher Mims introduces readers to people just like them who are at the forefront of using AI in the world of work. Imagine a freelance lawyer who suddenly has a whip-smart assistant to help her nail every deposition. Or a mom-and-pop contractor whose new software tool is automating construction bids that used to eat up hundreds of hours.
But even as half a billion people around the world have leapt at the chance to use ChatGPT and other tools, millions of us have stayed on the sidelines. Are you one of them? Maybe you feel you should be using AI tools, but you don’t know where to begin. Or maybe you love AI but find yourself struggling to get your co-workers or employees on board. In How to AI, Mims teaches readers twenty-four simple but eye-opening “laws” about AI and how we should approach it,
• AI is an assistant, not a replacement.
• AI isn’t creative, but it can help you be.
• Give AI your least favorites things to do.
• AI can’t create finished products, but it’s great at prototypes.
Animated by the wit and brilliant explanatory power that have earned Mims’s Wall Street Journal columns a devoted following, How to AI will prepare readers to become a part of the AI revolution—and, most important, arm them with the tools to make it work for them.
243 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 27, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 16, 2026
Title doesn’t match the content.
This book is a great history and “the what” of AI. I found it lacking in the practical how. It’s informative and contains great laws/theories of AI. If you’re looking for help on how to implement AI in your daily life, look elsewhere.
This book is a great history and “the what” of AI. I found it lacking in the practical how. It’s informative and contains great laws/theories of AI. If you’re looking for help on how to implement AI in your daily life, look elsewhere.
April 14, 2026
3 ⭐️
How to AI had some great ideas and thoughts around AI. For someone with no knowledge of AI or someone who is actively pushing it away, they should pick this book up to get a better understanding and not fear the AI of the future. After working with AI for a while, there were still some helpful tips in this book.
How to AI had some great ideas and thoughts around AI. For someone with no knowledge of AI or someone who is actively pushing it away, they should pick this book up to get a better understanding and not fear the AI of the future. After working with AI for a while, there were still some helpful tips in this book.
March 23, 2026
This is the one. If you are looking for a book to give you the positive mindset for working with AI and some well-defined laws for informing your interactions, this is the book. It changed my thinking before I was half way done.
March 22, 2026
Not what I expected. I wanted a guide and maybe a workbook not lots of unrelatable case studies
March 7, 2026
Every layperson should consider reading How to AI or a book like it. Christopher Mims does an excellent job walking the reader through the history and current state of AI use in the world without getting bogged down in details or overwhelming anyone with technical jargon. I suspect this will also keep this book feeling "fresh" longer than other technical books. I especially appreciated his real-world examples, giving me an "anchor" to hang my new knowledge on. I found myself repeatedly reading short sections out loud to my spouse or recounting major themes.
The book is laid out around twenty four "Laws of AI" which are further broken down into three sections. Within each section are moderate and even chapters. As I mentioned, I appreciated the real-world examples throughout. And when Mims felt it was appropriate to share some history, he did so in in-line break-outs that were well incorporated. It was never jarring to move in and out of the occasional history break. Every chapter concludes with 3-5 vocabulary words, a one-paragraph summary of main ideas, and a few suggested questions to consider. I could very much see myself doing this one as a buddy read if I were to re-read.
Here at the end of my reading I feel even better equipped to discuss various types of AI, it's history, and it's potential future. That's a huge win for this not-in-a-tech-career gal!
The book is laid out around twenty four "Laws of AI" which are further broken down into three sections. Within each section are moderate and even chapters. As I mentioned, I appreciated the real-world examples throughout. And when Mims felt it was appropriate to share some history, he did so in in-line break-outs that were well incorporated. It was never jarring to move in and out of the occasional history break. Every chapter concludes with 3-5 vocabulary words, a one-paragraph summary of main ideas, and a few suggested questions to consider. I could very much see myself doing this one as a buddy read if I were to re-read.
Here at the end of my reading I feel even better equipped to discuss various types of AI, it's history, and it's potential future. That's a huge win for this not-in-a-tech-career gal!
February 27, 2026
I enjoyed reading this book. It's not super technical, but that's not the point. A lot of it focuses on case studies of how AI is being used in various businesses, such as consumer packaged goods at Clorox, where it talks about how AI image generation is already good enough for generating advertisements, as well as AI being an input in brainstorming / ideation of new products.
Another example is how AI is improving communications in the construction industry, and in general how one of the things that is happening is not that the technology specifically has made a huge leap (though it has), but that society in general is up for mainstream adoption of chat-based interfaces at this point. I enjoyed reading the case studies. If you're an everyday person, this book will tell you what's happening, what's real, and how you can get involved.
Another example is how AI is improving communications in the construction industry, and in general how one of the things that is happening is not that the technology specifically has made a huge leap (though it has), but that society in general is up for mainstream adoption of chat-based interfaces at this point. I enjoyed reading the case studies. If you're an everyday person, this book will tell you what's happening, what's real, and how you can get involved.
June 6, 2026
Reads like he stuck a (large) bunch of Wall Street Journal columns together and called them "a book."
It's annoyingly boosterish / pro AI. Why annoyingly? He keeps mentioning how AI has cut a few thousand jobs here and a few thousand there, but encourages us to mindlessly adopt it regardless. The advice in a nutshell is that there will be few survivors of AI layoffs, and here's how to be one of the few "winners". F*** everyone else. Which is, to be fair, exactly the political slant to be expected of a columnist for WSJ.
If your goal is to have a cheerleader tell you what's great about AI without really thinking about it, this is the book for you.
It's annoyingly boosterish / pro AI. Why annoyingly? He keeps mentioning how AI has cut a few thousand jobs here and a few thousand there, but encourages us to mindlessly adopt it regardless. The advice in a nutshell is that there will be few survivors of AI layoffs, and here's how to be one of the few "winners". F*** everyone else. Which is, to be fair, exactly the political slant to be expected of a columnist for WSJ.
If your goal is to have a cheerleader tell you what's great about AI without really thinking about it, this is the book for you.
May 28, 2026
Disappointing. The cover of the book indicated this was a guide on how to use AI "master the basics", "transform your work", a "practical guide on how to use AI in daily life". It does nothing of the sort. It gives a history of AI then case studies of how businesses, particularly Clorox, uses AI. I began to wonder if the book was just an advertisement for Clorox. I found the book of no practical use at all on how to use AI in my "daily life". Save yourself some time and just read the " 24 laws of AI" at the front of the book and draw your own conclusions.
February 7, 2026
Мімс не є адептом культу засновників ШІ-стартапів, які обіцяють штучний загальний інтелект за лічені роки. Він знає, що більшість компаній використовують не лише генеративний ШІ (той самий ChatGPT), а й класичні моделі машинного навчання, які працюють у фоновому режимі вже багато років. Його книга - спроба з'єднати ці світи й показати, як звичайним працівникам, малому бізнесу та скептикам знайти своє місце в епоху ШІ.
April 23, 2026
An intro to AI using case studies of companies and individuals who were early adopters of AI, looking to make their business more efficient and unique.
It's misleading to say this book will teach you even the basics of how to master AI, or transform your own work.
This book will give you an understanding of what you need to specifically learn next to use AI in your own field of work.
It's misleading to say this book will teach you even the basics of how to master AI, or transform your own work.
This book will give you an understanding of what you need to specifically learn next to use AI in your own field of work.
June 22, 2026
To be honest, this kind of book is not really my thing. While I learned some things about AI, a book like this will be out of date soon enough and replaced by all new information and technology that no printed book could keep up with. Just read about it online and save the printed page for some good fiction!
February 21, 2026
A well written and non-hysterical overview of the current state of AI, how we got here and where it’s going. This book will be out of date in about 10 minutes. You should read it now while it’s still relevant.
February 18, 2026
Clear-eyed explanation and advice, if you're feeling lost.
March 25, 2026
Actually helpful. Great work
April 29, 2026
Clear insight in the current state of AI, and the hype surrounding it. Informative and enlighting.
June 27, 2026
Not particularly useful - more a history of AI and a seeming advertisement for Clorox. I skim-read most of it.
March 20, 2026
A measured, panic-free and informative overview of the current AI playing field via practical case studies and easy to digest summaries. How things stand and how they are set to develop over the coming years.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews