You start with a USD 20 subscription and a conversation. Not a platform, not a consultant, not a hire. This may be the most asked question that never gets asked out loud. It sits inside the heads of leaders at middle-sized companies, and there are far more of those than multinationals. The good news: the answer costs USD 20 a month and begins today.
Day one: have the conversation, do not type it
Take out a USD 20 monthly subscription to ChatGPT or Claude. When the chat window opens, resist the urge to type a few words. Find the voice icon and press it, and then ask, out loud, the very question that brought you here: “How do I start using AI without a big budget or an AI team?”
The AI will tell you exactly how, and it will do something better: it will interview you. Who are you? Tell me about your company. Your industry. Your number of employees. Your challenges. Your market. Answer honestly, in the confidence between you and your AI. You will learn in your own way, at your own tempo, using your own words. That private, judgement-free conversation is where the real constraint, your own thinking, starts to loosen.
You just created your AI team
Keep those conversations going and something real forms: a working relationship between you and your AI. That is your AI team. Two members, you and it, for USD 20 a month, which may be the smallest AI budget in the world. And that team is capable of producing your first version 0.1 of an AI strategy, covering your employees and leadership group, your markets, industry and competitors, your clients, pipeline and sales, your margins, profits and losses, your past, present and future.
Version 0.1 will not be perfect. It does not need to be. It needs to exist, because a leader who has personally drafted a strategy with AI can never again be bluffed about AI, by a vendor, a consultant or their own leadership group.
What to refuse to buy at this stage
Everything else. No platform, no integration project, no agency retainer, no API spend, until version 0.1 of your strategy exists and you can articulate what a purchase would actually do for it. The market is full of shovel sellers waiting for leaders who buy before they understand. Your USD 20 seat is the whole budget for now, and that is a strength, not a compromise.
Step two: train the people it actually helps
Once you are comfortable, extend the same approach to your people. Not everyone needs a seat on day one. Some roles, the ones spent behind a wheel or operating machinery, may gain little from a chat window right now. Start with the people whose daily work involves reading, writing, deciding, planning and client contact, because for them this tool changes the job immediately. Some of them are quietly ahead of you already. Train them, give them the same voice-conversation start you had, and let the seats follow the value.
Do that, and congratulations are genuinely in order: you started using AI with no AI team and almost no budget, you built the team on the way, and you did it in the only order that works, leader first, people next, purchases last. Now make it a permanent part of how you work.
Frequently asked questions
How do I start using AI in my company without an AI team?
Start alone, with a USD 20 monthly subscription to ChatGPT or Claude. Use the voice mode and let the AI interview you about your company, industry, challenges and market. That ongoing conversation functions as your first AI team and can draft version 0.1 of your AI strategy before you spend anything else.
What is the cheapest way for a small company to start with AI?
A single USD 20 per month subscription for the leader. No platforms, integrations, consultants or API spending are needed at the start, and refusing them until a first strategy draft exists protects you from buying tools you do not yet understand.
Which employees should get AI access first?
The people whose daily work involves reading, writing, planning, deciding or client contact, because a conversational AI changes their job immediately. Roles that rarely touch a screen during the working day can wait. Let the seats follow the value rather than rolling out to everyone at once.
Can talking to an AI really produce a business strategy?
It produces version 0.1 of one, which is the version that matters most, because you built it yourself. Through repeated voice conversations the AI interviews you about employees, markets, competitors, clients and finances, and turns your answers into a draft you refine over time. A leader who has done this cannot be bluffed about AI again.
Thomas Anglero is a Strategic AI Advisor, keynote speaker and author of Intro to Artificial Intelligence. He has delivered over 450 keynotes across 30 countries for organisations including IBM, the WHO, the World Government Summit and the European Commission. He founded the IBM Watson AI Lab for Cancer at the Oslo Cancer Cluster and closed over $500 million in enterprise transformation deals as CTO and Chief Innovation Officer at Cognizant.
If you are leading your organisation through this, I work with a limited number of senior leaders each quarter. Get in touch at Anglero.com.