Prologue
How to Use This Book
Glossary — The Minimum Vocabulary Before You Start
Part I — Use AI with Judgment
Chapter 0. How to Think with an AI
Chapter 1. The Difficult Email
Chapter 2. Résumé / CV
Chapter 3. Converting Documents
Chapter 4. Summarizing Long Texts
Chapter 5. Job Hunting
Chapter 6. From Scattered Notes to a Plan
Chapter 7. Translate / Adapt Tone
Chapter 8. Brainstorming
Chapter 9. Your AI Assistant in Depth
Chapter 10. Data and Spreadsheets
Chapter 11. Presentations with AI
Part II — From User to Creator
Chapter 12. The Terminal and the Command Line
Chapter 13. Python from Scratch
Chapter 14. Git and GitHub
Chapter 15. Coding with an AI Assistant
Chapter 16. Ollama and Local AI Models
Chapter 17. APIs: Connect Your Code to Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini
Chapter 18. Databases
Chapter 19. RAG and Semantic Search
Chapter 20. Tools: The AI That Does Things
Chapter 21. AI Agents and Memory
Chapter 22. Agent Frameworks
Chapter 23. Modern Web Development
Chapter 24. Docker and Containers
Chapter 25. Publishing to the Internet
Chapter 26. CI/CD and Testing
Chapter 27. UI/UX Design with AI
Chapter 28. Image, Video, and Voice with AI
Chapter 29. Your Business on Social Media
Chapter 30. WhatsApp Business
Chapter 31. Monetization and Payments
Chapter 32. Security, Privacy, and the Law
Chapter 33. Case Study: A Real SaaS
Chapter 34. Production and Operations
Part III — Build Your Own AI
Chapter 35. Build Your Own AI
Chapter 36. Evaluate Your AI
Chapter 37. Retrieval, Citations, and Provenance
Chapter 38. Agents, Tools, and Authority
Chapter 39. Architecture, Cost, and Operations
About AI Levels
What's Next?
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Index
Appendix A. Reusable Templates
Appendix B. Tools to Explore
Appendix C. Troubleshooting Common Problems
AI Skills Map
Final Reflection
AI Levels: The Practical AI Handbook
From AI User to AI Builder: A Practical Framework for Learning, Creating, and Building with Artificial Intelligence
Most people use AI. Few understand how far they can take it. AI Levels gives you a practical roadmap from prompting and everyday AI use to workflows, agents, specialized systems, and AI building—one skill at a time.
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About
About the Book
AI is easy to use. Understanding how far you can take it is much harder.
AI Levels: The Practical AI Handbook presents a structured path for developing real capability with artificial intelligence—from using AI effectively, to creating repeatable workflows, building specialized systems, and understanding the foundations of more advanced AI architectures.
Rather than focusing on a single tool or a collection of prompts, the book organizes AI capability into progressive levels. Each level represents a shift in what you can accomplish: from asking better questions, to designing workflows, connecting tools and knowledge, creating agents, and ultimately thinking about AI as a system that can extend human capability.
Inside the book, you will learn how to:
• Understand the different levels of practical AI capability
• Work more effectively with modern AI assistants
• Move beyond prompting into structured AI workflows
• Use context, memory, tools, and knowledge more deliberately
• Understand agents and increasingly autonomous AI systems
• Recognize the architectural ideas behind more advanced AI applications
• Decide what to learn and build next as your AI skills evolve
The goal is not to turn every reader into an AI researcher or software engineer. It is to give you a practical mental model for understanding where you are, what becomes possible at the next level, and how to keep progressing.
AI should not replace human intelligence. It should expand it.
Whether you are a professional, entrepreneur, manager, creator, engineer, student, or simply someone who wants to understand where AI is going, this handbook provides a practical roadmap for moving from AI user to AI builder—one skill at a time.
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About the Author
Victor Hugo Solis Lizárraga is an engineer and technology leader with extensive experience in engineering, quality, manufacturing, and new product development across global industries. Throughout his career, he has led multidisciplinary teams and technology projects in the automotive, medical, and advanced manufacturing sectors.
In recent years, his work has increasingly focused on artificial intelligence and on understanding how people and organizations can move beyond simply using AI tools to understanding, integrating, and building intelligent systems that expand human capabilities.
He is the creator of AI LEVELS, a practical framework for understanding the evolution of AI use—from basic interaction with AI models to agents, automation, and advanced systems—and for turning that knowledge into real-world applications.
His central goal is to make artificial intelligence understandable, practical, and useful for anyone willing to learn, create, and build with it.
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