Three short books for people who feel a step behind.
Written by Eric Jenkins under the name E.S. Jenkins, right here in Johnson City. No math, no coding, no predictions about the future — just plain English for anyone who's been nodding along in meetings and would rather not admit they're lost.
Book One · The What
AI Basics
A Friendly, No-Jargon Guide for First-Time Users
Start here if you've never typed a word into one of these tools. What AI actually is, which ones exist, what to do in your first ten minutes, and how to ask for something in a way that gets a useful answer. Eight short lessons and four ordinary tasks worked start to finish — including the attempts that didn't work.
Paperback & Kindle
Book Two · The How
Beyond AI Basics
Turning a Chatbot Into a Real Assistant
For when you've learned it and it quietly trailed off. Setting the tools up properly, handing them real documents instead of describing them, and wiring three or four repeated tasks into your week so the habit outlasts the novelty. Twelve chapters and a thirty-day plan.
Paperback & Kindle
Book Three · The Why
The Payoff of AI Basics
The Time You Get Back
The hours come back in fragments, nothing is waiting to claim them, and the work quietly expands to fill the space. This one is about what the recovered time is actually for — what doesn't transfer to a machine, what stays yours, and how to tell in twelve weeks whether any of it worked.
Paperback & Kindle
The what, the how, and the why.
Each one stands on its own. Together they're the whole arc — from never having tried it, to using it every week, to knowing what it was all for.
What these tools actually are, for someone who has never used one.
Setting them up properly and building habits that survive an ordinary week.
What the hours you get back are for, and how to make sure they land somewhere.
Most guides to AI are written by people who already understand it, for people who already understand it.
I learned this the ordinary way — by using it, getting confused, working it out, and taking notes on what actually helped. These books are written from a few steps ahead on the same path, not from the top of the field looking down. If that sounds like the kind of help you'd want for your business too, that's exactly what The A(I) Team Essentials does.