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Every Thursday you receive tips and content to help you improve your English skills, 1 % at a time.

The rise in the use of AI is nothing new. Even my 70 year old father said he consulted it to plan a trip to Vietnam. For me, this type of employment is more like an advanced use of Google- it searches for things based on the prompt you give it, but with the caveat that it can create documents and/or itineraries for you based on time restrictions, budget, and any other preference you give it.

Where AI is going to provide a quantum leap in assistance is in the fields of business and education, especially if you personalise it to meet your needs. How can you do this? By creating your very own AI agent.

What is an AI agent?

For the purpose of improving your English, think of an AI agent as a teaching assistant, tutor, personal assistant, editor, brainstormer, critic...

An AI agent for learning English knows your goal (for example: get me ready to run my client call in English next Thursday), decides what to do each session, and adjusts its feedback based on what the learner actually does, rather than waiting to be asked a question. It can create vocabulary lists for you based on your real-life interactions, it can critique your emails/reports/proposals etc., it can edit them, and it can create personalised classes just for you.

The distinction matters because most "AI English tutors" aren't agents at all. They're chatbots with a friendly prompt: you type, they correct, you type again. Useful, but the learner is doing all the driving. An agent takes over the driving.

How does it look in practice (these are all hypothetical examples):

• It sets the task, not just the reply. It decides today is a negotiation role-play because last week's sales meeting showed weaknesses under pressure.
• It has a memory. It tracks that someone consistently misuses conditionals, or freezes when asked a question, or has problems explaining X or Y and returns to that deliberately instead of correcting it fresh each time.
• It uses tools. It can see the learner's actual meeting transcript and therefore their structures and vocabulary (from Teams for example), generate a scenario from their industry, schedule the next practice, and log progress for a manager or human teacher.
• It diagnoses rather than corrects. A chatbot fixes the sentence in front of it. An agent notices the pattern behind multiple sentences and designs practice around it.

How to create your AI agent:

1. Give it a persona. Say you are an expert in English language coaching for non-natives and you will act in X style. Research shows that when this is done, the AI is able to produce the best responses. Google ran an experiment and found that when it prompted its AI to "Take a deep breath and think about this slowly," it produced the best results!
2. Constrain it to a defined rubric (set of rules) and a fixed set of scenarios. This is vital because the feedback standard is human designed, not something the model invents per session. I recommend saying something like: "You will be a Socratic English language tutor." "I will be your student." "Don’t give me answers." "Coach me on how to get the correct answer by asking me questions to provoke thinking and analysis."
3. Deliver prompts in stages. For the above example you could say: "I will be your student." "I work in X and I need to practise Y." Then: "This is how I want you to coach me..." (and you write how you want to be coached). Then: You write how you want the exercises to be presented and how you want to be corrected.
4. Always check for mistakes and that the AI understands you: Simply saying: "Do you understand me," or "Check for mistakes," is a simple way to ensure everyone is on the same page (or screen).

Why creating your AI agent is going to help you improve your English:

You get on-demand, personalised practise, 24/7, 365. Whenever you need to practise something specific, your AI agent will create exercises, role-plays, look for videos etc. to help you reach your goals. It will then give you feedback based on the rubrics you set for it. It's basically like having your own teacher whenever you need it.

Why I'm writing this (I'm not scared of AI!!!):

My students often ask me if I'm worried about AI. I think AI is wonderful (if used correctly- like anything). Creating an AI agent who coaches but doesn't just give you the answer, who understands your needs and who can help you whenever you need it is a great tool for you, but also for human teachers. It will mean that the class or human practice is even more valuable because you can use it to practise things that really matter, and not waste time doing exercises you don't need because the agent will create exercises just for you to practise out of the class, when you need them.
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In a company, I could have a class of 6 students and they all may need 6 different types of practice. With an AI agent, they can practise out of the class and I can use the class time for more interactions, games, discussions and other valuable human-to-human activities that could benefit everyone.

Conclusion:

Creating an AI agent is a more advanced use of AI. It can be personalised to meet your needs, and it can help you to achieve your goals. It has a memory, so, like a human (or perhaps even better), it can remember what you got wrong last week so you can improve this week. But, and this is a big but, you need to create it properly to maximise its effects.

You just need to start...

PS: next week I will show how you can use your AI agent in more detail.

TIPS

1. Give it a specific persona.
2. Set your rules for coaching.
3. Prompt it properly.
4. Check it understands you.

CONTENT

1. Here is a detailed guide you can download with more detailed information and examples to help you create your own AI agent for learning English...

​Build Your English Practice Agent.pdf​

2. Book a free call with me to find out in more detail how you can set up your AI agent for learning English. I can also set it up and control it for you...
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​https://calendly.com/ben--palmer/30-minute-calls​

3. Try the Fluent In 50 Days course to really make progress with your confidence in English, and your professional career!

€97.00 Fluent In 50 Days Starter Plan Receive daily material and tips to improve your English communication skills. The course begins on the Monday after you... Read more I want to improve my English!

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A CHALLENGE

Review the guide and use the instructions to create your own AI agent.

You just need to start...

AN INSPIRING QUOTE

"Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true." Charles Dickens

AI is a tool to practise, to be more efficient, but it won't substitute good old-fashioned communication, but hopefully, if used correctly, it will enhance it. That's how I think of AI.

If you want to improve your communication in English, book a free call to see how we can help you:

​https://calendly.com/ben--palmer/30-minute-calls​

If you want to learn English, you can read the How to (finally) learn English book:

​https://lighthousetraininggroup.com/books/​

Out on Amazon!

Find out more about us at https://lighthousetraininggroup.com/​

Ben

PS: Keep progressing!