Colorful digital mosaic with circular and square patterns radiating from the center on a black background

AI Elements of Style

Practical AI Style

Navigate the AI Revolution with
Style and Control

Essential Elements for Building Your Own AI Style Guide

Artificial intelligence is transforming business at lightning speed—but are you steering its power, or is it steering you? Practical AI Style is an indispensable guide for crafting an Organizational AI Style Guide, ensuring clarity, consistency, and responsible AI interactions across your organization.

For business leaders and those responsible for implementing AI or its outputs, this book provides essential tools to maintain brand voice, mitigate the risks of uncontrolled AI, and avoid inconsistencies that can erode trust.

In an era where AI's influence is rapidly expanding, Practical AI Style equips organizations to master the elements of AI communication, ensuring responsible, effective, and on-brand usage.

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From the Back Cover

This back cover's design, a handwritten note made digital, shows how technology, through fonts and digital designs, can enhance original intent. With AI, we have the same opportunity: to extend our intentions and improve authentic outcomes. We do so by finding practical ways to embrace AI with style and purpose.

Dear Reader,

You and I are both here because the rules are changing. You didn’t pick up this book to learn about AI. You picked it up because your work is already being reshaped by it. AI touches nearly every interaction. Instead of looking to AI for answers, we need to set our own rules with clarity, confidence, and control.

If you’ve ever turned to The Elements of Style for clarity in writing, this book offers a way to approach AI with the same care.

We need to learn how to work with AI, to understand Who it is and What it isn’t. Practical AI Style isn’t a warning or a blind embrace. It is a guide to help AI assist and augment our skills, grounded in clear intent, consistent tone, thoughtful constraints, and alignment with our values.

Inside, you will find elements, workbooks, and exercises I have used with teams navigating this terrain, all designed to help you build your own AI Style Guide you can put to immediate use. Along the way, you will meet a few of my favorite cohorts: a race engineer, an art forger, Scheherazade, Juror #8, the Great One, and a Pope. Each offers an authentic perspective that helps shape how we approach AI with tone, judgment, assurance, and trust.

Thanks for being part of this work. With Gratitude! Mike

P.S. We likely haven’t met. I’ve spent my career where technology meets learning, helping people and teams adapt to change with clarity and care. This book was shaped by years of work with organizations, a curiosity for what comes next, and one vivacious, partially trained golden retriever named Mara, who reminds me daily how nascent intelligence does not always look or act the way we expect. I live with my wife and daughter in Hull, Massachusetts, leashed to the future five feet behind Mara.

From Strunk to Silicon: Your Journey to Mastering AI Style

Step inside the essential chapters that turn AI from a wild experiment into a powerful, confident tool for your organization. Just as Strunk and White brought clarity and grace to writing, Practical AI Style shows you how to bring precision, purpose, and control to AI use. Explore each chapter to unlock the steps that transform scattered AI efforts into a strategic advantage—building trust, consistency, and real impact across your teams.

The chapters build progressively, from fundamentals to advanced considerations. On your first read, follow the sequence. Later, return to the chapters as needed for reference.

Supported by abundant resources,Practical AI Styleassists your progression along the roadmap to AI style. Working through exercises, you will develop your own Style Guide—one relevant to your intentions, integrity, and approach to AI. By establishing AI usage norms within your organization, your AI Style Guide shapes AI’s future within your walls. This book builds that foundation.

This book is divided into eleven chapters.

Define: Establish foundational concepts.
Decide: Determine your AI's purpose and boundaries.
Elements: Apply core principles for effective AI style.
Assemble: Guide clear and concise interactions.
Brand: Forge your lasting AI identity.
Agents: Shape AI behavior and boundaries.
Augment: Enhance human capability with AI.
Approach: Frame AI guidance through human insight.
Foundation: Anchor AI Style in structure, guardrails, and trust.
Author: Build your own AI Style Guide framework.
Congruence: Concluding principles for impactful AI style.

A little more about the book for the curious ...

A Style Guide for the Algorithmic Age

AI is transforming business fast, bringing both opportunity and risk—messaging can become inconsistent, and brand voice diluted. Practical AI Style offers your AI Style Guide, a modern Elements of Style for AI use. It anchors AI in clarity, consistency, and values, ensuring AI reflects your brand’s true purpose. Unlike policies, it focuses on how to use AI responsibly—setting tone, intent, and transparency norms that turn AI into a trusted partner.

What Is an AI Style Guide?

It defines principles for creating and managing AI content, helping teams produce aligned, trustworthy outputs. Inspired by Strunk and White’s clarity, this book distills the essentials for effective AI communication.

A Practical Workbook

More than theory, it offers exercises and templates to build your guide. You’ll learn to:

Define your AI’s tone and ethics
Train teams to write clear AI prompts
Create a living guide that grows with your needs
Use AI confidently with balance and control

This book empowers you to lead your organization in using AI thoughtfully, protecting your brand in a fast-changing world.

Start Your AI Journey

AI’s pace is fast—but mastery is possible. Practical AI Style gives you the tools to build clarity and control, turning risk into advantage.

Inside Practical AI Style: What You'll Discover

Structured Chapter Summaries: Clear Path from Insight to Action

Quickly grasp key concepts and chart your progression toward building your own AI style guide. Each chapter summary provides concise insights to reinforce your understanding and guide your next steps.
Frameworks that Clarify AI Strategy

Bring clarity and consistency to your organization's AI strategy. Our intuitive frameworks distill complex concepts into clear, actionable approaches, aligning your AI practices with your brand and values.
Actionable Workbooks: Turn Knowledge into Results

Go beyond reading. Engage with practical exercises and structured activities. Designed for immediate implementation, these interactive workbooks help you translate ideas into tangible outcomes.
Prompt Primers: Master the Art of AI Communication

Gain confidence in crafting prompts that deliver precise, consistent results. Each primer is packed with practical advice, examples, and templates to sharpen your skills in prompt engineering.