Introduction
When ChatGPT first came out, I tried to resist it. I told myself I didn’t need it and didn’t have the time to learn something new. I’m not one of those early adopters who gets excited about change. You may have similar sentiments if you are good at most aspects of your job or are slower to learn new technologies. However, I want to encourage you to let that go and try ChatGPT today. Don’t put it off any longer because it isn’t going anywhere. It’s an incredible tool that can help so many work tasks that you will feel as if you’ve hired a part-time assistant. If you want – or need – to learn how to do more with less, read on and discover how to use ChatGPT for business. Below I will share some workplace tasks that you can do better using ChatGPT.
Before We Dive In
You may see the word prompt mentioned when you read about ChatGPT. The prompt is simply the message you put into ChatGPT so that it can provide you with a response. Prompts are extremely important, as a good prompt can mean the difference between a barely acceptable response versus an incredible response.
Good prompt writing will come with time, but do spend some time learning how to write good prompts, so the information you get is as useful as possible. Within the same chat as your original prompt, you can also update the prompt and see how it responds to both the original and updated version. In addition, you can ask a series of questions to get more complete information.
Writing Emails and other Content
One of the best ways to use ChatGPT for business is for writing assistance. As you go throughout your day and writing tasks come up, try ChatGPT – especially when you get stuck. You can use it to help you write an email in a friendlier tone, create marketing collateral, or proofread your work. One of my favorite writing prompts is the following: Explain [insert topic] to me like I am 14. With 7th to 8th grade being the average reading level of Americans, this helps me immensely when I want to explain something complex.
Creating Business Processes
Creating business processes can be time-consuming, and tend to require a lot of detail. ChatGPT can assist you in creating business processes more efficiently. It can provide step-by-step instructions, draft policies, procedures, or rules, and generate ideas for improving existing processes based on feedback you’ve received.
Real-world example:
I used ChatGPT to create a process to onboard new customers into a platform. It provided 18 steps, some of which I hadn’t even considered. It also listed extra steps that I want to try later, when I’m ready to invest more time and improve the process. When I was stuck on one step, I asked it to provide ways that other businesses would perform that step. I also had it proofread each section and re-write some of them to reduce the technical jargon. All in all, I was able to complete the onboarding process document in around 3 hours. Without ChatGPT it would’ve taken me around 5 hours.
Summarizing Information
Reading can take up a good chunk of time at work – whether it’s emails, documentation, meeting notes, or research. You can use ChatGPT to summarize information of all kinds. Provide it with the content you want summarized, and it can give you the top takeaways. Ask it about a book, and it can provide a summary. Give it the transcription of meeting notes, and it can give you action items. Depending on the volume of information you have to review each day, it can save tons of time.
A word of caution: avoid putting proprietary information into ChatGPT.Research
Research can take many forms at work. You might spend time reviewing competitors, learning new concepts or discovering evidence-based practices and approaches related to your role. One of my favorite ways to use it for research is to have ChatGPT write survey questions. If you use surveys as a means to gain information from your customers, I highly recommend using ChatGPT to refine your questions. Your prompt should include your audience, the exact information you are trying to learn from them, and the format you want the question to use. You can also ask it to write multiple questions, so you have several to choose from.
Here is an Example Prompt for Survey Questions:
You are a course author and want to understand how easy or difficult it was for your students to comprehend your course materials. Write five survey questions that you can ask your students. Use a Likert scale format.
Brainstorming
Do you ever feel stuck when you start working on something new? ChatGPT can be your collaborator in that case! Help with brainstorming and idea generation are some of the best ways to can use ChatGPT for business. Even if you aren’t stuck, per se, but could use additional ideas or want to make sure you’ve covered all areas, try ChatGPT.
Organizing Information
Creating tables recently became a lot easier with ChatGPT. I use the free version of ChatGPT, and it has no problem using a prompt to create a table that can be copied and pasted to other documents. If you need to figure out the best way to present the information, or simply want a table created to your specifications, give ChatGPT the prompt and let it do all the heavy lifting.
Conclusion
It can be difficult to take the leap to learn new technology – especially when rapid changes are still occurring. However, in the era of “do more with less,” it will benefit you to embrace AI. ChatGPT is a simple tool and a great starting point for your first foray into using AI tools for business. If you learn how to use ChatGPT, you’ll be able to get more out of your day and improve your productivity and output.
Open a browser window and keep ChatGPT open all day. As you go through the activities of your workday, try to use ChatGPT to help. You might be surprised at how much it can do! Once you get comfortable with ChatGPT, check out this article on other free AI tools for business.