When GPTs first emerged, I’ll admit, I was skeptical. With no coding background, I felt like this would. be one more technology advancement that I wouldn’t have the skills to be part of. Yet, what I discovered transformed my perspective. It’s a journey of curiosity to confidence, which I’m excited to share with you. One that actually started with me playing around with the new feature while on a Delta flight.

The 4 Questions I Use When Building GPTs to Save Time and Money in My Workflow

Demystifying GPTs: More Than Just Tools, They’re Teammates

They’re often called as AI Agents, or GPTs, both names sound strange and do not accurately represent who they are. I see them as something more personal – ‘teammates.’ It’s important to remember that the language we use doesn’t just help us label terms, rather the words we use spark an emotional reaction and initial idea about what it means.

Think about your reaction to these two sentences:

• Would you like to meet your new AI agent?
• Would you like to meet the newest member of your team?

The Next Step In Your ChatGPT Collaboration

Picture this: great collaborations often begin with casual interactions, growing into deeper relationships and even new opportunities. Have you had that experience before? I’ve had that many times. I’ll often meet someone at a conference, or through comments on one of my posts. One of my most memorable ongoing collaborations is with Dr. Beth Holland. We first met online when I began following her work. She’s the most gifted and articulate researcher and writer I have ever met. I then met Beth at an iPad Conference about a decade ago. From there we always worked on different projects together. Projects usually sparked by our distaste for current discourse from topics such as banning laptops, which we co-authored pieces on, to having people reflect on their identity and the role it plays in the age of AI through the book Atomic Habits. Another writing collaboration.

I digress. The point is great collaboration is an ongoing process. Remember how ChatGPT started as a ‘thought partner?’ That’s the magic of these tools. They evolve from assistants to become integral to our work.

That’s the trajectory I envision with GPTs – from mere assistants to specialized team members, amplifying our efficiency and creativity.

Building Your Own GPT: A Step-by-Step Guide

A commitment I made to myself this year was to create more tutorials for you. So to start the year I want to know are you ready to create your own GPT? In this video I walk through the process, transforming these tools from assistants to essential team players. And this is just in time for you to create and publish one when the GPT store goes live this week.

Identifying Opportunities for GPT in Your Workflow

There is not a single workshop I do where I do not share this quote from Don Norman, “A brilliant solution to the wrong problem is worse than no solution at all. So solve the right problem.”

This is known as taking a human-centered approach to technology integration. Instead of starting with the tool first, we start with the person – their challenges, their frustrations, their motivations, hopes and dreams. From there we evaluate the role of technology.

Consider these questions to pinpoint when taking a human-centered approach:

• Which tasks are repetitive or time-consuming?
• Are there aspects you typically outsource?
• What tasks do you enjoy the least?
• Which tasks, if automated, could boost your efficiency or output quality?

And now you are ready to answer, “What would I create a GPT for?”

Case Study: My Podcasting Journey – Leveraging GPT for Efficiency

Let me share one example. As someone who aspired to create a daily podcast in addition to weekly episodes, I faced a challenge: time-consuming show notes. I was paying someone $30/episode which sounds ridiculous now. A few weeks ago I was reviewing the show notes they sent and they were completely wrong. Early 2023 there was a widely circulated quote, “AI won’t replace you. A person using AI will.”

As I worked with people on learning and integrating AI here’s what I quickly learned – a person using AI wrong will be the greatest loser of them all. AI is a fantastic tool, but only when used correctly. I call this oversight one of the many qualities that makes up your human advantage in an AI world.

That last line is the one that I fear many people will say more. We don’t want people to fear AI, nor do we want one bad experience to close the door.

This is why helping people in your organization build AI literacy and skills is a non-negotiable in 2024. Inspired by the incorrect use of AI by my show notes provider, I embraced GPT to streamline this process, saving both time and money.

In an era where AI is increasingly prevalent, maintaining the human element in our work is vital. GPT can revolutionize parts of your business, but it’s the human creativity and insight that make us irreplaceable.

I hope you enjoy this week’s YouTube video and if you have suggestions for topics you’d like to see let me know.