Hello,
I have watched a few folk try AI for the first time recently. Same thing every time.
Open ChatGPT or Claude, type one sentence, get something generic back, quietly decide it's overrated.
Nobody's daft for doing that. The thing knows nothing about your business, so it answers for everyone's business, which is an answer for nobody's.
I’ll give you the fix below and the fix takes less than fifteen minutes start to finish, you only do it once, and I'd near enough guarantee you get value out the other end.
Let it interview you about your business.
Copy and paste this into your chosen AI:
"I run a business and I want your help with it over time. My main goal just now is [more profit, more time back, growth, getting ready to sell, whatever it honestly is]. Interview me one question at a time until you properly understand the business and what's standing between me and that goal. Ask about what we sell, who buys from us and why, the team, the numbers I watch, what a good month looks like, and what's frustrating me. Short questions, plain English, one at a time and keep the whole interview under ten minutes, if a question isn't earning its keep, skip it. When you think you're done, describe my business back to me and tell me the three biggest things you reckon are holding it back. If I say you've got it right, give me the ten most useful things you could help me with, ranked by how much difference they'd make to the goal. Commit everything to memory so that you can continue to help and coach me in future. If I am on the free version and you can’t remember just advise me to keep using this thread”
Answer typing like you'd talk. Spelling mistakes, half sentences, doesn't matter. Ten minutes, maybe less.
The describe-back bit is where it gets interesting. Most owners have never had their business explained back to them by something with no agenda. Then the ranked list lands, and I'd be surprised if there aren't two or three things on it worth doing this week.
I ran it on our own business yesterday from a brand new blank AI to keep it fair and realistic to what you will experience. Number one on my list wasn't an AI tool at all. It was changing how we run our weekly sales call, because the machine had clocked that a target list we launched in April went quiet within a fortnight and nobody had noticed. It was right, and it stung a bit. We're fixing it this week. If it works, it's worth six figures of gross profit to us this year alone.
That's the point of the exercise. It's not magic, it just says the thing everyone inside the business is too busy to say.
If it stops early or skips the list, ask: "Now give me the ten most useful things you could help me with, ranked by how much difference they'd make."
If you work in a business rather than run one, swap the first line for "I do [your job] at [type of business]" and make the goal yours, getting month-end done in half the time, hitting your number, getting off the tools. Works exactly the same, it just learns your job instead of the whole business.
One practical bit: do it all in one chat and keep using that same chat, that's where the knowledge lives. Paid versions remember across conversations, free ones need you to stay in the thread. I will send out more advanced strategies in the near future but for now this will provide you real value for very little time commitment.
Try it. Then reply and tell me what number one on your list was. The replies to the first note have been the best part of this so far.
Andrew
Ps. If someone you know is still typing one sentence into ChatGPT and calling it overrated, forward this to them