Episodes

  • Tracking and Adjusting Your Business Strategy with AI #S12E9

    Tracking and Adjusting Your Business Strategy with AI #S12E9
    Jul 3 2025
    This is Season 12, Episode 9 of the ChatGPT Masterclass: AI Skills for Business Success. In the last episode, we explored how to align your leadership team with strategy without extra meetings by using AI to automate strategy updates and decision summaries. Today, we’re taking the next step—tracking and adjusting your business strategy with AI-driven insights and monitoring. One of the biggest challenges in business strategy is that plans don’t always go as expected. Markets shift, customer preferences change, and new competitors emerge. AI can help monitor key performance indicators (KPIs), detect trends, and suggest strategic adjustments in real time. By the end of this episode, you’ll know how to use AI to track business performance, identify when strategy adjustments are needed, and ensure that your company stays agile in a constantly changing environment. Step 1: Identify the Key Metrics That Drive Your Strategy Before AI can track performance, you need to define the critical KPIs that indicate whether your strategy is working. These will depend on your industry and business model, but some key areas include: Revenue Growth – Is your company meeting its financial goals?Customer Acquisition & Retention – Are you gaining and keeping customers?Marketing Effectiveness – Are your campaigns driving engagement and conversions?Operational Efficiency – Are costs being controlled while maintaining quality?Employee Productivity & Satisfaction – Is your team aligned and performing well? Once you’ve identified these metrics, AI can help monitor them and suggest adjustments when needed. Step 2: Set Up AI-Powered Performance Tracking Instead of manually analyzing reports and spreadsheets, you can use AI to automate performance tracking and generate instant insights. Try asking your Strategy GPT: "Generate a strategic performance report based on my latest business data. Highlight key trends, identify areas of concern, and suggest any strategic adjustments needed to improve performance." If you have specific KPIs to track, refine your prompt: "Analyze my company’s financial growth, customer acquisition trends, and marketing ROI. Identify where we are exceeding expectations and where we need to adjust our strategy." Now, instead of spending hours on manual reporting, you’ll get an AI-powered executive summary of your business performance. Step 3: Use AI to Detect Early Warning Signs & Opportunities AI can go beyond simple tracking—it can identify risks before they become major problems and highlight new growth opportunities. Try asking: "Analyze my business performance over the past six months. Identify any patterns that indicate potential risks or untapped growth opportunities." For example, AI might detect: Declining engagement in certain customer segments → Indicates a need for targeted retention strategies.A sudden drop in conversion rates → Suggests an issue with marketing effectiveness.An unexpected increase in operational costs → Flags a potential inefficiency. By catching these issues early, you can adjust your strategy before they become major problems. Step 4: Create a Custom AI for Strategy Monitoring Instead of manually prompting AI every time you need an update, you can create a Custom GPT for Strategy Tracking that provides ongoing monitoring and alerts. Go to OpenAI’s Custom GPT settings and create a new GPT.Define its role in custom instructions: "You are an AI-powered business strategy monitoring assistant. Your role is to track key performance indicators, detect early warning signs, and suggest strategy adjustments to keep the business on track."Upload relevant data sources, such as: Quarterly financial reportsMarketing performance analyticsCustomer retention and churn rates Now, your Custom GPT will automatically generate performance insights, ensuring that your strategy remains data-driven and adaptable. Step 5: Automate Strategy Adjustments Based on AI Insights AI can also recommend changes to your strategy based on performance data. Instead of making reactive decisions, AI can help you proactively adjust course. Try asking: "Based on my current business performance and industry trends, what strategic adjustments should I consider for the next quarter? Prioritize recommendations based on potential impact." This ensures that your strategy remains agile and responsive, rather than following a rigid, outdated plan. Pro Tips and Common Mistakes ✔ Pro Tip: Review AI Strategy Insights on a Regular Schedule Instead of waiting for problems to arise, set up a routine AI-generated strategy report. Try this: "Provide a monthly strategy review. Summarize key performance trends, any necessary adjustments, and upcoming opportunities." This keeps strategy updates consistent and proactive. ❌ Common Mistake: Ignoring Long-Term Patterns AI can detect short-term fluctuations, but true strategic insights come from long-term trends. Instead of adjusting strategy ...
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    6 mins
  • Using AI to Align Your Leadership Team with Strategy (Without Extra Meetings) #S12E8

    Using AI to Align Your Leadership Team with Strategy (Without Extra Meetings) #S12E8
    Jul 2 2025
    This is Season 12, Episode 8 of the ChatGPT Masterclass: AI Skills for Business Success. In the last episode, we explored how to track and adjust your business strategy using AI-driven monitoring and analytics. Today, we’re taking it further—using AI to align your leadership team with strategy without extra meetings. A common challenge in business is that leaders and teams get misaligned. The strategy might be clear to you, but it doesn’t always translate smoothly across different departments or teams. AI can help ensure leadership alignment by automating strategy updates, role-specific briefs, and decision summaries, keeping everyone on the same page without needing constant meetings. By the end of this episode, you’ll know how to use AI to communicate strategic direction, automate leadership briefings, and make sure your team stays aligned with your company’s vision. Step 1: Automate Weekly Strategy Updates with AI Instead of manually updating leadership teams on strategic changes, you can use AI to generate weekly summaries based on business performance, market trends, and ongoing projects. Try asking your Strategy GPT: "Generate a weekly strategy update for my leadership team. Summarize key performance indicators, recent strategic decisions, and any necessary course corrections. Format it as a clear, actionable briefing." To make updates role-specific, refine the prompt: "Provide a leadership briefing tailored to each department. The CEO should focus on high-level strategy, the CFO should get a financial update, and the marketing director should receive insights on customer trends and campaign performance." Now, instead of spending hours writing reports, AI will automatically generate structured updates for each key decision-maker. Step 2: Use AI to Create Personalized Briefings for Leadership Roles Each leader in your business has different priorities. Instead of sending one generic strategy update, AI can create custom briefings based on each executive’s focus area. Ask AI: "Generate a leadership briefing for my executive team. The CEO’s update should focus on strategic direction. The COO’s update should highlight operational efficiency. The CFO’s briefing should include revenue trends and budget updates. The marketing director’s report should focus on audience insights and campaign performance." This ensures that each leader receives exactly the information they need—without unnecessary meetings or extra emails. To keep these updates consistent, you can create a Custom GPT for Leadership Briefings: Go to OpenAI’s Custom GPT settings and create a new GPT.Define its role in the custom instructions: "You are an AI-powered leadership alignment assistant. Your role is to generate structured strategy updates for different executives, ensuring each receives the most relevant insights based on their role and responsibilities."Upload relevant documents such as: Company strategy documentsFinancial reportsKey performance metricsMarket research summaries Now, whenever a leadership team member needs an update, they can simply ask the custom GPT for a role-specific briefing, ensuring everyone stays aligned. Step 3: AI-Powered Decision Summaries for Leadership Teams Leadership teams often waste time in meetings repeating discussions and recapping past decisions. AI can fix this by automatically generating decision summaries and action points. Try asking: "Summarize key decisions made in our last strategy meeting. Highlight any unresolved issues, action items, and follow-ups needed for each department." To make this even more effective, integrate AI with meeting transcripts: "Analyze this meeting transcript and generate a structured summary of strategic decisions, open questions, and next steps for each leadership team member." This ensures that leaders can review past discussions instantly, keeping the team aligned without extra meetings. Step 4: AI for Communicating Strategy to Teams Without Extra Meetings Aligning leadership is one part of the equation—ensuring that strategy is understood across all levels of the company is just as critical. AI can help translate high-level strategy into clear, department-specific action plans. Try asking: "Based on our current business strategy, create a department-specific action plan. Include clear objectives for sales, marketing, operations, and finance, ensuring that each team knows how their work contributes to the company’s strategic goals." For individual employees, AI can personalize briefings: "Translate our strategic goals into individual-level objectives for my team members. Provide a summary of how their role contributes to the larger company vision and what specific KPIs they should focus on." Now, strategy isn’t just a high-level document—it’s a clear, actionable plan for every team member. Pro Tips and Common Mistakes ✔ Pro Tip: Automate Regular Strategy Check-ins Use AI to generate weekly or monthly updates so ...
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    7 mins
  • Preparing for Strategy Meetings with AI #S12E5

    Preparing for Strategy Meetings with AI #S12E5
    Jun 29 2025
    This is Season 12, Episode 5 of the ChatGPT Masterclass: AI Skills for Business Success. In the last episode, we explored how to prepare for strategy meetings using AI and a dedicated custom GPT. Today, we’re going further—using AI to simulate business decisions and perform risk analysis before making high-stakes choices. Business decisions often involve uncertainty. Should you expand into a new market? Should you invest in new technology? Should you hire more employees? AI can help model different scenarios, assess risks, and suggest possible outcomes, allowing you to make more informed decisions. By the end of this episode, you’ll know how to use AI to simulate key business decisions, evaluate potential risks, and refine your strategy before committing to major moves. Step 1: Define the Business Decision You Want to Simulate Before AI can help analyze a decision, you need to clearly define the question you’re trying to answer. Some examples: “Should I expand my business to another country?”“What are the financial risks of increasing my marketing budget by 50%?”“How will hiring five more employees impact my cash flow and profitability?”“If I introduce a premium version of my product, how will it affect revenue and customer retention?” Once you have a clear decision to evaluate, AI can help break it down into structured insights. Step 2: Use AI to Model Business Scenarios AI can simulate different outcomes by considering key factors such as market conditions, operational costs, customer behavior, and financial impact. Try asking your Strategy GPT: "I am considering expanding my e-commerce business into the UK. Provide a risk-benefit analysis covering market demand, logistical challenges, financial risks, and regulatory factors. Include three possible expansion strategies and their pros and cons." AI will generate an overview of potential outcomes so you can compare different paths forward. For more detailed scenario planning, refine your prompt: "If I expand my business into the UK, provide three different strategies: a slow entry approach, an aggressive marketing launch, and a partnership model. Analyze the risks, costs, and expected returns for each." This allows you to evaluate different strategic options side by side, helping you make a data-driven choice. Step 3: Conduct a Risk Analysis with AI AI can also help identify potential risks before you commit to a decision. Instead of relying on gut feeling, you can use AI to assess worst-case scenarios and risk mitigation strategies. Try this: "What are the biggest financial and operational risks of expanding into a new market? How can I reduce these risks?" Or if you’re considering a major investment, ask: "What are the common pitfalls businesses face when increasing their marketing budget significantly? How can I test my marketing expansion before fully committing?" AI will flag potential risks and suggest ways to minimize exposure, helping you avoid costly mistakes. Step 4: Automate Scenario Testing with a Custom GPT Instead of manually prompting AI for every decision, you can create a custom GPT that automatically runs business simulations and risk assessments. Here’s how to set up an AI-powered Decision Simulator: Go to OpenAI’s Custom GPT settings and create a new custom GPT.Instruct it to act as a Business Strategy & Risk Analysis Assistant. Use this description: "You are an AI-powered business strategy and risk analysis expert. Your role is to analyze key business decisions, model potential outcomes, and identify financial and operational risks before strategic choices are made. Every response should include multiple perspectives, potential risks, and alternative strategies."Provide context about your business by copy-pasting: Industry trends and market conditions relevant to your business.Key performance indicators (KPIs) and financial benchmarks.Recent business decisions and long-term strategic goals. Now, every time you need to evaluate a decision, your custom GPT will automatically generate structured analysis and risk assessment insights. For example, you can ask: "Run a risk-benefit analysis for hiring five new employees in my business. Provide financial projections, potential challenges, and alternative approaches to scaling operations." This makes decision-making faster, more structured, and data-driven. Pro Tips and Common Mistakes ✔ Pro Tip: Compare Multiple Scenarios to Find the Best Strategy Instead of analyzing a decision in isolation, ask AI to generate different approaches and compare them. For example, instead of: "Should I launch a new product?" Ask: "Compare three different launch strategies for my new product: a soft launch, an aggressive digital marketing campaign, and a limited pilot release. What are the risks, costs, and expected outcomes of each?" This allows you to weigh multiple strategies before committing. ❌ Common Mistake: Assuming AI Predictions Are Always Correct AI uses ...
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    6 mins
  • Creating Your AI-Powered Virtual Boardroom #S12E4

    Creating Your AI-Powered Virtual Boardroom #S12E4
    Jun 28 2025
    This is Season 12, Episode 4 of the ChatGPT Masterclass: AI Skills for Business Success. In the last episode, we set up a virtual AI-powered boardroom to assist in decision-making. Today, we’re going a step further—streamlining strategy meeting preparation using AI and a dedicated custom GPT. Strategy meetings often take too much time because people spend the first half of the meeting recapping previous discussions, brainstorming from scratch, or looking for missing information. AI can solve this by preparing meeting summaries, generating key discussion points, and keeping track of follow-ups—all automatically. By the end of this episode, you’ll know how to use AI to automate strategy meeting preparation, track key decisions, and follow up effectively. You’ll also learn how to create a custom GPT to streamline this entire process, making strategy execution easier and more efficient. Step 1: Set Up a Custom GPT for Strategy Meeting Preparation Instead of using AI manually for each task, you can create a dedicated custom GPT designed specifically for strategy meetings. This custom AI will: Keep track of past strategy meetings and key decisions.Generate structured meeting summaries automatically.Prepare an agenda based on unresolved topics and new strategic priorities.Suggest key discussion points based on industry trends and business performance. Here’s how to create your Strategy Meeting GPT: Go to OpenAI’s Custom GPT settings.Define its role in the custom instructions section. Use this: "You are a business strategy assistant designed to streamline meeting preparation, track strategic decisions, and suggest new discussion points. Always generate structured meeting summaries, highlight unresolved topics, and propose action items for follow-up."Provide background information about your business. Copy-paste: Your company’s mission and core business strategy.Recent meeting transcripts or summaries.Key strategic focus areas and long-term goals. Now, every time you interact with this custom GPT, it will remember past meetings and align its recommendations with your strategic direction. Step 2: Use AI to Generate Meeting Summaries Automatically Instead of wasting time summarizing past discussions, AI can do it for you. Ask your Strategy Meeting GPT: "Summarize the last strategy meeting. Highlight key decisions, unresolved issues, and action points assigned to each team member. Format it as a structured pre-meeting brief." If you don’t have a transcript, you can provide bullet points or rough notes, and AI will still generate a structured summary. This ensures that everyone comes into the meeting prepared rather than needing a long recap session. Step 3: Generate an AI-Powered Meeting Agenda Once past discussions are summarized, AI can automatically create an agenda for the next meeting. Try this: "Based on our last meeting, generate a structured agenda for our upcoming strategy session. Prioritize unresolved issues and add any new strategic decisions we need to make. Format it in a way that keeps the discussion efficient." If you want to incorporate market trends into the agenda, add this: "Include any emerging industry trends or business risks we should discuss based on recent developments in our field." This keeps your meetings focused on strategic action rather than repeating old discussions. Step 4: Use AI to Prepare Decision Scenarios in Advance Every strategy meeting involves making big decisions. AI can prepare multiple scenarios in advance so leaders can evaluate choices more efficiently. Ask your custom GPT: "We need to decide whether to expand into a new market. Provide a structured analysis covering financial impact, risks, potential growth opportunities, and operational challenges. Suggest three alternative approaches and their pros and cons." Now, instead of spending the entire meeting gathering information, you can go straight to decision-making. Step 5: Automate Meeting Follow-Ups with AI AI can also track action items and send automated follow-ups so that no decision gets lost. Try this prompt: "Summarize key action items from our strategy meeting. Assign responsibilities to each team member, suggest realistic deadlines, and generate a follow-up report for the next meeting." This ensures accountability and makes sure that important tasks don’t fall through the cracks. Pro Tips and Common Mistakes ✔ Pro Tip: Keep AI Context Updated At least once a quarter, update your custom GPT with: Recent strategy meeting transcripts.New business priorities.Shifts in industry trends. This keeps the AI’s recommendations aligned with your latest business goals. ❌ Common Mistake: Using AI Without Strategic Direction AI can provide valuable insights, but it needs clear direction. Instead of just asking “What should we discuss in our next strategy meeting?”, be more specific: "Based on our current strategic priorities, what are the three most critical issues we should discuss next? ...
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    6 mins
  • AI-Powered Business Opportunity Spotting #S12E3

    AI-Powered Business Opportunity Spotting #S12E3
    Jun 27 2025
    This is Season 12, Episode 3 of the ChatGPT Masterclass: AI Skills for Business Success. In the last episode, we explored how AI can help identify new business opportunities and revenue streams. Today, we’re taking it a step further—setting up an AI-powered virtual boardroom to improve strategic decision-making. Making big business decisions is easier when you have multiple perspectives to consider, but not every business has an executive team or external advisors to provide insight. AI can fill that gap by allowing you to create virtual board members with different expertise, such as a Virtual CFO, Risk Manager, and Innovation Strategist. Instead of switching between different AI prompts manually, you can create a custom GPT that automatically gives responses from multiple AI personas in one go. By the end of this episode, you’ll know how to set up an AI-powered virtual boardroom using both prompts and a custom GPT, allowing you to get structured business insights with a single question. Step 1: Define Your Virtual Boardroom Members Before setting up AI to act as your board members, think about the key perspectives you need in your decision-making process. Here are some common roles: Virtual CFO (Chief Financial Officer) – Focuses on revenue, costs, and profitability.Virtual Risk Manager – Identifies potential risks and worst-case scenarios.Virtual Innovation Strategist – Suggests new ideas and opportunities for business growth.Virtual Customer Advocate – Represents the needs and expectations of your ideal customers.Virtual Operations Expert – Focuses on logistics, workflow efficiency, and scalability. Each board member will have a unique way of looking at your business, giving you a broader perspective before making strategic decisions. Step 2: Create a Custom GPT for Your Virtual Boardroom Instead of manually prompting ChatGPT each time you need advice from different perspectives, you can create a custom GPT that always responds with insights from your virtual board members automatically. Here’s how: Go to OpenAI’s Custom GPT settings.Set up custom instructions to define how the GPT should respond.Instruct the AI to simulate multiple board members, each with a distinct role. For example, in the custom instructions section, you can define the board’s structure like this: "You are an AI-powered virtual boardroom consisting of five business advisors. Each time I ask a question, provide responses from the following perspectives: A CFO focusing on financial impact, a Risk Manager identifying potential risks, an Innovation Strategist suggesting new growth opportunities, a Customer Advocate considering customer expectations, and an Operations Expert analyzing logistical feasibility. Keep each response short and to the point." Now, whenever you ask a question, the AI will automatically provide responses from each board member’s perspective—without needing separate prompts. Step 3: Using AI to Run a Virtual Board Meeting Once your custom GPT is set up, you can start running AI-powered strategy discussions. Try asking: "I’m considering expanding my business into international markets. What are the key financial, risk, innovation, customer, and operational factors I should consider?" Your custom GPT will now generate structured insights from each board member, allowing you to quickly assess all sides of the decision. This makes decision-making faster and more structured, replacing the need for long brainstorming sessions. Step 4: AI for Strategy Meeting Preparation AI can also help you prepare strategy discussions in advance. Instead of going into a meeting without a clear direction, ask your custom GPT: "What are the three most critical strategic decisions my business needs to focus on this quarter, based on market trends and internal challenges?" This allows you to identify key discussion points before meetings and ensure that your leadership team is aligned on priorities. Pro Tips and Common Mistakes ✔ Pro Tip: Use AI to Keep Strategy Discussions Focused Instead of asking broad, open-ended questions, give AI specific constraints to get focused and actionable insights. For example, instead of: "How can I grow my business?" Try: "Based on my current industry and business model, what are three sustainable growth strategies I should focus on for the next 12 months? Consider financial feasibility, risk, and innovation." ❌ Common Mistake: Relying on AI for Final Decisions AI provides structured insights, but strategic decisions should still be made by humans. Use AI to present options, highlight risks, and suggest opportunities, but always apply real-world judgment before making a move. Practical Takeaway Your challenge for today: Decide which virtual boardroom members you need.Set up a custom GPT using the instructions from this episode.Ask your AI-powered boardroom a strategic question about your business.Use AI to prepare key discussion points for your next strategy meeting. By ...
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    6 mins
  • Using AI for Market Research – How to Gather Insights Instantly #S12E2

    Using AI for Market Research – How to Gather Insights Instantly #S12E2
    Jun 26 2025
    This is Season 12, Episode 2 of the ChatGPT Masterclass: AI Skills for Business Success. In the last episode, we covered how to start using AI to get strategic insights for your business. Today, we’re going further—using AI to identify new business opportunities and revenue streams that you might not have considered. Instead of spending weeks researching trends and brainstorming ideas, AI can surface potential business opportunities in minutes, helping you save time, explore possibilities, and make better decisions. By the end of this episode, you’ll know how to use AI to generate new revenue ideas, validate them, and refine them into real business opportunities. Step 1: Define What Kind of Business Opportunity You’re Looking For Before using AI, decide what kind of opportunity you want to explore. AI can help with different types of strategic growth, including: Adding new revenue streams to your existing business (e.g., launching online services, premium memberships, or digital products).Expanding into a related industry (e.g., if you own a fitness studio, offering remote coaching or fitness gear).Creating partnerships or collaborations (e.g., teaming up with complementary businesses for joint promotions).Exploring entirely new business models based on industry trends. Take a moment to think about what’s most relevant to your business before moving forward. Step 2: Use AI to Generate Business Opportunities The fastest way to get business insights from AI is to use voice prompts instead of typing. When you speak, you naturally provide more context, which helps AI generate better ideas. Try opening ChatGPT and using a voice prompt like this: "I run a boutique fitness studio in New York with a loyal customer base of about 200 active members. Most of my revenue comes from in-person classes, but I want to explore additional revenue streams that don’t require hiring more staff. Ideally, I’d like something scalable, such as online coaching, pre-recorded courses, or product sales. What are three strategic opportunities I could consider for 2024, and what are the pros and cons of each?" AI will generate some initial ideas, but don’t stop there—the best insights come from refining the conversation. Step 3: Validate the Business Opportunities with AI Not every idea AI suggests will be a good fit. Instead of guessing, use AI to help evaluate and refine your options. Try asking follow-up questions like: "Which of these ideas would require the lowest investment to get started?""What are the common challenges businesses face when launching an online fitness coaching program?""Give me examples of small businesses successfully implementing this revenue model, and what lessons I can learn from them." These follow-ups filter out weak ideas and refine strong ones, making sure you’re focusing on opportunities with real potential. Step 4: Use AI to Estimate Market Demand and Profit Potential Once you’ve narrowed down your options, AI can help you estimate the demand and revenue potential for each idea. Instead of guessing whether a new business opportunity is worth pursuing, you can use AI to gather relevant market insights. Try asking: "How big is the market for online fitness coaching in the US? What is the typical customer acquisition cost, and how much revenue does an online fitness coach make per month? Also, what are the most effective pricing models for this type of business?" AI will provide approximate figures based on available data. While these numbers won’t be exact, they will give you a baseline for further validation. For more detailed insights, ask: "What are the three most common pricing models for online coaching? Which one works best for retaining customers long-term? Can you compare the pros and cons of subscription-based models versus one-time payment models?" This helps clarify how you would monetize your new opportunity, allowing you to plan a revenue strategy before committing time and resources. Step 5: Create an AI-Powered Business Model Outline Once you’ve chosen an idea, AI can help structure your business model in a clear and actionable way. Try this prompt: "I want to launch a premium online fitness coaching service targeting busy professionals. Help me outline a simple business model, including pricing tiers, ideal customer profile, marketing channels, and key challenges I should be aware of." AI will generate a structured plan covering: How your business will generate revenue (subscriptions, one-time courses, coaching packages).What resources and tools you’ll need to get started.Who your target audience is and what they’re looking for.Potential marketing strategies to attract your first customers. Once AI provides a draft, refine it further by asking follow-up questions, such as: "What are three unique selling points I could use to differentiate my coaching service?""What are common mistakes people make when launching a similar business?""What are the fastest ...
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    7 mins