99% of People Are Only Using 1% of ChatGPT's Power. Invest in Your AI Upskilling
Invest 30 minutes with these five, free steps to become an “AI-First Professional”
Become an Intermediate GenAI User: A 30-Minute Investment With Outsized Returns
GenAI tools such as ChatGPT can meaningfully improve your productivity, promotability, and long-term employability. Yet in our instructor-led training of more than 13,000 executives and employees, one pattern is unmistakable: most people use only a small fraction of the capabilities of ChatGPT available to them. As AI adoption accelerates across industries, becoming an intermediate user—not an expert—has become a professional necessity.
Technical skills aren’t the barrier. Your time and commitment are. The solution is a focused, structured approach to learning.
The Underused Power of ChatGPT
Tools like Microsoft Copilot and OpenAI ChatGPT now provide dozens of features that streamline individual employee and team workflows. Yet, the vast majority of employees use only 1% of what these products can do.
ChatGPT’s feature set is broad and continues to expand. Key capabilities include:
Productivity
GPTs for repeatable tasks
Projects
Custom Instructions in Settings
Memory
Voice and Dictation
Mobile app (great for talking with AI while you drive or taking pictures of things that need repair around the house)
Document Upload
Features that improve prompts
Research and Analysis
Deep Research
Web Search
Canvas
Study and Learning
Enterprise Integrations
Connections to SharePoint, OneDrive, Outlook, Gmail, HubSpot, and other applications
Agents enhanced with MCP connectors
Creation & Editing
Image creation and editing
Video creation
Code editing
Collaboration at Work (must use ChatGPT Business and Enterprise versions)
Team- or department-specific GPT (e.g. for marketing, finance or employee on-boarding)
Sharing outputs with colleagues
This breadth is precisely why so many users feel overwhelmed—and why a structured learning path is essential.
Stop “AI Tool Hopping”
Too many professionals jump among AI tools—ChatGPT one week, Copilot the next, Claude on occasion, or feel the must have the “perfect” AI tool for a task. This creates fragmented, shallow knowledge and reinforces the feeling that AI is confusing or difficult to master.
Instead, choose one primary tool and commit to becoming an intermediate user. For most executives and knowledge workers, the best choices are OpenAI ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot. Specialized users, such as developers or financial analysts, may choose niche tools (such as Claude Code or Cursor) that integrate directly with their specialized workflows.
Depth beats breadth. Familiarity beats novelty. And consistency beats exploration when you’re building a sustainable AI skill set.
The goal is to make AI part of your daily AI work routine and a part of your company’s culture, rather than viewing AI as a parlor trick
Five Steps to Accelerate Your Learning
1. Set Aside 30 Minutes to Learn One Feature This Week
Start with a single, high-impact feature—such as building a simple GPT (here are steps to create one to critique your powerpoint slides). One CFO told us that he built a “Stay Out of Jail” GPT which contained all his SEC filings so he can easily “query and talk to our SEC filings to check what previously filed.”
If you choose another feature, ask ChatGPT for step-by-step instructions tailored to your skill level. The key is uninterrupted, focused practice. Set a pomodoro timer.
2. Teach One Colleague How to Create a GPT
Teaching reinforces learning and builds a culture of experimentation. It also helps spread practical AI skills across your team.
3. Adopt a “Have You Asked the Robots?” Mindset
Before making any major decisions, make it a habit to ask AI for a second opinion. I now believe it is executive malpractice to do an investor presentation, present a sales pitch, sign a contract, or to evaluate a business strategy without getting a deep critique and set of recommendations from the AI robots. (Be sure to use the secure employee chatbot versions of ChatGPT (called Business or Enterprise) or Copilot.)
4. Watch Part of Our ChatGPT 201 Video
A structured video walkthrough helps connect features to real use cases and shortens the time from “I understand this” to “I can use this.”
5. Build Your Personal, Ongoing Learning Process
Sustained progress requires intentional habits. Consider a reverse mentor—a younger colleague who is a GenAI enthusiast—or establish a monthly “Learning Lab” at your organization. You can also join our weekly Learning Lab Zoom call to stay current (past recordings here).
The pace of AI is not slowing down. “Learning is the new oil” for your personal and company growth in this Age of AI.
The Bottom Line
A focused 30-minute investment will unlock substantial personal and professional advantages. As AI reshapes work, AI-first professionals will all be intermediate users of tools like ChatGPT and Copilot. Those who delay risk falling behind as organizations accelerate toward AI-driven productivity. Many companies face a “T-36 month” moment and many knowledge workers (accountants, lawyers, software coders, researchers, etc.) do as well.
Now is the moment to commit your learning journey. The tools are ready, the training is accessible, and the payoff is immediate. You can do this
ChatGPT sent 120 visitors to our low volume, company website, www.GAIinsights.com in the last 3 months. If you work in marketing, ask us about our AEO Peer Group call this Fri, Nov 21 at 3p ET.
We received lots of great feedback on our Answer Engine Optimization Primer.
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To help busy professionals become “AI First Professionals”, we offer free, 1 hour 101 training for Microsoft Copilot and OpenAI ChatGPT. Improve your basic AI skills, enhance your promotability, and get your questions answered. Register here for our free, instructor-led online classes.
John Sviokla and I are headed back to Davos in January. Message me if you will are attending’
“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” - Seneca
Onward,
Paul
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We don't need endless list of tools that are doing single jobs. Choose your LLM of choose and master it. Doesn't matter if it's ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. Each of those has its own pros and cons but at the end of the day it's unlogocal to pay and learn all of those. My simple rule is - one default tool per medium - one for text, audio, images, video ..as a starting point. Than take it from there. Be willing to change it if ther is better tool that fits you better.