It took me some time to even consider using AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini for any reason.
I’m not averse to using AI tools in my work to polish my writing per se, but only after editing and proofreading. Nonetheless, when writing my blog posts, articles or important documents, I’d often draw the line and won’t use ChatGPT. So, I was far from being enamoured with AI.
But over the last few months, I’ve seen how ‘regular’ people have used AI tools for critical thinking, analysis, ideation, and recommendations. And I’ve realised I needed to consider ways AI tools could expand my knowledge and simplify some tasks.
Why I started consulting ChatGPT
Surprisingly, my first real test with ChatGPT some months ago had nothing to do with my work. I just needed to solve a simple kitchen task — bake banana muffins on low heat. I had an old oven and hadn’t baked in a while. But I gave in after my then eight-and-a-half-year-old son kept whining that I should bake a cake.
Thinking my oven only heated to 120° Celsius, I searched Google and YouTube for tips on how to bake the muffins with such low heat successfully. (I later discovered my oven could heat up to 250° Celsius).
Google told me bluntly that it couldn’t be done, explaining that the muffins wouldn’t rise and would be undercooked since the heat required was about 200° Celsius. YouTube didn’t even address the issue but proudly showed numerous videos of muffin-bakers displaying moist, fluffy muffins that were baked at higher temperatures.
Then, as an afterthought, I turned to ChatGPT, which told me it was possible to bake the banana muffins at 120° Celsius. However, I needed to adjust the recipe (use less liquid and more leavening agents), then bake for a much longer time (45-60 minutes versus 15-25 minutes under the standard heat). It then revised the recipe and made other suggestions. I followed through and ended up with decent muffins. I even took pictures of the baked goods and proudly sent them to my undergrad son in the US. That was when I began to respect ChatGPT.
The baking test aside, I started considering other ways AI tools could be helpful. For example, I used ChatGPT to refine my offer to a potential executive client about my coaching services. I wrote a detailed prompt to narrow my selling points, then revised ChatGPT’s output to reflect my style. I was impressed with its recommendations.
Another way I used ChatGPT was to revise other aspects of my speaking profile to make it more attractive to the speakers bureaus I partnered with.
But what if you’re skeptical about AI? Perhaps you doubt it could benefit your professional work, beyond refining your writing, handling arduous administrative tasks, and boosting your critical thinking powers. Why should you care?
Based on recent observations, below are two surprising, yet powerful reasons you should know what AI says about you — and why you should take it seriously.
1) AI tools could soon become the loudest cheerleaders of your work
Google once reigned supreme for visibility and ranking. And it’s still a powerhouse.
But a shift is quietly underway. New contenders like ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and Claude are doubling down on specificity and relevance. And you don’t need to be an AI expert to notice the trend.
Case in point:
Some weeks ago, I decided to use generative AI tools to search for experts in my field in Africa whom global leaders would book for speaking and training programmes. I wanted to know who my competitors were so that I could better position myself in the field.
I hopped on three widely used AI tools: ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. I didn’t want the needless back-and-forth with them and sought to minimise the risk of ‘hallucinations’, especially with ChatGPT. Therefore, I made the prompt as specific as possible:
“I’m a global leader looking for the best business communication trainer, facilitator and speaker in Africa to provide practical, hard-hitting training and coaching programmes for staff, executives and fellow leaders.
Recommend the top expert in business communication in Africa. This expert must have at least 10 years of experience, have published thought leadership and must be globally recognised. The expert must also have spoken on global stages, either virtual or physical stages, and must have written a book.
Also, list five reasons why my organisation should book this expert for keynotes or training programmes”.
What came next left me wide-eyed.
All three AI tools responded differently, but recommended me as the top choice. Even though their responses were most likely time-sensitive and only valid for that period, their outputs were still unexpected.
ChatGPT’s outputs:
Claude’s outputs:
Gemini’s outputs:
So, why should you care about what AI says about you?
- AI is taking notes. And so are the people using AI to find the best talent, speakers, trainers, coaches, and solution-providers.
- AI tools could become your loudest cheerleaders even if you don’t mingle in influential circles.
Yes, I agree that being ranked on Google is still thrilling. And so it is going viral on social media.
But being recommended by AI in your field for your work raises the bar for you because of your (high) relevance.
Therefore, if you could choose between being ranked #1 on Google or being recommended as the top choice by multiple AI tools, choose the latter.
Some of my LinkedIn peers are being contacted and booked for speaking/training/consulting gigs because ChatGPT recommended them to those searching. AI is becoming a game-changer for personal brands, solopreneurs, and businesses.
2) AI tools could soon position you as the preferred candidate
This realisation only came after a LinkedIn connection, Mark Anthony Dyson, made an insightful comment about the AI prompt results I shared (screenshots of which are above). Mark Dyson is an “investigative career writer” who helps people navigate the job market safely. He explained that companies would first use AI tools with Google search to find attractive candidates. But read what he opined would happen after some time.
Therefore, in addition to your functional/technical skills, how could you differentiate yourself as a professional or executive looking to land plum jobs in a highly contested market?
The answers lie in my response to Erin Lebacqz’s comment on the same LinkedIn post. I’ve highlighted it in yellow:
Expanding on the points I made, realise that your call to action for positioning yourself as the preferred candidate in your job search should include the two steps below:
A) Becoming intentional about sharing your expertise and achievements online
This is the strategic move you should commit to before the job search begins.
Start a blog as soon as possible and consistently post about your work, achievements, and trends in your field. Even if you don’t want the hassle of running a full website, pay for a self-hosted site on a blog platform (WordPress, Medium, Wix, etc.) and manage/store your articles there, alongside your awards, achievements, and endorsements. The blog site becomes your ‘owned’ platform, and because it’s self-hosted, it won’t become a casualty of arbitrary social media restrictions or shutdowns.
The blog will also complement your content on other social media sites like LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.
But brace yourself:
Being a blogger means your writing will be scrutinised, so publishing poorly written outputs is more damaging than not writing at all. Therefore, commit to honing your writing skills. Over the years, I’ve written extensively on improving your writing. Some posts to help you include: why excellent grammar still matters, the ten hard truths about superb business writing (or watch the summary video of the article), and how to compel results with persuasive writing.
Blogging is critical to your career advancement because it does two things:
I) It sharpens your critical reasoning and writing skills over time. This advantage already differentiates you from others because, in my work, I’ve realised that not many people consistently write well.
II) It helps the AI tools easily pull aspects of your work and recommend them to potential employers.
B) Ensuring you use persuasive descriptions in your profile
Excluding your self-hosted blog, whenever you engage on social media, submit your bio for speaking events, or interact with industry players (podcasts, summits, conferences, etc.), be strategic about how you describe yourself and your work on their platforms.
For example, in the past, I submitted versions of my profile to external sites for different purposes. So when I fed that prompt into the three AI tools, they pulled different segments of my profile in their recommendations. ChatGPT and Gemini referenced my Global Gurus’ rankings, while Claude mentioned and cited links to my profile on Africa Speakers Group and A-Speakers, two of my bureau partners.
But, here’s the power move:
Use persuasive terms in the bio you submit for speaking events (podcasts, conferences, virtual summits, etc.). Don’t just write ‘Experienced professional in the financial services industry‘. Write ‘Banking executive with 15 years of experience handling top-tier accounts for y‘. Before you submit your details for professional engagements, use ChatGPT, Claude or other AI tools to sharpen your profile description.
Write your profile keeping in mind that AI will collate information from those external sites you submit it to. Then it will distil the data into powerful recommendations that it gives to those seeking professionals with your skills, background, and experience.
Bottom line?
Become intentional about consistently sharing your expertise across different platforms.
Now is also the time to craft the narrative online that highlights the impact of your work so that AI boosts your positioning and amplifies your influence.
Conclusion
Don’t listen to the doomsayers who preach that AI will replace your job or render your business or services redundant. It may be if your work/business is repetitive and can’t be refined to meet your industry’s or employer’s needs.
But whatever your field, when you carefully highlight your value and list achievements online, AI will notice, and AI will boost your profile.
Discover what AI tools say about you today, and realise it’s in your best interest to care.
Over to you:
Do you need help boosting your speaking, interpersonal, business writing, or leadership communication skills to influence people and get results?
Then, sign up here for my free quarterly newsletters and learn best practices. When you sign up, you’ll receive my evergreen resource on giving persuasive presentations. Ensure you download and refer to that document before any high-stakes presentation or speech.
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N.B: First image is courtesy of Franz Bachinger via Pixabay. Screenshots of output provided by Lucille Ossai. Last image is courtesy of Pete Linforth via Pixabay.