In short: to use ChatGPT in a business, give it jobs where you'd spot a mistake on a read-through: quote follow-ups, customer replies, job summaries, job postings, written procedures. Give it the context it can't guess, review everything before it goes out, turn off training on your data, and never paste personal information.
In Canada, ChatGPT is searched on Google about three times as often as Gemini and more than four times as often as Claude. Over the past twelve months, Google Trends puts it at 79, against 23 for Gemini, 17 for Claude and 5 for Copilot (Google Trends).
So if anyone in your business is using AI, odds are it's ChatGPT. The question isn't which tool. It's what to give it.
Search "how to use ChatGPT" and you get how to sign up, how to get it free, and lists of 100 "power prompts" written for marketers. Not much for someone running a 12-person shop with a quoting deadline.
Here are ten practical jobs, each with an example prompt (the text you paste into ChatGPT) and what to check before anything leaves the building. If you want the reasoning behind them, it's in How to use AI when you actually run a business. This post is the list.
What should you use ChatGPT for? The one test
If the output comes back wrong, will you notice when you read it?
If yes, it's a good job for ChatGPT. It writes the first draft, you fix in thirty seconds what would have taken you twenty minutes to write.
If no (a number you won't recheck, a legal question you don't know the answer to), start somewhere else. It sounds exactly as confident when it's making something up.
It sounds exactly as confident when it's making something up.
All ten below pass the test. Replace anything in square brackets.
1. Follow up on a quote that went quiet
The quote went out a week ago. Nothing back. You know you should chase it, and it's been sitting in your head for three days.
I sent a [$ amount] quote for [job] to a residential customer [8] days ago. No reply. Write a short follow-up, direct but not pushy. Mention we could start on [date]. End with a question he can answer with yes or no. No "hope you're doing well." 80 words max.
What you check: the amount, the date, and that it sounds like you.
If you're chasing a lot of quotes that never come back, the problem may be upstream. Your market starts from your last ten quotes and finds out who won the ones you lost.
2. Reply to an angry customer
The email lands at 9 p.m. and you want to answer at 9:02. ChatGPT isn't angry.
Here's an email from an unhappy customer: [paste it, with name and address removed]. Here are the facts on our side: [what happened]. Write a calm reply that acknowledges the problem without admitting fault we don't have, and offers [your fix]. Give me two versions: one short, one more detailed.
What you check: that it doesn't promise anything you haven't decided. Refunds, discounts, a return date: that's your call, not the tool's.
3. Turn site notes into a job summary
The mobile app takes voice. Talk through the visit in the truck instead of typing it up at night.
Here are my notes from a site visit: [dictation]. Turn them into a job summary for the file: work done, materials used, what's left, what we promised the customer. Bullet points. Don't invent anything. If information is missing, write [TO CONFIRM] instead of guessing.
What you check: the [TO CONFIRM] flags. That last instruction is the most useful line in the prompt. Without it, the tool fills gaps with something plausible. With it, it shows you what you forgot to say.
4. Write a job posting someone wants to read
Most postings open with the company's history. The applicant wants the hours and the pay.
Write a job posting for a [role] at a [number]-person company in [city]. What's true here: [hours, pay range, benefits, truck provided, paid training…]. Lead with what the applicant cares about. No filler like "fast-paced environment" or "passionate team." End with the simplest way to apply.
What you check: pay, requirements, and that every perk listed actually exists. To turn it into a graphic for Facebook or LinkedIn, our guide Make your own visuals with Claude covers it, job ads included. British Columbia and Ontario now require pay information in public job postings (in Ontario, for employers with 25 or more employees), so check your province's rules before it goes up (CP24).
5. Answer the same six questions once
Every business has its six questions. "Do you come out to [town]?" "How long does it take?" "Do I need to be home?" You answer them every week, from memory, a little differently each time.
Here are the questions we get every week and how I usually answer: [list]. Write a standard reply for each that anyone on the team can copy and adjust. Polite, direct, two or three sentences each.
What you check: each answer, once. Then it becomes the FAQ on your website, and nobody has to interrupt you for it again.
6. Summarize a long contract or tender
A supplier agreement, a tender package, your insurer's new terms. Forty pages you were going to skim anyway.
Summarize this document on one page: what it requires us to do, deadlines, dollar amounts, and anything that looks unusual. For each point, give the section number.
What you check: go read the sections it cites. The section number is what makes the summary checkable. A summary isn't legal advice: on anything that commits real money, your lawyer or accountant stays in the loop. Before you upload a contract, check whether it has a confidentiality clause: that's one of the cases How much to tell AI walks through. And if it's industry news you never get to, Keep up in 5 minutes a week shows how to have AI write you a weekly brief.
7. Rehearse a hard phone call
This one surprises people, and it's often the one they keep using. Nothing leaves the building, so there's no risk.
Play a commercial customer who thinks my quote is 20% too high and says he has a cheaper price elsewhere. Be tough, like a real buyer. I'll answer as if we're on the phone. After five exchanges, stop and tell me where I gave ground too fast.
What you check: nothing. You're practising. To take it further, Your offer has AI write your offer in one line, then argue with it the way a customer would.
8. Write a spreadsheet formula for you
You don't need to upload the file. Describe the columns.
I have a spreadsheet. Column A: invoice date. Column B: amount. Column C: date paid, blank if unpaid. Give me a formula for column D that shows how many days overdue each unpaid invoice is once it passes 30 days, and stays blank otherwise. Explain it in two sentences.
What you check: try it on three rows where you already know the answer. If all three are right, copy it down.
9. Turn how you do things into a written procedure
You explain the same thing to every new hire. Dictate it once.
I'm going to explain how we [set up a new customer job]: [dictation]. Turn it into a numbered procedure a new employee can follow alone. At the end, list the questions they're likely to have that my explanation doesn't answer.
What you check: the list at the end. That's the valuable part. It shows you the gaps in your own process, the ones you fill from memory without noticing. When that list is long, the problem isn't the tool. The procedure only ever existed in your head. Who does what runs the same exercise across the whole business: the roles written down, and what stops the week someone is away.
When that list is long, the problem isn't the tool. The procedure only ever existed in your head.
10. Reply to your Google reviews
Reviews pile up because a good reply takes more thought than it should, and a bad one is public forever.
Here's a Google review of my business: [paste it]. Write a reply under 60 words. If it's positive, thank them and mention one specific thing they said. If it's negative, acknowledge it, don't argue, and invite them to call [number]. Don't mention any details about the job that aren't already in the review.
What you check: that last instruction held. A reply that adds details about the customer's job is a privacy problem, published under your name.
Does ChatGPT keep your data? The settings that matter
The free plan and Plus can be used to train OpenAI's models. OpenAI says so plainly for its consumer plans: "we may use your content to train our models." To stop it, go to Settings, Data controls, and turn off "Improve the model for everyone" (OpenAI). It applies to new conversations, not ones you've already had.
“We may use your content to train our models.”
ChatGPT Business and Enterprise aren't used for training by default. The trap: paying for Plus on the company card doesn't make it a business account. Plus is still a consumer plan.
| Free and Plus | Business and Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|
| Account type | Consumer, even on the company card | Business account |
| Your chats train the models | Yes, unless you turn it off | No, by default |
| Temporary Chat | Not used for training, but may be kept up to 30 days | |
| Projects | Available on every plan; file limits vary | |
Temporary Chat isn't confidential. It isn't used for training, but OpenAI may keep it for up to 30 days for safety purposes (OpenAI). It reduces exposure. That's all.
One project per recurring job. ChatGPT Projects keep related chats, files and instructions together, and a project's instructions apply only inside that project (OpenAI). Set one up for quote follow-ups with your tone, your usual lead times and a follow-up you liked. You stop re-explaining yourself.
To take that all the way, give it a full description of your business. That's what Who you are, the second piece of our free AI 100 series, builds: six documents written by AI from an interview it runs with you, including one on how you talk. Drop them into a project and every answer starts from your business instead of an average one.
Is ChatGPT safe for customer information? What never goes in
Federally, private-sector privacy is governed by PIPEDA, with provincial laws in Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec. Under PIPEDA you stay responsible for personal information even when you hand it to a third party for processing (Office of the Privacy Commissioner). Pasting a customer's file into an AI tool is handing it to a third party.
The simple rule: no names, addresses, phone numbers, health information or employee files in a tool whose terms you haven't checked. Swap names for "the customer" before you paste. It takes ten seconds and covers most cases. For the rest, How much to tell AI covers it in six minutes: what actually costs something, what people guard for nothing, and what to do if it's already pasted.
If you have customers or staff in Quebec, Law 25 applies to their information and it is stricter. Our French blog covers it.
And keep for yourself what the tool can't decide: the final price, a legal or tax question, a decision about an employee.
Where to start
Not with all ten. With one.
Pick the one that eats the most of your week. If you're not sure which, Where your time goes tells you in a week: one sheet, one line per task, and AI sorts it on Friday. Do it with ChatGPT for two weeks. Time it before and after. Then decide whether to add a second.
If you get stuck on number 9, because the procedure doesn't exist and everyone does it their own way, ChatGPT won't fix that. The work needs sorting out first. That's usually where the real gain is, with or without AI.
If your team is already using ChatGPT each in their own way, the next step is writing the rules before the first incident. That's what our AI governance package does, mapped to your province's privacy law. If you want to work through it at your own pace, our free AI series starts with AI 100, the foundations, one piece at a time.
Frequently asked questions
Is the free version of ChatGPT good enough for a small business?
For trying it out, yes. For a team's day-to-day work, no. Consumer plans (Free and Plus) can be used to train OpenAI's models unless you turn the setting off. ChatGPT Business and Enterprise aren't used for training by default, and the company controls the accounts.
How much does ChatGPT cost for a business?
ChatGPT Business is billed per user per month, from two users, on monthly or annual plans. Enterprise is negotiated with OpenAI's sales team, annual only. Prices change often, so check OpenAI's pricing page when you buy.
Is ChatGPT PIPEDA compliant?
No tool is compliant on its own. What counts is how your business uses it: what personal information goes in, on which plan, under what internal rules. Under PIPEDA you remain responsible for personal information you hand to a third party for processing. Start with a business plan, no personal information without checking the terms, and written rules for the team.
Can I trust ChatGPT's answers?
For a first draft you review, yes. For a fact, a number or a legal point you won't check, no. It sounds exactly as confident when it's right as when it's making something up. Anything that leaves the business goes past a person first.
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot: which one should a business use?
The leading tools are close enough for every job in this article. If your business already runs on Microsoft 365, Copilot is the easiest to roll out. Otherwise pick one, pay for the business plan and use it daily. Our free guide Choosing your AI helps you decide, and our take on GPT-6 Astra vs Claude Fable 5.1 explains why the model matters less than people think.
Modus is an operations and AI consulting firm based in Sherbrooke, Quebec, serving founder-led businesses across Canada. We sort out how the work actually gets done, and use AI only where the return is real.
This article covers federal privacy law (PIPEDA) with a note on provincial laws. It is not legal advice.
Sources
- Google Trends — chatgpt, gemini, claude, copilot, perplexity · Canada · past 12 months · web search (accessed 15 October 2026)
- OpenAI — How your data is used to improve model performance (accessed 17 October 2026)
- OpenAI — Data Controls FAQ (accessed 17 October 2026)
- OpenAI — Projects in ChatGPT (accessed 17 October 2026)
- OpenAI — ChatGPT pricing (accessed 17 October 2026; per-user billing, Business from 2 users)
- CP24 — New pay transparency laws are now in effect in Ontario (5 January 2026)
- Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada — PIPEDA fair information principle 1: Accountability