Much of a typical workday disappears into tasks that surround the actual job: trawling through emails, chasing updates, tidying spreadsheets, prepping for meetings and following up on loose ends. ChatGPT Work, a recently launched tool from OpenAI, is designed to take on some of that burden, functioning less like a chatbot and more like a chief of staff that can pull together information across connected apps and files and turn it into something usable, whether that’s a first draft of a presentation, a working spreadsheet, a simple website or a briefing document ready for review.

The tool’s uptake has been rapid: OpenAI says ChatGPT Work and its coding counterpart Codex have together surpassed 10 million active users, suggesting a shift in how people are using AI, moving beyond simple question-and-answer interactions towards delegating genuine chunks of work that can be guided and refined. 

Here are five prompts to help put the tool to use.

Picture: The TelegraphPlan your day before it starts

Prompt: “Review my emails, calendar, unread workplace messages and open tasks from the past 24 hours. Tell me what needs my attention, which decisions or responses are pending, and what may be at risk of being missed. Then create a realistic plan for today around my existing meetings, citing the source of every important item. Do not send or change anything without my approval.”

Rather than checking half a dozen apps separately, this produces a single morning briefing covering everything that matters.

Draft your weekly update

Prompt: “Review this week’s project emails, messages, meeting notes, shared documents and task tracker. Turn them into a concise weekly update covering what was completed, what is still in progress, important decisions, current blockers and priorities for next week. Cite the source of each update and flag anything unclear or contradictory.”

What might normally take an hour of searching and compiling becomes a draft that only needs a final check.

Clean up and interpret a messy spreadsheet

Prompt: “Review this spreadsheet for duplicates, missing information, inconsistent formatting, broken formulas and unusual data points. Create a cleaned version without changing the original, explain what you corrected, identify the most important trends and prepare a short summary with suitable charts. Flag anything that requires manual verification.”

This combines data clean-up, analysis and reporting into a single task, without touching the original file.

Catch up after time out of the office

Prompt: “Review my relevant emails, messages, meetings and shared files from [date] to [date]. Give me a concise catch-up on what happened, which decisions were made, what changed, what now requires my response and what I should prioritise first. Group related updates together, cite the sources and do not take any action without my approval.”

Rather than working through every message received while away, this surfaces only what genuinely needs attention.

Prepare for an important meeting

Prompt: “Review the meeting agenda, previous notes, related emails, shared documents and available performance data. Prepare a briefing that explains the background, recent developments, unresolved questions, likely discussion points and the decisions I may need to make. Include five useful questions I should ask and cite the source of every key fact.”

This turns scattered background material into a meeting-ready briefing within minutes.

To get the most from the tool, users are encouraged to connect the specific apps and files they want ChatGPT Work to draw on, while retaining control over what information it can access and which actions require sign-off before being carried out. A sensible starting point is to identify a single recurring task that regularly eats up more time than it should, provide clear context, specify the desired output, and set out which actions need approval, allowing the tool to handle repetitive preparation while attention stays on decisions that require actual judgement.

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