AI — My New Personal Assistant
I am a big fan of AI. I use it all the time.At work, it has helped me create unit plans and lesson plans. I’ve used it to research vacations, compare hotels, figure out things to do, and answer the endless random questions that pop into my head. And, to be completely honest, I’ve also used it as someone to talk to when I’ve exhausted my wife and friends on a topic that I can’t stop ruminating about.
There are only so many times you can say, “But here’s the thing I’m worried about…” before another human being starts looking for an exit. ChatGPT, on the other hand, never says, “Yes, Ross. You already told me that six times.”
Recently, though, I discovered an AI feature I didn’t even know existed.
As a side project, I’ve been looking into buying a small business. My ideal would be something like a coffee shop or hot dog stand. Nothing huge. I have no desire to become the next Ray Kroc. I just think it might be fun to own something small, run it for a few years, and see what happens. Originally, part of the idea was that eventually one of my kids could take it over.
My kids have responded to this plan with roughly the same enthusiasm they would have if I suggested we open a family asbestos-removal company.
So apparently this would be my business. Still, I keep looking.
There was even a great little sushi place for sale in Park City that intrigued me. Unfortunately, despite my ongoing campaign to convince my family that we should all abandon Chicago and live happily ever after in Utah, nobody else seems interested in moving there full time.
Sushi empire: postponed.
One day I was asking ChatGPT about a business listing. As we talked, it started asking questions: What kind of business was I looking for? How much did I want to invest? What locations would I consider? How involved did I want to be? Eventually, it asked if I wanted it to automatically search for businesses that met my criteria.
Wait. What?
I didn’t even know it could do that. So I set it up.
Now ChatGPT searches for businesses for sale that might fit what I’m looking for and sends me the results. As I’ve looked at listings and discussed the pros and cons with it, I’ve been able to refine the search further.
Too expensive. No.
Franchise pretending to be a business for sale. No.
Owner wants $400,000 but somehow can’t provide financial statements. That’s going to be a no.
Small neighborhood coffee shop with actual revenue and profit numbers?
Now you have my attention.
Once I realized how useful this was, I set up another automated search for high school social studies teaching jobs in Chicago. Same idea. Instead of checking a bunch of websites every day, I get a report showing me what it found.
The next experiment will be airfare. I have a trip planned for March, and I’m going to have it keep checking fares and see how good it is at spotting a deal. Maybe it saves me $300. Maybe it doesn’t. That’s part of the experiment.
Anway, just thought I’d pass it along if you didn’t know you could automate ChatGPT for things like that.