You have a client review on Thursday. You open ChatGPT, paste in the account notes and ask for a summary. Then an agenda. Then talking points. After the meeting, you paste in your notes and ask for a recap. At every step you explain how you like it done. The output is fine. Next week, you start from zero again.
Most AI advice says the fix is better prompts. I think that's the wrong place to put your effort. Getting good at AI is about building skills, not about getting good at prompting. A prompt is gone the moment you hit enter. A skill stays.
That's not how most small businesses use AI yet. An OECD report on small and mid-sized businesses found generative AI gets used more for simple, one-off tasks than for complex, recurring and important ones [1]. The recurring work is where the time goes.
What do you mean by "skill"?
A skill is a saved set of instructions the AI loads and follows. It holds the steps, the order, your tone, your format, and what the AI must never make up. You set it up once. After that, you just say "run my review prep."
The big tools all have a version of this. Claude calls them Skills, and simple ones can be written in plain text with no code [2]. ChatGPT has Projects, which keep instructions and files together and are on every plan, including Free [3]. Gemini has Gems, which save instructions and reference files and cost nothing to create [4].
You don't have to write it yourself
You don't need to know how to build a skill. Your AI can write it for you, from work you've already done together. What you learn is spotting the repeat and knowing when to ask.
- Notice the repeat. Anything you've explained to AI three times is a candidate. Review prep, listing descriptions, renewal check-ins, etc.
- Do it once the long way. Work it out in a chat until the output is what you'd actually use.
- Ask the AI to write the skill. Something like: "Turn what we just did into a skill I can reuse. Include the steps, my tone, the format, and what you should never make up."
- Read it, then save it as a Skill, Project or Gem.
- When it misses, tell the AI. Have it update the skill, not just the output.
The first version won't be perfect, and it doesn't need to be. Each fix makes it better, and you never have to make the same fix twice.
If you work in a regulated field, a skill is not a compliance shortcut. FINRA says its existing rules on supervision, communications and recordkeeping still apply when firms use generative AI [5]. Keep a person checking anything a client sees.
Tools will change. Capturing how you work, and improving it every time it misses, is something you learn to do. Once you can do it, it carries over to whatever tool comes next.
If you want to figure out how to start using and building skills tailored to your own business, grab 15 minutes and I'll walk you through it.
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