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5 ChatGPT Prompts To Overtake Your Fiercest Rivals In Business

April 15, 2026 No Comments

Your rivals are winning deals that should be yours. They’re getting the clients, the partnerships, the recognition. You’re wondering what they know that you don’t. It’s time to flip the script. You’re better than this, and you’re one move away from greatness.

Gain an unfair advantage and crush your rivals with ChatGPT. Copy, paste and edit the square brackets in ChatGPT, and keep the same chat window open so the context carries through.

Beat Your Business Rivals: ChatGPT Prompts To Get Ahead

Magnify your biggest advantage

Every business has something it does better than anyone else. You know what yours is. But you’re not shouting about it loud enough. Your ace cards are sitting there while you blend into the background trying to be everything to everyone. Stop that. Double down on what makes you different.

“Based on what you know about me and my business, identify the 3 biggest strengths that set me apart from others in my field. For each strength, explain why it matters to my ideal customers and how I’m currently underusing it. Then create a 30-day plan to amplify each advantage across my marketing, sales conversations, and client delivery. Ask for more detail if required.”

Build your personal brand

Founder-led businesses are winning. I built my social media agency from scratch and sold it in 2021. The thing that set us apart was the personal connection clients felt with me as the founder. People choose the brand with the face they trust.

“Based on what you know about my expertise and background, help me develop a personal brand strategy that positions me as the obvious choice in my field. Identify 5 unique angles from my story that would resonate with my target audience. For each angle, create specific content ideas and talking points I can use across LinkedIn, my website, and sales conversations. Include phrases that make my perspective memorable.”

Create a referral network

When prospects face too many options they ask for recommendations. Your job is to be the name that comes up. Find businesses with your same ideal customer but different services. Stop chasing clients. Let them come to you.

“Based on what you know about my business and ideal customers, identify 10 types of businesses or professionals who serve the same audience but aren’t direct rivals. For each one, suggest a specific collaboration idea that benefits both parties. Then create outreach messages I can send to initiate these partnerships. Make the messages personal and focused on mutual value, not transactions.”

Focus on your own game

Watching your rivals will drive you mad. You’ll copy their moves, react to their announcements, and lose sight of what makes you great. The answers to your biggest business breakthroughs are already in your data. The campaigns that worked best. The reasons your top customers bought. What they would buy again. Get obsessed with your metrics instead of theirs. Grow twice as fast.

“Based on what you know about my business, help me conduct a self-analysis to find hidden growth opportunities. Ask me about my best customers, highest-performing campaigns, and most profitable services. Once you understand the patterns, identify 5 specific actions I can take to double down on what’s already working. Create a weekly tracking system so I can measure progress without getting distracted by what others are doing.”

Get real about your gaps

You know why people choose your rivals. Deep down you can list exactly where they beat you. Maybe it’s their marketing. Maybe it’s their delivery speed. Maybe it’s their pricing model. Stop pretending those gaps don’t exist. Expose your blind spots and close them one by one. The pain of facing reality is nothing compared to the cost of staying stuck.

“Based on what you know about me, help me conduct an honest gap analysis of my business. Ask me probing questions about where I lose deals, what customers complain about, and where rivals consistently outperform me. For each gap identified, rate its impact on my revenue from 1 to 10. Then create a prioritized action plan to close the top 3 gaps within 90 days. Be direct and don’t let me make excuses.”

Outperform your rivals: ChatGPT prompts to dominate your market

Stop watching the competition win. Magnify your unfair advantage and shout about what makes you different. Build your personal brand so people choose the face they trust. Create referral partnerships that send clients your way without chasing. Focus obsessively on your own metrics and what’s already working. Get brutally honest about your gaps and close them fast.

You have everything you need to become the one your rivals worry about. The prompts are ready. The strategy is clear. Your move determines whether you stay where you are or leap ahead. Start today and watch the game change.

Featured image credit: Getty

By Jodie Cook

Find Jodie Cook on LinkedIn. Visit Jodie’s website.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

Claude just made two of its best features free — here’s how to use Projects and Artifacts

April 15, 2026 No Comments

By Amanda Caswell

There’s never been a better time to use Claude

As more ChatGPT users migrate to Claude, Anthropic appears to be making the switch easier. Less than a week ago, the company quietly made Memory free, a move designed to help new users transition more smoothly from ChatGPT to Claude.

But some users may not be aware that two of the most powerful tools are also free for everyone. Previously limited to paying subscribers, Projects and Artifacts turn Claude from a simple chatbot into something closer to a real workspace — one that can organize information, build documents and even create interactive tools. Here’s what changed and how to use these features.

What just changed — and why it matters

AI companies have been carefully balancing what they give away for free versus what they reserve for paid plans. Anthropic’s latest update signals a shift toward making Claude more accessible as competition with OpenAI and Google intensifies.

With the expanded free tier, Claude users now get access to:

Projects to organize conversations and documents into dedicated workspaces
Artifacts to preview code, documents and apps in a live side panel
Web search for current information
A 200,000-token context window (roughly 500 pages of text)
File uploads of up to 20 files per chat

That’s a surprisingly powerful toolkit — especially for a free plan. But the real upgrardes are Projects and Artifacts.

What is Projects — and why it matters

Before Projects, every Claude conversation started from scratch. You had to re-explain your work, your writing style or the context of your task each time you started a new chat. But, similar to ChatGPT Projects, Claude Projects solve that problem. If you have been using Projects within ChatGPT, the core features are almost identical.

The biggest differences I’ve found is that Claude is far more integrated for document analysis. If you’re working on content-heavy projects like writing a novel or deep research, you may find Claude to be a better support. Unlike ChatGPT, Claude does not provide image generation within the chat, so you will need to generate those elsewhere such as Gemini’s Nano Banana 2 and upload.

Claude remembers the context of what you’re working on when you create a Project. You can upload documents, set instructions and keep all related conversations together.

I use Claude Projects for different parts of my life. I have Projects for work, Projects for my side hustles, Projects for research and I even have one for personal tasks.

It’s a great way to stay organized while keeping the context inside each workspace so you don’t have to repeat yourself.

How to use Claude Projects

Click Projects in Claude’s sidebar
Create a new Project and give it a name
Upload documents like resumes, notes, briefs or style guides
Add instructions explaining what Claude should know

From that point forward, every conversation inside that Project automatically uses that context. For example, for my AI pizza brand, Crusted, I use Projects as a “Brand Book,” so the tone and information stays the same. I can change, edit or even rename the Project at any time.

What are Artifacts — and why they’re a game changer

If you’ve used ChatGPT Canvas, to write or code, than you’ll probably appreciate the benefits of Artifacts. This feature allows users to create standalone outputs that appear in a live preview panel next to the chat.

Instead of just reading raw code or instructions, you can actually see the result. This allows you to make changes in real-time without starting over.

Within Artefacts, Claude can generate:

Web pages
Formatted reports
Dashboards
Visualizations
Interactive tools

The Artifact updates in real time as you ask Claude to revise it. For people who aren’t programmers, this makes a huge difference. You don’t need to copy code into another program or environment just to see what it does. Everything happens directly inside Claude.

How to use Claude Artifacts

Ask Claude to build something visual or interactive — for example:

A dashboard
Calculator
Formatted report
Small web page

If the output benefits from a preview, Claude will automatically open it as an Artifact in the side panel.

5 ways to use these features right now

Person typing on a laptop in a low lit room

These tools aren’t just experimental AI features — they’re designed for everyday work. Whether you’re organizing a job search, managing finances or turning messy notes into something useful, Projects and Artifacts make Claude feel less like a chatbot and more like a real productivity workspace.

Here are five practical ways to start using them today.

1. Build a job search command centre: Create a “Job Search” Project, upload your resume and notes about target companies. Claude can generate tailored cover letters, outreach messages and interview prep using your background.

2. Create a personal finance tracker: Upload a spreadsheet or spending data, then ask Claude to build an Artifact with a visual budget dashboard or spending breakdown you can actually interact with.

3. Run a content workflow: Writers and creators can store their brand voice, audience profile and past work in a Project so Claude produces content that already matches their style.

4. Build a research hub: Upload PDFs, articles and notes into a Project and ask Claude to create an Artifact that turns everything into a structured report or briefing.

5. Turn meeting notes into action plans: Paste meeting notes into a Project and ask Claude to generate an Artifact with action items, timelines or project summaries ready to share.

Bottom line

Knowing Claude is giving away some of their most powerful features for free, may make you wonder, what’s the catch? Well, there are still a few limitations. Free tier users are limited to Claude Sonnet, while paid subscribers can use Claude Opus, Anthropic’s most powerful model.

For most everyday tasks Sonnet is more than capable, but advanced coding or complex analysis may still benefit from Opus. Another limitation: Claude Code, the company’s developer tool, is still restricted to paid plans.

However, with these features, plus Memory, Claude’s free tier is significantly more capable of tackling your toughest projects. These updates have turned Claude into something closer to a real productivity workspace rather than just a chatbot.

If you haven’t tried these features yet, it’s worth opening a Project and experimenting — you may find Claude suddenly feels far more useful. Give them a try and let me know in the comments what you think.

Feature image credit: Image credit: Shutterstock

By Amanda Caswell

Amanda Caswell is one of today’s leading voices in AI and technology. A celebrated contributor to various news outlets, her sharp insights and relatable storytelling have earned her a loyal readership. Amanda’s work has been recognized with prestigious honours, including outstanding contribution to media. Known for her ability to bring clarity to even the most complex topics, Amanda seamlessly blends innovation and creativity, inspiring readers to embrace the power of AI and emerging technologies. As a certified prompt engineer, she continues to push the boundaries of how humans and AI can work together. Beyond her journalism career, Amanda is a long-distance runner and mom of three. She lives in New Jersey.

Sourced from tom’s guide

In News

Meta’s Moltbook deal points to a future built around AI agents

April 14, 2026 No Comments

By Sarah Perez

When news broke Tuesday morning that Meta bought Moltbook, the social network for AI agents, it may have left some people scratching their heads. What on earth would Meta — an ad-supported company — want with a social network where the users are bots? Bots, after all, are not the target audience of brand marketers and advertisers.

Meta isn’t saying much. Its only official comment was a brief statement that the Moltbook team was joining Meta Superintelligence Labs, which would open up “new ways for AI agents to work with people and businesses.”

Reading between the lines, this was an acqui-hire. A network built for bots isn’t exactly a natural home for brand advertising — even if Moltbook was never entirely non-human. What Meta really wanted was the talent behind it — people who are having fun brainstorming and experimenting with AI agent ecosystems. And that, counterintuitively, could be a boon for its advertising business.

As Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last year, he believes in a future where “every business will soon have a business AI, just like they have an email address, social media account, and website.” On an agentic web, one where AI systems act independently on users’ behalf, AI agents could interact with each other, doing things like buying ads, making bookings, and responding to customers.

AI is also being used to generate ad creative and tailor its output based on who’s viewing it. AI systems could also manage product pricing or generate personalized offers.

On the consumer side, agents could be used to find the best prices and deals, manage bookings, and shop for products. In some limited cases, agents can already check out and pay on consumers’ behalf. (Agentic commerce is still in its early days, and these systems don’t always work as well as advertised. But the market has been moving fast, and improvements seem likely soon enough.)

As Facebook once built the “friend graph” — a network defined by social connections between people, where every individual is a node — an agentic web could benefit from an “agent graph,” a system that maps out how various agents are connected and what actions they can take on each other’s behalf.

**Image Credits:**akinbostanci (opens in a new window)/ Getty Images

For an agentic web where businesses’ agents and consumers’ agents can work together, though, the agents first need to be able to find each other, connect, and coordinate their activities. As Facebook once built the “friend graph” — a network defined by social connections between people, where every individual is a node — an agentic web could benefit from an “agent graph,” a system that maps out how various agents are connected and what actions they can take on each other’s behalf. This could span areas like travel, online shopping, media and research, productivity tools, and more.

This, too, could be where advertising slots in. Today, humans view and click on ads when they see something of interest, but on an agentic web where agents are shopping on users’ behalf, ads might look quite different. Instead of influencing a human to buy a product, a business’s agent may need to negotiate directly with a consumer’s agent to make the sale.

Maybe the consumer wants to buy that shirt or that lipstick, but only in a certain colour and at a certain price. Maybe the systems become so complex that these considerations go beyond product and price — perhaps the consumer prefers to support small businesses, or shops only with eco-friendly companies. Maybe the consumer only buys items when they’re on sale or purchases generic versions if the ingredients are the same. And so on.

In that case, it’s not just a matter of connecting the AI agents but also ranking products by whichever one best fits that individual customer’s needs. If Meta could capitalize on that market — AI at the orchestration layer, meaning the system decides which agents talk to each other and in what order — it could potentially expand its ads business into entirely new territory.

This all depends on whether consumers actually embrace the agentic web, or ever trust AI enough to let it act on their behalf. But the very existence of OpenClaw, the personal AI assistant that populated Moltbook with content, suggests that at least some people are already leaning into autonomous AI agents.

Of course, there’s another possible reason Meta bought Moltbook. The company lost the acqui-hire of OpenClaw’s creator, Peter Steinberger, to rival OpenAI, so it went after Moltbook, the platform Steinberger’s tool helped build, instead. Petty? Maybe. But it kept Meta’s Superintelligence Labs in the news.

Feature image credit:Anadolu / Contributor(opens in a new window)/ Getty Images

By Sarah Perez

Sourced from TechCrunch

In News

Crypto’s Next Expansion Will Be Licensed, Not Borderless

April 14, 2026 No Comments

By Bitcoinist

The industry is not entering an era of blanket legalization. It is moving into a phase of permissioned growth, where the winners may be the firms that can operate under real supervision.

The crypto industry has spent years asking the wrong regulatory question. “Which countries are pro-crypto?” sounds useful, but in 2026 it explains less and less. The more relevant question now is whether a serious firm can launch, scale, and keep operating inside a jurisdiction with a visible compliance path, known supervisory expectations, and a realistic licensing process. That is a harder standard, but it is also the one that increasingly matters.

The Market Is Moving From Ambiguity To Permission

A recent BitBullNews Quarter Crypto Regulation Tracker described the shift with a useful phrase: permissioned growth. That framing works because it captures what is actually happening across major jurisdictions. The market is not seeing broad deregulation, and it is not seeing a universal crackdown either. What it is seeing is a more usable environment for firms that are prepared to be governed like financial institutions, paired with a less forgiving environment for operators still relying on offshore ambiguity, weak controls, or aggressive marketing into markets where they lack authorization.

That is why some jurisdictions look more attractive than they did six months ago while also becoming harder to enter casually. The contradiction is only apparent. Clearer rules can be pro-growth for compliant operators and hostile to informal ones at the same time.

The US, UK, And Hong Kong Are Building Controlled Entry Points

In the United States, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has moved beyond political debate and into operational rulemaking. The OCC’s February 25, 2026 notice of proposed rulemaking sets out regulations tied to the GENIUS Act for permitted payment stablecoin issuers, foreign payment stablecoin issuers under OCC jurisdiction, and certain custody activities by OCC-supervised entities. That is a meaningful shift because it places stablecoin issuance deeper inside prudential-style supervisory design rather than leaving it in the realm of abstract policy discussion.

BitStarz Player Lands $2,459,124 Record Win! Could you be next big winner?

The United Kingdom is following a similarly structured path. The FCA says the application period for firms seeking authorization under the new cryptoasset regime is expected to run from September 30, 2026 to February 28, 2027, with the regime expected to come into force on October 25, 2027. In other words, the UK is not offering a free-for-all. It is offering a timetable, a perimeter, and a route. That is exactly the kind of signal institutional operators tend to prefer.

Hong Kong may be the clearest example of the “more legitimate, more constrained” tradeoff. The HKMA’s stablecoin issuer regime is already in place, with licensing guidance, supervisory expectations, and AML/CFT requirements published. But the regulator’s own register currently shows no licensed stablecoin issuer. That matters because it demonstrates the difference between having a regime on paper and actually clearing the bar in practice.

Why Stablecoins Sit At The Center Of This Shift

Stablecoins have become the pressure point where crypto regulation and traditional financial supervision increasingly overlap. That makes sense. Stablecoins sit close to payments, custody, reserves, redemptions, consumer expectations, and, in some cases, treasury demand. Once a digital asset starts looking like financial plumbing, regulators stop treating it like a side issue.

That is why stablecoins now anchor so much of the new rulebook. In the BitBullNews tracker, the quarter’s regulatory pattern is not described as a broad crypto opening, but as a stablecoin-heavy migration into formal supervision across jurisdictions including the US and Hong Kong. That reading is consistent with what official agencies are now publishing. Stablecoins are no longer merely tolerated products at the edge of the system. They are increasingly being designed into the perimeter itself.

Compliance Is No Longer A Wrapper Around The Product

The deeper implication is operational, not rhetorical. Crypto firms can no longer treat compliance as something added around the edges once growth has already been captured. Product design itself is becoming a regulatory question. Reserve disclosures, custody arrangements, sanctions screening, governance, onboarding, communications controls, and even marketing flows are all moving closer to the center of licensing logic. The BitBullNews tracker puts this well: product controls and communications controls are becoming licensing controls.

That change affects nearly every business model in the stack. Exchanges and broker-dealers are being pushed toward more formal market-infrastructure models. Custodians are facing higher evidentiary burdens. Wallets and front ends are increasingly judged not just by what they enable, but by how they gate, monitor, and present access. Payment firms and stablecoin issuers are being pulled toward bank-like expectations even when they are not literally banks.

What This Means For Bitcoin And Institutional Adoption

Bitcoin itself does not need permission to exist. But the rails that make it easier for large pools of capital to access, hold, settle, and move around Bitcoin increasingly do. Stablecoin issuance, regulated custody, broker-dealer access, and compliant fiat connectivity all shape how institutional adoption actually scales in practice.

That means the next phase of crypto growth may look less like the offshore, slogan-driven expansion many market veterans still associate with earlier cycles. It may be slower, cleaner, and more tightly intermediated. For some in crypto, that will feel less romantic. For institutions, it may feel much more investable. And that is the crucial point: the next expansion may not belong to the loudest firms. It may belong to the ones that can survive a real license review, a real audit trail, and a real supervisory relationship. That is not anti-crypto. It is the form mainstream adoption is increasingly taking.

Final Take

Crypto is not entering an age of universal approval. It is entering an era of selective legitimacy. The jurisdictions that matter most are not the loosest ones, but the ones that give serious operators a credible path to enter and stay. That is why “permissioned growth” may be the most accurate regulatory phrase of 2026.

For the industry, the message is blunt: ambiguity is losing value. Permission is gaining it. And for firms that want to be part of the next institutional wave, that shift may prove more bullish than many realize.

By and sourced from Bitcoinist

In News

YouTube just crushed Hollywood in a major milestone

April 13, 2026 No Comments

By Hillary Remy,Edited by Celine Provini

For decades, Disney, NBC, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery sat at the top of the advertising world. In 2025, a 21-year-old video platform built on cat videos and bedroom creators officially knocked them off.

YouTube’s total revenue across ads and subscriptions exceeded $60 billion in 2025, according to Alphabet’s official earnings release, making it larger than Netflix, which reported $45.18 billion for the full year.

A separate analysis by financial research firm MoffettNathanson found that YouTube’s advertising revenue alone surpassed the combined $37.8 billion ad haul from Disney, NBCU, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery. It is the first time YouTube has crossed that threshold.

A year earlier, the tables looked different. In 2024, YouTube’s $36.1 billion in ad revenue fell short of the $41.8 billion those four studios earned collectively.

The reversal in just 12 months is as striking as it is telling about where the advertising industry is heading.

The numbers behind the YouTube advertising milestone

Ad revenue is only part of the story. When subscriptions are included, YouTube’s total 2025 revenue climbed to more than $60 billion, making it larger than Netflix, which reported $45.18 billion for the full year. Only Disney, with $95.7 billion in total revenue, topped YouTube among entertainment companies.

YouTube’s parent company broke out the video platform’s total revenue for the first time in Alphabet’s latest earnings report, a signal of just how central YouTube has become to the broader business.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai noted the company now has over 325 million paid subscriptions across consumer services, a figure that includes YouTube Premium, YouTube TV, YouTube Music, and Google One.

YouTube TV alone surpassed 10 million U.S. subscribers as of November 2025, according to Cord Cutters News, making it the third-largest multichannel TV provider in the country, behind only Charter and Comcast.

How Hollywood lost the ad crown to YouTube

YouTube’s advertising dominance didn’t emerge overnight. It has been building for years as audiences, particularly younger ones, quietly migrated away from traditional TV toward on-demand and creator-driven content.

Each of the four major studios reported declining advertising revenue in 2025. WBD’s ad revenue fell 17% in its most recent quarter. NBCU’s domestic advertising declined 6.8% year over year. Disney and Paramount reported similar trends across their linear networks. These declines reflect a structural problem, not a temporary one.

YouTube, meanwhile, is winning the living room. In Q1 2025, YouTube ad spend on connected TV screens surpassed mobile for the first time, accounting for 43% of YouTube ad placements versus 42% on mobile. That is nearly double the CTV share from a year earlier, when it stood at just 24%.

Where YouTube’s growth comes from

YouTube’s blockbuster advertising business derives from several compounding factors that traditional studios simply cannot replicate at the same scale or speed.

Key drivers behind YouTube’s ad surge

Shorts momentum: YouTube Shorts now averages 200 billion daily views, up significantly from the 70 billion figure cited earlier in 2025, giving advertisers enormous short-form inventory.
Living room dominance: YouTube holds a 12.4% share of total U.S. TV viewing time, ranking first among all media companies, per Nielsen data.
Podcast growth: Viewers watched more than 700 million hours of podcasts on YouTube via TV screens in October 2025 alone, up 70% year over year.
Creator scale: YouTube has paid out more than $100 billion to creators, music companies, and media partners cumulatively, sustaining a content flywheel no studio can match.
Live sports: YouTube’s first exclusive NFL game in September 2025 drew 19 million global viewers across more than 230 countries.

Why advertisers flock to YouTube

The advertiser migration to YouTube is not purely about audience size. It is about measurability.

Brands allocating budgets to YouTube can track outcomes in ways that linear TV has never been able to offer, from view-through attribution to cross-device tracking and real-time performance data.

YouTube allows advertisers to track outcomes in ways that linear television can’t.

Thomas/Getty Images

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai pointed to AI as a key accelerant of that advertiser shift. AI can deliver “the most relevant ad across surfaces and [match] advertisers against additional queries they weren’t reaching before,” Pichai said on the Q3 2025 earnings call. “AI Max helps advertisers discover new customers at the exact moment they need their product or service.”

That kind of precision targeting is something linear TV simply cannot offer.

It’s a striking endorsement for a platform that still trails Meta, which pulled in $196.2 billion in ad revenue in 2025, by a considerable margin. But in the media and entertainment category specifically, YouTube’s position is now uncontested.

Movie, TV studios are not standing still

Disney, NBCU, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery are all pouring resources into their own streaming platforms, and some are even beginning to distribute content on YouTube itself to chase the audiences that have already moved there.

But the gap is widening, not narrowing. YouTube’s ad revenue grew by nearly $4 billion year over year in 2025, while the combined studio total fell by roughly $3 billion. That is a $7 billion swing in a single year.

For investors watching Alphabet (GOOG), the YouTube story is no longer a footnote in the earnings report. It is increasingly the headline.

By Hillary Remy

Hillary Remy is a finance and technology journalist with over five years of experience covering financial markets, fintech innovation, and emerging technologies that are reshaping the investing landscape. He specializes in stock markets, digital finance, and blockchain‑based financial systems, with a focus on how new technologies are transforming payments, investing, and capital markets. Hillary has contributed analysis and reporting to leading financial publications including Benzinga, Investing.com, and TipRanks, bringing a data‑driven and risk‑aware perspective to complex financial topics.

Edited by Celine Provini

Celine is a writer and editor with over 20 years of experience and has covered diverse news, features, academic/research, and legal topics. At TheStreet.com, Celine is a senior editor with experience across retail, stocks, investing, personal finance, technology, the economy, and travel.

Sourced from The Street

In News

How to communicate like a human in the age of AI

April 13, 2026 No Comments

By Julie Zhu

AI-generated messages are seen as more polished, but less trustworthy. Here’s how to make sure no one thinks you wrote that draft with ChatGPT.

I can tell within two sentences if ChatGPT wrote your email.

It sounds like every other one I’ve read today. Professionally mediocre. Perfectly bland tone. Strategic use of “leverage.” Transitions so smooth they may as well be butter slathered on a biscuit.

As for what it doesn’t have?

You. No sauce, no flavour, no quirks.

I work with entrepreneurs and leaders on their marketing and communication, and it’s true: more and more, people continue to polish away anything distinctive (then wonder why no one responds).

Your pitch deck sounds like their pitch deck sounds like that other person’s pitch deck. Your LinkedIn post? Could’ve been written by literally anyone in your industry. That newsletter you wrote sounds like the 820 other emails in people’s inboxes.

A 2025 study surveyed 1,100+ professionals on this same topic, with telling results: AI messages were rated as more professional but less trustworthy. When employees know their manager used AI to write most of a message, only 40% consider it sincere. The number climbs to 83% when AI is used for light editing instead.

Turns out, sounding professional and being effective aren’t the same thing. Instead, here’s what I’ve found works for communicating effectively today.

Just say the thing

You can either say “We’re committed to fostering open dialogue across all organizational levels” OR “I want to know what you actually think about [insert topic here]. Can we talk Thursday?”

The first one sounds nice. The second one actually asks for something—something tangible.

Jargon lets you fill space without saying anything real. People would rather know what you actually want from them.

You’re probably thinking: Doesn’t being too direct sound unprofessional? There’s a difference between clear and careless, however. You can indeed be direct and still thoughtful and compassionate, all at the same time. You can use the words and still be taken seriously. What’s actually unprofessional? Making people work to figure out what you’re asking for.

Write to one person

Forget about “my audience” or “potential clients.” Think of one actual human whose face you can picture.

Maybe it’s someone reading at 11 p.m. after a day of back-to-back meetings, with real life still waiting—texts to answer, dishes in the sink, and an inbox hosting 147 unread messages. They’re tired. They’re not looking for more information. They’re looking for something that helps.

Write to that person.

For example, a nutritionist might end every newsletter with: “Let me know if you have any questions.” It’s polite, but it’s vague. It makes the reader do the work.

Now picture one real person: Jess, reading on her phone at 11 p.m., trying to eat better but too exhausted to “figure it out.” Suddenly, the ending changes:

“If feeding yourself has been weirdly hard lately, here are three most-loved free resources to start with:

Five-minute warm, nourishing breakfasts
The anti-inflammatory grocery list
A no-cook dinner template for busy nights”

It’s a small shift, but you’re making it easy for the other person to participate. That’s what makes the tone feel human.

When you write in this way, you’re writing to someone whose situation you really know. You know what’s relevant and which story will land, which detail will actually help, and which example gets your point across. It doesn’t matter if that person is real or simply just like five people you’ve worked with. What matters is you can picture them and sound like yourself in the process, not like a Very Professional Person™ saying Very Professional Things™.

Use AI as a thought partner

I’m not saying you have to stop using AI entirely. But stop asking AI to replace your thinking and writing. Instead, ask it to serve as your thinking buddy.

Jot down ten messy ideas for what you’re trying to say, then ask ChatGPT to rank them or simply isolate the top three. That’s your starting point, not a polished draft but clarity on what you’re actually trying to communicate.

You can also use this approach to strengthen your argument: “Where is this weak? What am I missing?” Let it challenge you before you hit send, asking: “Does this sound like I’m talking to someone or at someone?” This question alone will show you where you’re performing instead of communicating.

The overarching goal isn’t to sound casual or professional but simply like yourself—clearer, sharper, and always respecting the other person’s time.

Feature image credit: ImageFlow/Adobe Stock

By Julie Zhu

Julie Zhu is an award-winning marketing and communication strategist and adjunct professor based in NYC. Connect with her on LinkedIn for more fresh, practical communication tips. More

Sourced from FastCompany

In News

The Creepy Uncanny Valley Of Targeted Online Marketing

April 10, 2026 No Comments

By Hank Campbell

Personalized online ads must work for the same reason advertising must work; it wouldn’t be a trillion-dollar industry if it didn’t work. Even supplements and organic food are only $140 billion, and those are really popular things that don’t work. Advertising is not popular at all but good luck succeeding without it.

Yet there are limits for what people accept without being uncomfortable. In robots and animation, that has long been termed the ‘uncanny valley’ – where something is not lifelike enough to look real but too lifelike to be acceptable. Some digital marketing has its own uncanny valley; where it becomes unsettling. Examples are people who say they mentioned something in the presence of their Amazon Echo and then ads on Facebook began to target them.

It’s technically impressive, but even more creepy. You feel like you’re walking around London and being monitored all of the time, except on your phone.

It doesn’t backfire on the technology backbone, it backfires on the companies in the ads, making you less likely to buy that brand even if you expressed interest in the general product. We all recognize we are under constant surveillance but resent when it becomes too obvious, according to a recent paper.

With over 1,800 online participants across three studies, the authors targeted some with advertisements for things like Nike sneakers and fabricated headphones after those were mentioned. The control groups were not digitally targeted. Then people rated how uncomfortable they felt and the authors created a Component Process Model of Creepiness.

It is pretty on-the-nose, even for the humanities, this was an online experiment using people paid through Amazon Mechanical Turk, not the normal population, but 75 percent who expressed discomfort were concerned about the manipulation and surveillance aspects of the technology. These are surveys, not behaviour, and therefore only EXPLORATORY, but on a 7-point scale for intent to purchase, the authors said a 1-point increase in discomfort meant willingness to purchase the product by half a point.

Like people who declared they are boycotting Paramount Plus because the company is buying Warner Brothers Discovery but never subscribed to either, their opinions mean little. Bud Light, on the other hand, had a very real, very dramatic turn in revenue when they sought to use advertising to do more than sell beer.

That is what needs to be considered. If someone is searching for a product, they probably want to buy it, and for most people price/value overrules the fact that they got a targeted ad after searching for it on another device. Some of us even game the system; if I see something I might like but it is from weird name in a Facebook ad, I click on it and then click back, knowing a few minutes later a company that isn’t some Chinese drop-shipper will advertise it to me.

So companies are probably still smart to target people digitally, even considering blowback. Because advertising is about, as car executives in the 1960s said, “moving the iron”, not being worried about whether or not someone is annoyed. If your recents are decent and your price is competitive, you are winning just the same.

By Hank Campbell

Sourced from Science 2.0

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LinkedIn is becoming a top source for AI chatbots

April 10, 2026 No Comments

By Eleanor Hawkins

LinkedIn domain rank based on ChatGPT citations

Why it matters: AI search is rewriting the rules of executive and brand visibility, raising the stakes for how leaders show up online.

Zoom in: Since November, LinkedIn’s citation frequency has doubled and it is now the No. 1 domain cited in professional search queries.

LinkedIn posts, long-form articles and newsletters account for 35% of all LinkedIn citations within ChatGPT, while profiles are cited 14.5% of the time, according to Profound.

Zoom out: Community and creator-driven platforms like Reddit, Wikipedia and YouTube have all emerged as some of the most cited sources in AI responses precisely because they host real, conversational human insights that models latch onto when answering nuanced queries.

Because what’s said in Reddit threads increasingly shows up in chatbot responses, brands that were once wary of the platform have ramped up their presence to manage reputation, correct misinformation and shape the narrative.

What they’re saying: “Professional visibility is changing. It is no longer only about how people present themselves to other people. It is increasingly about how machines interpret them first,” says Erin Lanuti, co-founder of LinkedIn intelligence platform Lilypath.

“If AI systems are using LinkedIn as a core source for professional authority, profile clarity becomes foundational to whether someone is surfaced, trusted or overlooked,” she added.

Yes, but: Generative AI search tools can only surface publicly available LinkedIn content, according to the company.

“We continue to protect member data from unauthorized scraping and only content [users] have chosen to make public on LinkedIn can appear in these results,” a spokesperson told Axios.

The bottom line: In the age of AI and generative engine optimization (GEO), every executive, brand and company can grow their reach and credibility by engaging thoughtfully on LinkedIn.

By Eleanor Hawkins

Sourced from AXIOS

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I tried the ‘3-prompt rule’ with ChatGPT — the results got dramatically better

April 9, 2026 No Comments

By Amanda Caswell

Getting better answers from ChatGPT starts with this simple rule

ChatGPT is not a search engine, but most people treat it like one. They type a question, skim the answer and seem satisfied. But most of the chatbot’s potential is not being explored. And that answer you’re looking for could be so much better if you prompted the chatbot in a different, more resourceful way.

As a power user, I’ve been testing ChatGPT for years. Every day I try to break it and push it to its limit. That’s why I know that its first response is just a starting point.

The real value comes from what happens beyond the prompt: refining the prompt, adding context and pushing the model one step further. That’s the idea behind the “3-prompt rule,” a simple method that turns one-off AI answers into something much more useful.

How the 3-prompt rule works

Despite having three prompts, this rule is not complicated or difficult to remember. The idea is simple: don’t stop after your first prompt.

Instead, guide ChatGPT through three quick stages that steadily improve the result. The “3-rule” prompt works like this:

Prompt 1: Ask the basic question. Start with the simplest version of what you want.
Prompt 2: Refine the answer. Ask the AI to improve the response by making it clearer, more specific or more useful.
Prompt 3: Optimize the final result. Adjust the format, tone, depth or structure so the answer matches what you actually need.

Each step adds a little more direction, which helps the AI get closer to the ideal response.

Try it on difficult subjects

To see how well this method works, I tried the 3-prompt rule on a complicated subject: neural networks, the technology behind many modern AI systems.

Prompt 1: “Explain how neural networks work.”

The first answer was technically accurate, but it relied heavily on terms like “layers,” “weights” and “training data.” Someone without a technical background would probably still find it confusing.

Prompt 2: “Explain neural networks using a simple analogy.”

This response improved significantly. ChatGPT compared neural networks to a system that learns patterns — similar to how a human might recognize faces or handwriting after seeing many examples.

The idea was easier to grasp, but the explanation still included some technical language.

Prompt 3: “Explain neural networks like I’m a high school student.”

The final version was much clearer. Instead of technical terminology, the explanation focused on the core concept: computers learning patterns from examples and improving over time.

At that point, the response felt concise, approachable and easy to understand. Each follow-up prompt pushed the explanation closer to the ideal result.

Why not just start with the third prompt?

You might wonder: why not just jump straight to the final prompt and ask for the perfect explanation right away?

In practice, most people don’t know exactly what they want at the start. The first prompt acts like a rough draft. It gives the AI a starting point and helps you see what direction the answer takes. From there, the second prompt lets you adjust the approach — maybe simplifying the explanation, adding examples or changing the focus.

By the time you reach the third prompt, you have a much clearer idea of what the ideal response should look like.

In other words, the process isn’t just improving the AI’s answer — it’s helping you refine the question.

That’s why the 3-prompt rule works so well. Instead of trying to craft the perfect prompt upfront, you let the conversation evolve step by step until the result matches what you actually need. To highlight this, let’s try it with something you might be working on professionally.

Test 2: Turning a rough idea into a useful plan

For this test, perhaps you are brainstorming a rough idea to ultimately get to a useful work plan. You can use the 3-prompt rule on common workplace task to organize messy projects.

Prompt 1: “Help me plan a project to improve team productivity.”

The initial response included general suggestions, but it felt fairly broad and high-level.

Prompt 2: “Create a step-by-step productivity plan for a small team, including weekly check-ins and clear goals.”

The response immediately became more structured and actionable.

Prompt 3: “Turn this plan into a simple one-month productivity roadmap with specific tasks for each week.”

The final result felt much more practical — closer to something you could actually use with a team instead of a loose set of ideas.

Each prompt pushed the response closer to a real-world, usable plan. That final version felt less like a rough draft and more like a polished travel plan I could actually use.

Why the 3-prompt rule works

AI assistants respond best when they get clear direction, feedback and context. This is true no matter how much smarter and faster models become. As humans communicating with AI, we still have to detail what we really want. Honestly, we still have to do that human to human, who am I kidding?

The 3-prompt rule starts by pointing ChatGPT in the right direction, but the follow-up prompts help shape the result by clarifying what you really want, what needs improving and how the answer should be structured to best fit your needs.

That’s the shift most people miss. Instead of treating ChatGPT like a search engine, you’re treating it more like a collaborator. The process becomes iterative, and the output usually gets better with each step.

Bottom line

ChatGPT doesn’t always give you the best answer on the first try. But when you treat the interaction as an iterative process rather than a one-and-done prompt, the results can improve dramatically.

The 3-prompt rule is a simple habit, but it can turn ChatGPT from a quick-answer tool into a far more useful thinking partner. So before you settle for the first response, try refining your request a couple of times. You may be surprised by how much better the final answer becomes. Give it a try and let me know in the comments what you think.

Feature image credit: Getty Images

By Amanda Caswell

Amanda Caswell is one of today’s leading voices in AI and technology. A celebrated contributor to various news outlets, her sharp insights and relatable storytelling have earned her a loyal readership. Amanda’s work has been recognized with prestigious honors, including outstanding contribution to media.

Known for her ability to bring clarity to even the most complex topics, Amanda seamlessly blends innovation and creativity, inspiring readers to embrace the power of AI and emerging technologies. As a certified prompt engineer, she continues to push the boundaries of how humans and AI can work together.

Beyond her journalism career, Amanda is a long-distance runner and mom of three. She lives in New Jersey.

Sourced from tom’s guide

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Why Storytelling Is Critical For Personal Branding In The Age Of AI

April 9, 2026 No Comments

By William Arruda

There’s a reason Merriam-Webster selected slop as the word of the year in 2025. Two years ago, about 5% of web articles were AI-generated. Today it’s about 50%. The internet didn’t just grow. It multiplied. And if that isn’t dramatic enough, some experts predict that up to 90% of online content could be AI-generated in the next few years if current trends continue. The internet is drowning in content. What it lacks is perspective and originality. The current formula for building your personal brand online is breaking down.

Personal Branding Requires Visibility, Which Is Becoming Rare

Organic reach has collapsed. On many social media platforms, only 2–6% of followers see a typical post. Social media reach has dropped dramatically in just a few years. Neil Patel analysed 15,000 social media profiles and found that organic reach declined 61.83% over the last three years. When visibility decreases, the instinct is to post more. That reaction is predictable, and it’s exactly why visibility continues to fall.

In the years BC (before ChatGPT), about 5% of articles were AI-generated. By the start of 2025, approximately 50% of new web articles were AI-generated. That’s a tenfold increase in just a couple of years. AI isn’t just flooding the web with text. 34 million AI images are created daily, and 15+ billion AI images have been generated since 2022. To put that in perspective, AI produced 15 billion images in a year and a half. It took photography 149 years to reach that number. Although it’s tempting to respond by producing more content, that approach only adds to the noise. The real opportunity is to create content that is authentic, distinctive, meaningful, and genuinely worth engaging with. One of the most powerful ways to cut through the clutter is with stories.

Today, anyone can generate advice, frameworks, and listicles in seconds. Expertise alone is no longer enough to stand out. AI can assemble ideas at light speed, but it cannot replicate lived human experience. That’s why storytelling is becoming one of the most powerful ways to differentiate your personal brand. It’s among the top thought leadership trends for 2026.

Storytelling Is Powerful For Personal Branding

So why has storytelling become such a central element in personal branding today? Stories create human connection, something that is increasingly rare in our hybrid, tech-infused world of work. They allow you to build deeper emotional engagement with followers. Storytelling matters now because visibility is cheap, but meaning is rare. AI is amplifying the volume of hollow, unoriginal content. Real, relatable stories stand out immediately. Stories engage the brain in ways that help people remember and trust you. In fact, stories are 22 times more memorable than facts alone.

Not All Stories Are Ideal For Personal Branding

So what distinguishes brand stories that resonate from those that fall flat? Impactful stories are not overly polished, me-too, or self-congratulatory. Communications and storytelling expert, and author of Everybody Writes, Ann Handley, explains it this way, “A story becomes truly connective, memorable, meaningful when it does five things well:

1. It’s specific.

Concrete details. Actual people. Not “we faced challenges” (yawn) But “we almost pulled the plug at 4:57 p.m. on launch day.”

We want to feel the experience of one person. Think of the apocryphal quote: “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” Or let’s rewrite it for a business audience: One person’s experience is a story; a thousand datapoints is a boring dashboard.

2. It has tension.

Something is at stake. ANYTHING. A reputation, risk, or some kind of cost. If nothing is at stake, it’s not a story. No tension… no one is invested.

3. It shows change.

Show the movement from confusion to clarity or insight. Let us journey alongside you and feel the pain. Don’t just report it after the fact, like you’re reporting a five-car pileup on a freeway.

4. It doesn’t over-explain.

Trust your audience. They’re smart. You don’t need to over-stick the landing.

5. It’s emotionally honest.

Shows fears, missteps, miscalculations. Don’t airbrush or photoshop the struggle.

WAIT! One more:

6. The best stories answer this question:

Why should anyone care?”

On the other hand, stories that seek to impress instead of connect won’t enhance your brand, they’ll diminish it. When feeds are flooded with forgettable content, the posts that cut through usually have one thing in common: they connect through experiences, moments, and meaning.

These Stories Are Especially Powerful For Personal Branding

Some types of stories are particularly effective for personal branding. They aren’t self-aggrandizing and, most importantly, they feel authentic and heartfelt. People can quickly spot a contrived narrative. Keep it real and keep your focus on sharing value with your audience. Consider these types of stories:

The moment everything changed. Stories that highlight a turning point, decision, opportunity, or realization that shaped who you are today are inspiring and relatable. They make others consider their moments of epiphany.
The mistake that taught you something valuable. Failure stories are powerful when they are honest and useful. Polished perfection makes you seem distant, but mistakes make you relatable and credible.
Behind-the-scenes stories. Instead of sharing only the final results, show the process. This helps you include people in the journey instead of just showing them what happened at the destination.
The story about someone else. Personal branding has never been about you. It’s about how you deliver value to others. One of the most effective ways to build your brand is to shine a light on someone else. Meaningful lessons need to be personal, but you can be the observer, not the subject.
The experiment story. People enjoy watching someone try something new, not knowing how it will turn out. These stories inspire others to run their own experiments.

Follow This Simple Storytelling Structure

If storytelling feels intimidating, keep it simple. The most effective stories often follow a straightforward process:

The moment – What happened?
The insight – What did you learn?
The takeaway – Why does it matter for others?

Here’s a simple example.

Instead of posting generic advice like “Preparation is the key to great presentations,” a consultant might share the story of a presentation that didn’t go as planned, the moment they realized they had misread the audience, and the lesson they took away from it. That kind of post invites people into the experience and makes the insight far more memorable.

Storytelling Is Powerful For Standing Out And Building Your Personal Brand

Today, anyone can generate content. With the help of AI, a single person can produce more posts, articles, and images in a week than teams once produced in months. But the one thing that cannot be generated is lived experience. Your story — the moments that shaped your thinking, the lessons you learned the hard way, and the insights you gained along the journey — is what makes your voice distinct. In a world flooded with content, stories are how people remember you.

William Arruda is a keynote speaker, bestselling author, and personal branding pioneer. He works with leaders to help them deliver magnetic, mesmerizing, and memorable presentations in-person and online.

Feature image credit: Getty

By William Arruda

Find William Arruda on LinkedIn. Visit William’s website.

Sourced from Forbes