HBR IdeaCast How to Build an AI Assistant for Any Challenge
23 snips
Jul 8, 2025 
Tech speaker and journalist Alexandra Samuel shares her insights on harnessing AI as more than just a search engine. Many leaders are missing out on the real potential of AI tools like ChatGPT. Samuel encourages experimenting with AI assistants to improve decision-making and strategy. She discusses how to customize AI for tasks like project management and coaching, emphasizing the importance of context. The conversation also touches on the ethical considerations and evolving human-AI relationships. Get ready to empower your own AI development!
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Assistants Preserve Hard-Won Prompt Context
- AI assistants store your prompts and context so you don't repeat trial-and-error each session.
- Preloading instructions and files turns fleeting prompts into persistent capability.
Turn a Good Session Into A Reusable Prompt
- After a successful AI session, ask the model to summarize what worked and create bulleted instructions for future use.
- Paste that output into a custom assistant's instruction field to bootstrap your assistant quickly.
Feed Your Assistant Real Work Files
- Give your assistant example files you would give a human hire to onboard them quickly.
- Use reports, CSVs, and other core documents as background files for better outputs.
