Every business article seems to mention ChatGPT these days. But between the hype and the fear-mongering, it’s hard to know what’s actually useful for a regular small business.

I’ve spent months experimenting with ChatGPT and talking to regional business owners using it. Here’s what actually works—and what’s oversold.

What Works Well

Drafting Business Communications

This is the most common practical use I’ve found. ChatGPT is surprisingly good at writing:

• Professional email responses
• Customer complaint resolutions
• Policy and procedure documents
• Job advertisements
• Social media posts

How to use it: Give context and tell it what you need. Instead of “write an email,” try “write a professional email to a customer who complained about late delivery. Apologise sincerely, explain we had supply chain issues, offer 15% off their next order. Keep it under 150 words and warm in tone.”

A café owner in Ballarat told me she saves an hour a week on email responses by drafting with ChatGPT first, then editing.

Research and Summarisation

Need to understand something quickly? ChatGPT can summarise complex topics, compare options, or explain things in plain language.

“I asked it to explain the new privacy law changes and what they meant for my business. Got a clear summary in two minutes instead of reading legal documents for an hour.”

Caveat: Always verify important information from primary sources. ChatGPT can be confidently wrong.

Brainstorming Ideas

Stuck on a marketing campaign? Need menu ideas? Want suggestions for handling a situation?

ChatGPT is excellent as a brainstorming partner. It won’t have brilliant original ideas, but it generates lots of options you can then filter and refine.

“I asked for 20 social media post ideas for our farm stay. Some were terrible, but three were good enough to use with minor editing.”

Editing and Improving Writing

Already written something? Paste it in and ask ChatGPT to improve clarity, fix grammar, make it more professional, or adjust the tone.

This is particularly useful for non-native English speakers or anyone who finds writing challenging.

Creating Templates

Need a template for something you do repeatedly? ChatGPT can create:

• Email templates for common situations
• Standard operating procedures
• Checklist documents
• FAQ responses

You’ll need to customise for your business, but starting from a template is faster than starting from scratch.

What Doesn’t Work Well

Factual Information About Recent Events

ChatGPT’s knowledge has a cutoff date. It doesn’t know about things that happened recently (unless you’re using the latest version with web browsing, and even then it’s unreliable).

Don’t use it for current news, recent regulations, or up-to-date market information.

Specific Local Knowledge

ChatGPT doesn’t know the specifics of your town, your industry regulations, or your particular customer base. It gives generic advice that might not apply to your situation.

“I asked for marketing advice for Shepparton. The suggestions were completely generic and could have been for any town anywhere.”

Numbers and Calculations

ChatGPT makes calculation errors. Don’t trust it for financial analysis, pricing calculations, or anything where numbers matter.

Legal and Financial Advice

It can summarise general concepts, but don’t rely on it for specific advice. Get professional help for anything consequential.

Anything Requiring Genuine Expertise

ChatGPT sounds confident but doesn’t actually understand things the way a human expert does. For complex decisions, use it as a starting point, not a final answer.

Practical Tips

Be Specific

The more context and detail you provide, the better the output. Bad prompt: “Write an ad.” Good prompt: “Write a Facebook ad for a Bendigo bakery promoting our new sourdough range. Target health-conscious locals aged 30-50. Emphasise that we use local ingredients and traditional methods. Include a call to action for weekend specials. Keep it under 80 words.”

Iterate

First response not quite right? Ask for changes. “Make it warmer,” “Add more urgency,” “Simplify the language.” ChatGPT remembers the conversation and can refine.

Review Everything

Never publish or send ChatGPT output without reading and editing. It makes mistakes, sounds generic sometimes, and doesn’t know your specific context.

Consider Privacy

Don’t paste sensitive customer information, financial data, or confidential business details into ChatGPT. That data gets processed by OpenAI.

Use the Free Version First

ChatGPT Free is sufficient for most small business uses. Try it before paying for Plus.

Getting Started

If you haven’t tried ChatGPT yet:

1. Go to chat.openai.com
2. Create a free account
3. Start with something low-stakes—draft a social media post or summarise an article
4. Experiment with different prompts to see what works
5. Gradually expand to other uses as you get comfortable

It’s not magic, and it won’t replace human judgment. But as a time-saving tool for routine business tasks, it’s genuinely useful.

Regional businesses have the same access to these tools as city businesses. That’s a small democratisation worth taking advantage of. SmartCompany regularly covers practical AI tools for Australian small businesses.

For businesses wanting to go beyond basic ChatGPT use and implement AI more strategically, Team400 works with regional businesses on practical AI applications tailored to specific business needs.