One of the biggest mistakes people make when using AI for the first time is treating ChatGPT like Google. To be fair, anything you would Google, ChatGPT can answer, but that’s not really making the best use of ChatGPT.
Now that ChatGPT offers apps like Spotify, Apple Music, Target, Instacart, TripAdvisor and dozens more, it should be used as a thinking partner. In other words, you can chat with it like a human, which will make the quality of the answers dramatically better. Avoid being vague and lean into collaboration. That’s where you will find AI to be the most useful.
Making it all click
When you want a quick answer, use Google. It’s the fastest and least expensive way to get what you want. But as I recently explained on CBS Los Angeles, when you need help thinking about something, AI can offer real insight.
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For example, you might Google this: “Best work schedules for busy parents.”
But if you’re using ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity, the prompt would look more like: “Help me design a realistic work schedule for a parent who gets interrupted constantly, loses focus after 2 p.m. and only has short bursts of uninterrupted time.”
Both help with a real problem, but AI will deliver something far more personal that you can truly use. AI tailors solutions for you. And, if you enable Memory mode, it will continue to deliver results specifically for you and your life.
Avoiding generalizatioins for improved productivity
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When you treat AI like a companion, it will start sounding more like an actual problem-solving assistant. In the prompt above, for example, you’ll get flexible work blocks, realistic expectations, backup plans for interruptions and strategies built around mental fatigue. Google simply cannot give you that.
When you intentionally use AI as a collaborator rather than a search engine, the answers will be designed for you. Think of it this way, Google retrieves information. AI helps shape it Search engines are designed to help you find existing information.
AI is different. It’s designed to work with information, to reorganize it, adapt it, simplify it, challenge it and build on top of it. Once you know that, it completely changes how you use tools like ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude.
Google vs. AI
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Google works best when you already know what you need, want a fast factual answer or you’re searching for a specific website, product or piece of information. ChatGPT on the other hand is far more useful when your thoughts are messy, you feel overwhelmed, you don’t know where to begin, you need help structuring ideas or you want feedback or iteration.
The best results I’ve gotten from AI weren’t from asking for facts. In fact, you’re going to want to fact check if you’re getting information from AI. I use tools like ChatGPT to challenge my thinking, identify patterns that I may not have found alone, simplify difficult decisions or turn my vague thoughts into actionable plans.
Once you stop searching and start collaborating knowing why AI is actually useful will fully make sense.
The takeaway
Everyone has done it, but once you stop using ChatGPT as a lookup tool and more like a second brain, you’ll discover how good it is at untangling mental clutter. Personally, when my thoughts feel scattered or overloaded, I use AI to break the tasks into smaller steps, reframe problems or simply reduce my mental load. I would never ask Google to do that, but AI is made for those types of tasks.
Your responses will become sharper, more personalized and more practical when you prompt AI differently. Because the goal isn’t just finding information fast, but making sense of what to do it. Give it a try and let me know what you think in the comments.
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