Using AI Right Now: A Business Guide

The landscape has shifted quite a bit in the last few months - it's less about finding the "best" model and more about finding the best overall system for what your business needs. Good news is picking an AI is actually easier than ever, though understanding how to use these increasingly complex tools effectively for business outcomes is the real challenge.

Which AI to Use for Business

For businesses wanting to use AI seriously, you've got three excellent choices: Claude (Anthropic), Google's Gemini, and OpenAI's ChatGPT. All three give you access to advanced and fast models, voice mode, document handling, code execution, decent mobile apps, and the ability to create images and video (though Claude can't do images yet). Some features are free, but you'll generally need to pay around $45-55 NZD/month per user for the full feature set your business needs.

There are other options - Grok if you're big on X, Microsoft's Copilot through Windows, or DeepSeek's free Chinese model - but honestly, just stick with Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT for most business applications.

Business Impact: Where AI Actually Helps

I spend considerable time helping businesses actually use AI to get things done, and the complexity can be overwhelming. Let me start with the practical business applications that are working well right now.

Deep Research: Your New Business Intelligence Tool

Deep Research is brilliant for producing high-quality reports that genuinely impress professionals I work with - lawyers, accountants, consultants, market researchers. This is where AI can immediately impact your business.

Practical business uses:

• Market analysis: "Analyse the current state of the New Zealand construction industry, focusing on residential building trends, key players, and regulatory changes affecting small to medium builders"

• Competitive intelligence: "Research our top 5 competitors in the Auckland accounting services market, including their pricing models, service offerings, and recent client wins"

• Regulatory compliance: "What are the recent changes to New Zealand employment law that affect small businesses with 10-50 employees? Include practical compliance steps"

• Supply chain research: "Find alternative suppliers for industrial packaging materials in the South Island, focusing on companies that can handle our minimum order quantities"

• Client research: "Research this potential client's business model, recent news, key personnel, and industry challenges" (brilliant for sales prep)

Deep Research reports aren't error-free but are far more accurate than just asking the AI directly, and the citations tend to be correct. Each system works slightly differently - Claude and o3 with web search enabled work as mini Deep Research tools, while Google offers options like turning reports into presentations or infographics you can use with clients.

Document and Content Creation: Scale Your Communications

All three systems can produce professional documents, presentations, analyses, and communications. This is where businesses see immediate productivity gains.

Business applications:

• Proposals and tenders: Give it your previous successful proposals and brief details about the new opportunity

• Client communications: "Draft a project update email for our client explaining the delay in the Auckland office fit-out due to supply chain issues, maintaining professional tone while being transparent about revised timelines"

• Policy documents: "Create an updated remote work policy for a 25-person Wellington tech company, incorporating recent changes to employment legislation"

• Training materials: "Develop onboarding materials for new sales staff covering our CRM system, client communication standards, and territory management"

• Financial reporting: Upload your data and ask for executive summaries, trend analyses, or board presentation materials

To get Gemini or ChatGPT to create professional documents reliably, select the Canvas option. Claude handles document creation well on its own.

The Right Model for Business Work

Each system offers multiple AI models - think of it like choosing the right tool for the job. You've got three tiers: fast models for casual tasks (Claude Sonnet, GPT-4o, Gemini Flash), powerful models for serious business work (Claude Opus, o3, Gemini Pro), and ultra-powerful models for complex analysis (o3-pro, which can take 20+ minutes to think through problems).

Fast models are fine for brainstorming or quick questions. But for anything business-critical - client proposals, financial analysis, strategic planning, legal document review - switch to the powerful model. Most systems default to the fast model to save computing power, so you need to manually switch using the model selector dropdown.

The free versions don't give you access to the most powerful models, so if you don't see these options, that's why you need the paid version for business use.

I use o3, Claude 4 Opus/Sonnet, and Gemini 2.5 Pro for serious business work. For most business applications, stick with these powerful models for anything important.

Privacy for Business: Claude doesn't train future models on your data, but Gemini and ChatGPT might (unless you're using business/enterprise versions). You can turn off training features in ChatGPT without losing functionality. For sensitive business information, this matters. Andrew wrote a good post on this on LInkedin

Voice Mode: Perfect for Mobile Professionals

Voice mode is brilliant for busy professionals. The best implementations are in the Gemini app and ChatGPT's app and website. Claude's voice mode is weaker.

The killer feature for business isn't just the conversation - it's sharing your screen or camera. Point your phone at contracts, spreadsheets, equipment, or site issues.

The AI sees what you see and responds in real-time. I've used it to:

• Review contracts while travelling

• Get quick analysis of financial data on screen

• Identify equipment issues on job sites

• Translate documents or signs when dealing with international suppliers

• Get instant feedback on presentations before client meetings

Most people use voice mode like Siri - you're missing the business applications.

Working with AI: Business Best Practices

The most recent AI models can often figure out what you want without complex prompts, so just approach it conversationally rather than getting too worried about exact wording.

Key principles for business use:

Give business context: Most AI models only know basic information and the current chat. Provide context: company background, industry specifics, previous successful documents, client requirements. Upload files, images, or detailed briefs using the file upload option.

Be specific about business outcomes: Instead of "Write a marketing email," try "I'm a Wellington-based accounting firm targeting small e-commerce businesses. Write a cold outreach email addressing their GST compliance challenges and our specialist e-commerce accounting services. Here's our service details: [paste]"

Ask for business alternatives: The AI doesn't get tired. Ask for 20 different approaches to a client problem, or 10 ways to improve a proposal. Then push the AI to expand on the approaches that resonate. But remember, treat it like you would any human. Be nice and give it context.

Use iterative refinement: All systems let you edit prompts after getting answers, creating conversation branches. This is perfect for refining business documents - you can explore different approaches and compare results.

Common Business Pitfalls

Hallucinations: While much improved, AI still makes confident mistakes. Answers are more reliable from the powerful models that do web searches. Always use AI for business topics you understand, and verify important facts, especially for client-facing work.

Not magic: The best AIs perform like very smart consultants on many tasks, but can't provide miraculous insights beyond human understanding. If something seems impossible, it probably isn't actually doing that.

Always engage: Have back-and-forth conversations. Don't just ask for responses - push the AI, ask for alternatives, request refinements. This is where the real business value comes from.

Verification: For business-critical work, click "show thinking" to see what the model was considering. Not 100% accurate, but helpful for understanding the reasoning behind recommendations.

Getting Started: Your First Business Applications

Pick a system and invest the $45/month per user (free versions are demos, not business tools). Then test these three business applications immediately:

First: Switch to the powerful model and give it a real business challenge - a client proposal, competitive analysis, or strategic planning question. Provide full context and have an interactive discussion. Ask for specific outputs and refine until you're happy with the business quality.

Second: Try Deep Research on a business question where you need comprehensive information - market analysis for a new service line, competitive intelligence, or regulatory research relevant to your industry.

Third: Use voice mode during your commute or between meetings to think through business problems, review presentations, or brainstorm solutions to client challenges.

The tools are genuinely impressive when used well for business applications. The key is understanding what they can actually do for your specific business needs and industry context.

Cheers, Tim