Haven’t heard of ChatGPT? Then where have you been for the last 3 months(?!) as this AI powered chatbot developed by tech company OpenAI has been taking the tech (and wider online) world by storm, hitting one million users in just five days after release. ChatGPT can write code, answer questions, write essays, and come up with ideas and intelligent answers to all manner of problems. Essentially it uses the same technology as previous AI tools (Siri, Alexa, Cortana) but better. ChatGPT writes like a human and the result is a far more life-like, intelligent dialogue than we’ve ever seen with a previous AI tool. ChatGPT can generate impressively detailed human-like written text, it admits its mistakes, challenges incorrect premises and can be programmed or prompted to answer in specific tones of voice.

However, since its release last November the question on many people’s lips has been, ‘will ChatGPT replace my job'? Writers are particularly worried, with BuzzFeed already saying they plan to use ChatGPT to create quizzes and other content previously created by humans for their website. Assistants are also asking questions, with concerns such as whether ChatGPT will alleviate the need for PAs and EAs being spoken about on online forums and among our community.

So, will ChatGPT replace the need for an assistant? Well, on one hand ChatGPT can definitely help with certain tasks such as proof reading, writing agendas, logging expenses, diary planning and helping to schedule and plan complex itineraries. However, as with writers and customer service executives the technology can never fully replace the need for human beings. As one writer puts it ‘it is important to recognise that they (AI technology) cannot fully replicate the creativity, nuance, and emotional intelligence that human writers bring to their work’. And the same can be said for assistants. While ChatGPT can draft and proofread an email, the middle part of crafting and personalising it comes down to you. The way to look at it is that this isn’t technology to be feared it’s there to be embraced and used to make you more efficient in your job.

When we look back at the role of an assistant over the past 70 years, taking into consideration massive technological advancements such as the internet, Google and email we see the role of the assistant is always in a state of evolution, morphing to complement shifts in technology, ways of working, and the business landscape. These technological advancements have alleviated the need for much of the mundane, low skilled assistant work of old such as typing pools and switchboard operators. Reducing the cognitive burden of repetitive tasks as well as the time they take means assistants have been able to divert their time towards high impact skills more suited to human beings, resulting in a more fulfilling and stimulating job better suited to today’s business needs.

So, how can an Assistant use ChatGPT on a practical level?

Language translation: ChatGPT can translate text from one language to another, allowing you to communicate with colleagues, clients, or stakeholders in other countries.

Generating summaries of large texts and documents: ChatGPT is good at summing up long pieces of text. This could be useful if you need to provide your boss with research on a person or company, sum up the day’s news or condense a report or document. You can even ask the tool to give you the most important points, pick up a quote or find information about the author(s). However, the caveat here is that with research you need to triple check everything as ChatGPT tends to make things up if it doesn’t know the answer. For instance, you can ask it to give you names of experts to interview about a given topic and it generally comes up with sound suggestions. However, if the topic is too niche, the tool may generate totally fictional names that sound like they could be experts from, say, a particular country.

Creating email subjects and writing draft emails: Although you will need to edit the final version, ChatGPT can speed up the process of emailing. Simply give it a summary of what you want to say and it will draft an email. You’ll need to edit the email but it’s a great starting point and be useful with emails that are sensitive or require a lot of planning.

Creating meeting agendas: Tell ChatGPT what the meeting needs to cover, the time you have available and who will be attending and it can draft an agenda.

Coming up with ideas: ChatGPT is great at idea generation and the more you use it the more you’ll get used to how to phrase your questions to get the best results. It can help with ideas for all sorts of things from questions to ask at a meeting to what to get for a client as a birthday gift.

Planning itineraries: Say your boss is traveling and needs an itinerary that includes train travel, a meeting, a hotel stay and a meal out, all in a city neither you nor they know well. You can give ChatGPT all the relevant information and ask it to plan you an itinerary for the day.

Generate questions and answers: This is useful when you are working on something you are not so familiar with. Perhaps you’re planning an event or helping your boss manage the renovation of a property, neither of which you have done before. Before meeting with suppliers, you could ask ChatGPT to come up with a selection of questions you should ask or certain things you should be double checking.

So, will ChatGPT replace the role of the assistant? No, absolutely not. Foremost, ChatGPT is another tool that assistants now have at their disposal and one that can help enormously on a day to day level, fundamentally by saving them time on certain tasks. However, as an assistant you bring the industry expertise, the execution, the critical thinking, the teamwork and collaboration, and the emotional intelligence to everything you do. A piece of technology will never trump that and savvy assistants will see advancements such as ChatGPT as things to be embraced and, if used well, in the long run could prove exceptionally useful in furthering their careers.