What to Do When Your CEO Starts Using ChatGPT
TLDR: Your CEO just dropped “I used ChatGPT” in a meeting. Suddenly, AI is on the agenda. But executive interest doesn’t mean your team is ready to act. This post explains what leaders are really doing with AI, why copying them won’t work, and what you should do to build practical capability without needing to code or wait for AI permission.
God Help Us, the CEO’s Using ChatGPT
It starts with a headline: “NVIDIA execs use ChatGPT for strategy.” “Salesforce leaders summarise meetings with AI.” “OpenAI’s COO brainstorms with GPT.”
Then your boss tries it. And now AI is “a priority.”
We’ve seen this before.
A single comment from the C-suite, and suddenly AI lands in your inbox, your stand-ups, your team objectives minus any clear plan, structure, or resources.
The problem isn’t the real problem. The problem is what happens next.
What They’re Actually Doing (and Not Doing)
According to Entrepreneur, senior leaders at NVIDIA, OpenAI, and Salesforce are using ChatGPT for very specific tasks:
- Summarising dense material
- Exploring early-stage ideas
- Drafting quick notes or emails
- They’re not automating entire workflows.
- They’re not handing decision-making to AI.
They’re using it the way most people use a calculator: to speed up something they already understand. Valuable work does not need to be suffering work...Now...it’s useful. It’s efficient. But.... it’s not a blueprint for your team.
Because what works for an executive reviewing board papers doesn’t translate to the service team buried in 90 minute manual processes using excel macros from Dawn who built it in 2006 before retiring.
What Happens If You Just Copy
Here’s where teams go wrong. They see a leader using ChatGPT for light summarising, so they try to roll it out across operations or client services: no context, no structure, no fit.
People test it once, it breaks, and they move on.
Or worse, they keep pretending to use it to look innovative (this is my favourite), while continuing the same manual work behind the scenes. The team burns out trying to “do AI” without any of the conditions that made it useful to the exec in the first place.
Do this Instead
Start by asking: where are we still wasting time on repetitive, low-stakes work Forget strategy decks. Forget 3 year roadmaps. Find the report you build every week. The intake form you reformat. The email you rewrite five times.
That’s where ChatGPT works.
Test it in that context.
Use public data. Keep it contained. Document what worked, and what didn’t.
Then talk about it. That’s how real capability starts.
CEOs Using ChatGPT Isn’t the Red Hot Signal
You don’t need to match the CEO’s use case. You need to respond to the opportunity. Executive interest is air cover. It gives you permission to try things without having to convince people that AI is relevant. But relevance isn’t the point. Execution is. What matters is whether your team can produce a single workflow that works better than it did before.
FAQ
Q: Why does it matter that CEOs are using ChatGPT?
Because it creates top-down endorsement. It signals that AI experimentation is acceptable. That removes a major blocker for most teams.
Q: Should we start using AI the same way our execs are?
Not directly. Execs use AI for thinking, prep, and summarising. Teams should use it where there's repeatable process and measurable output.
Q: We don’t have technical staff—can we still do something?
Yes. Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or no-code automation platforms require no coding. What matters more is choosing the right task.
Q: What’s a safe first step?
Start with internal content: SOPs, old reports, FAQs. Use AI to summarise or reformat. Avoid live customer interactions until it’s tested.
Q: What if leadership is watching but not helping?
Deliver one working example. A single 30% time-saving task is more convincing than another AI whiteboard session.
When your CEO says they’ve started using ChatGPT..... panic. This is bad news for you...hours spent on wasted whimms...rather... Don’t do a innovative theatre performance. Build one thing that works. Then move on to the next.