May 18, 2025 • 22 mins
AI is like having a super smart intern, working for you 24/7
This is how my guest in this episode, Neha Kirpalani, describes the impact AI has had on her brand consultancy business.
Chat GPT and Claude are Neha’s go to AI tools that helped her productivity skyrocket. From creating pitch decks in 2 days, to supporting her with everyday life decisions, Neha couldn’t run her business without it now.
Neha also shares the big lessons she has learned from using AI, such as start small and always check the results you get.
Whether you're overwhelmed by AI hype or just starting to explore the tools, Neha offers a grounded, expert take on how to get value without getting lost.
Tune in to hear how Neha uses AI as her behind-the-scenes business partner — and how you can too.
"AI is like a secret co-founder”- Neha
You’ll hear about:
- The essential tools in Neha’s AI stack (and why ChatGPT and Claude top her list)
- How she used AI to turn around a pitch deck in two days
- Why you should never copy-paste blindly
- What business owners get wrong about replacing marketers with machines
- Why AI is best seen as a collaborator — not a crutch
Connect With Neha:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nehakirpalani/
Neha’s newsletter - https://nehakirpalani.kit.com/marketing-macarons-2
Neha’s Linktree - https://linktr.ee/nehakirpalani
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nehakirpalani
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@NehaKirpalani
Find out more about Neha’s resources on timeboxing and time management:
Neha’s Harvard Business Review piece: https://hbr.org/2021/09/whats-the-1-productivity-tool-for-me-its-timeboxing
Neha’s New York Times feature: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-ai-scheduling-apps/
Connect With Me:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/accessible-ai/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/heather_aifnt/?hl=en
AI for Non-Techies - https://nontechies.ai/home
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@aifornontechies
Join my Academy - https://nontechies.ai/ai-academy
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Neha Kirpalani (00:00):
I can really
punch above my weight, you know,
as an entrepreneur, and I'm
armed with this, like invisible
army. So I always say, like, AI
is like a secret co founder that
nobody really knows about. Give
yourself the ability to use
this, you know, and allow
yourself to leverage it, because
everyone else so you might as
well start. I
Heather Murray (00:34):
Hello and
welcome to another episode of
How I Use AI. This is a podcast
that is trying to tell the real
stories of real people using AI.
I think it's really important
everyone's talking about how
amazing AI is. And I want to
know real real stories, real
successes, real results,
specifics tools that are used. I
want to know the tools that are
(00:54):
really good and the ones that
are really not worth bothering
as well. So I'm interviewing
real life people who are using
AI in their everyday life from a
range of different jobs and
range of industries all around
the world. So welcome to Neha
today, who is an entrepreneur,
Harvard Business Review writer,
dei champion and a marketing
consultant who's based in India,
but she has clients all around
(01:15):
the world. Neha, would you
kindly please introduce yourself
and give us a bit of background
about who you are. Yeah,
absolutely. Thank you for that
introduction. And like I said,
I'm super excited to sit down
and chat with you about all
things AI. I think we've been
connected for quite some time
now, and I obviously consume a
lot of your content, including
your newsletter, and that's
where I get most of my AI news
(01:36):
from anyway. So a very, very big
fan of yours and really glad to
sit down with you. So I'm an
entrepreneur, I'm a marketing
consultant, I'm a business
strategist, and I am also a
productivity expert. I've
written an article on time
boxing in the Harvard Business
Review. I've also just recently
been featured in The New York
Times as part of my work in time
(01:59):
boxing and productivity.
Amazing. Thank you. And yeah,
I'm happy to chat with you today
about AI and helping you know,
regular folks like us kind of
adopt the tools and technologies
and kind of demystify it a bit
and understand, you know, how we
can use it in our day to day
workflows and processes.
(02:20):
Excellent, excellent. Wow. Super
impressive. So could I ask, sort
of, what tools do you use in
your everyday What are you
really rating at the moment?
Yeah. So I think, like 99% of
people who use AI, I probably
use chatgpt The most, and
Claude. I think these are my
primary tools. I'm also a big
fan of gamma, and I'll tell you
(02:40):
a little later why. And I've
also been using AI note takers,
obviously, as part of meetings,
and it's just that much easier
to kind of stay present in the
moment and not have to, you
know, sit and take notes while
you're having a conversation. So
that's been super helpful in
terms of the output of AI note
takers. I think there's still a
little ways to go when it comes
(03:01):
to exact transcriptions, but
we're getting there. So the
summaries are really helpful,
the action points and the
takeaways are really helpful.
And I'm also a big fan of I
don't know a lot of people
aren't talking about this, but I
love the AI search summaries.
You know, the little summary
that you get at the top of the
search results page. I
personally don't read um beyond
that 90% of the time, because I
(03:22):
get my answer right away, yeah.
So I'm a big fan of that. So
these are my, um, you know, main
kind of AI tools and and things
in my AI stack. Excellent,
excellent. It's really
interesting that you said gamma,
because we, I'm recording three
of these podcast episodes, and
we the gamma came up as a
disappointing tool in the in the
last one, what tell us about
(03:42):
what you like about it? I think
it's good. I would say it has
potential. But for me, the
output that final version, I
know that you can add in your
own branding colours, but the
design just isn't there. For me,
like, how do you feel about it?
So for me, primarily from a time
saving perspective, okay, I'll
give you an example. So I
basically created the content
myself on a Google document,
(04:03):
kind of gave it the context, and
that was it, you know, and it
gave me a pretty good outline
and structure, which would have
saved me, like, four to six
hours, easily, having to, you
know, put the slides together,
and then it's a question of,
like, obviously going in and
editing and refining it to make
it, you know, within your Brand
colours. You can use different
fonts. So you can really
(04:23):
customise it. That's what I
really appreciate it. So the
time savings aspect of it, and I
recently, like, I had a client
reach out to me and saying, you
know, we need to do a pitch
deck. So can you, like, Give us
something really quickly? And it
was like a two day turnaround,
really, really short turnaround.
So having to do all of that
within that short time, spread
(04:45):
and time span would have been
really difficult without, like
an AI tool, yeah, and then
obviously a question of, you
know, as a human going in and
kind of perfecting it and
refining it. So I always say AI
is like a great collaboration
tool, but it's not. I would
never like depend on the end of.
Neha Kirpalani (05:00):
Output itself,
because it's not there yet. You
know, like you said, even with
writing, AI doesn't have the
capabilities yet. And I can't
stand the way AI writes, even if
you tell it, you know, no
emojis, no em dashes, you know,
big, chunky parts of text. I
don't like any of that, so I
think it's it still has a ways
to go when it comes to writing
and certain features, but for
(05:20):
the most part, I think it's
quite serviceable at the
Heather Murray (05:23):
moment. Yeah, I
think that it's really
interesting, that it gets you a
big chunk of the way. And I
think a lot of people are really
misunderstanding what it is in
that they think it could one
click and they'll get the result
that they want. It's not that it
will take, you know, something
that used to take four days now
takes one day. For instance, an
example I've got. I'm using Gen
Spark, a super agent at the
(05:44):
moment, which I'm just I can't
believe how good it is. And it
takes me on building a become an
AI trainer course right now. And
it's like that collaborator.
It's able to go back and forth.
And each module will normally
take me maybe three or four days
to map out and to flesh out and
to do the assessments and make
sure everything's really good. I
got each module done in a day,
(06:04):
and that is just transformative
for me. That's unbelievable. And
it's all about getting you that
first chunk, isn't it?
Absolutely it's like having a
team
Neha Kirpalani (06:11):
of assistants
working for you pretty much 24/7
right? Think of it as a really,
really smart intern, but
somebody who doesn't have an ego
and who's willing to, like,
learn and try things and and the
better you prompt it, obviously,
the better your output. So you
have to be really specific in
telling it the context. You
know, otherwise, we're just
going to get very generic kind
of results. You know, no matter
(06:33):
what the tool is like you said,
it's not magic, it's not a one
click solution, you still bring
in your kind of insights and
recommendations and and your
context. I think that's the most
important thing. When it comes
to any AI tool, whether it's a
image based or or video based,
or even text based, kind of
really have to prompt. Well,
yeah, 100% and I think it's
(06:54):
really interesting. You compared
it to kind of having an
assistant, because I think also
it's like as well as the
enthusiasm and the energy and
always being on and perhaps
having a lesser kind of
knowledge base than you. I think
in the way it works, it's also
very keen to please you, isn't
it? So it will always agree with
you. It will always, if you
state something as a fact, it
will just go, yeah, yeah, that's
right. And I think that's really
(07:15):
something to be aware of, isn't
it? Because if you you need to
explicitly say, critically,
analyse what I'm saying. You
know, go against don't be afraid
to kind of disagree with me,
because it's naturally
programmed to be so agreeable,
and that's wonderful, and it
feels nice to use, but it's not
very productive. I don't think,
yeah so. And I also feel like
one of the drop main drawbacks
(07:36):
and challenges at the moment is
that obviously the
hallucination, I think it's
really challenging to kind of,
and so you have to be really
critical, you know, you have to
fact check everything that comes
out of it, because you never
know, like, if you ask for a
source, it's like, Oh, yeah.
Maybe I was kind of like,
depend, you know, like, making
stuff not it wouldn't say making
stuff up, but it'd be like,
(07:57):
Yeah, I based it off of the
context that you gave me. But,
but you should always, like,
critically evaluate every single
output that comes out of it,
especially if you're going to be
using it, you know, in a
commercial setting and a
perspective. So I would never
kind of copy paste any output
blindly. I think it's, it
doesn't serve the purpose and
it's not fit to work. So I think
it's, you have to play around
(08:17):
with the tool. You have to
collaborate with the tool and
challenge it back, you know,
like you said it, you know, ask
it to challenge you and push
back, but you do the same with
it, you know, ask for reasoning,
ask for logic about why it's
come up with certain things. And
I think that really helps the
tool kind of perfect itself and
get better and learn from you.
Yeah? And like I said, Give it,
(08:38):
like, tonnes of context.
Unknown (08:40):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
And I think, like you say that
that pro exactly that it's
learning how to communicate with
this technology, isn't it? It
might understand us
conversationally, but you still
need to put in certain
parameters. And like you say,
kind of push, push back on it.
Definitely. I think it's also
important to be in the hands of
the expert, because you can't
say if it was a copywriter, and
(09:00):
you a person who's never done
any copywriting, can't possibly
write a really good prompt. So
I've know a lot of businesses at
the beginning, it's less so now,
and I think people are
understanding this now that they
say, I don't need a copywriter.
I'll just have an all purpose
intern that can do our
copywriting for us, our editing
for us. They can't describe what
good looks like, so therefore,
they can't write about good
(09:21):
prompts, and they can't
recognise it the other side to
critically analyse the results.
So I think a lot of people
underestimate AI, but then
there's a whole segment of
people that really overestimate
what AI can do. And I've also
heard talk about, you know,
being in the marketing industry,
I've heard people say, Oh, I
don't need a marketer. I don't
need a strategist. I have AI. I
(09:42):
was like, good luck. You know,
like, go ahead, prompt it the
best you can and see the output
it gives you. And then, you
know, take a take an informed
decision, because it's very easy
to kind of imagine, and, you
know, visualise what it's going
to be, what your results are
going to be. But. Unless you've
tried it, you never really know
(10:02):
what you know, what it what it
spits out at you. So I think the
trick really is to use it as a
partner, and for somebody who's
never used AI, right? I think
you need to really start small,
like, don't go out there and try
10 different tools on day one,
you're gonna get overwhelmed,
you're gonna get worried, and
you're gonna, you know, we're
gonna get frustrated. You're
(10:22):
gonna frustrated, you're going
to, you can put it aside. So
there's really no point over
committing. So commit to just
one or maybe two tools for
certain use cases. So for
example, you want to research
something, or you want to edit
something, so give it a specific
output or task that it needs to
do. And, yeah, just, just play
around with it. Try to even with
(10:44):
the same task. And once you get
the output, refine your own
input and see what comes out
once you do that. So tweak your
prompts. And I think another
thing that's really helped me is
obviously, like learning from
people who are like, at the
cutting edge of kind of AI
adoption and usage, right? So,
for example, there's somebody on
LinkedIn learning called Dave
(11:05):
worse, and he has a whole kind
of multiple libraries of
prompts, and I think he has a
newsletter as well. I'm actually
connected with him because I
took a couple of his LinkedIn
learning courses and I loved
them, and was so simple, because
he kind of explained AI in a way
that was really easy to, like,
digest and understand, and that
really gave me the confidence to
(11:26):
start, you know, I was like,
Okay, this isn't that hard. I
can figure this out. So I think
it's just find your kind of the
resources that work for you, or
the or the content creators that
have, and there's so many people
and yourself included, you know,
who are doing such great work
around getting people to really
adopt AI and use it on a day to
(11:47):
day basis? You know, I've had,
I've had a friend recently. It's
hilarious, but she literally
showed us in a book we're all in
a book club together, and she
showed us how she uses AI as a
mentor and a coach and kind of
like a therapist. And I thought
that was such an incredible use
of AI, because it has so much
context on her already. Yeah. So
(12:07):
why not, kind of, you know, take
it to another level. I
personally have used it for,
like, things like travel
planning and, you know, to be
the best restaurants to go to in
a particular city in New York,
for example. So there's, there's
literally no limit to what you
can use it for. It's just you
need to, like, think about how
you want to use it, and
obviously, like, be goal
(12:29):
oriented in that you use it for
specific use case. And then once
you start doing it, I think you
get the confidence, you know,
and you build that muscle
memory, or whatever it's called,
you know, you start to get
better at it as, yeah, I think
that kind
of when people ask, people ask
me, like crazy, what? How do I
get started like you say it's,
there's so much out there, and
it really does go into every
area of your life, inside and
(12:49):
outside of work. And for me,
it's something I grab as easily
now as the internet. It's, it's,
it's that integrated into my my
day. I very rarely Google
nowadays. I know that you're
into it. There's a for me. It's
all about this kind of more
bespoke advice. And like you
say, with chat GPT, knowing so
much about me, and in the UK, we
don't even have the full memory.
Have you got that? In India, the
(13:10):
full memory yet, actually the
where it can remember
everything.
So chatgpt remembers practically
all of our conversations. Yeah.
And I could reference like, a
different conversation or a
different chat I've had with it,
and be like, remember the
results, or remember the context
from this and apply it here. And
I get pretty close to where I'm
going, because there are limits
right on the free plan. So you
have to kind of be creative
(13:31):
about how you how you use
different chats and things like
that. And then that's why I
have, like, a backup, because if
chatgpt is over the limit and I
need something urgently, I go
into plot and vice versa, and I
think for the most part, the
results are pretty similar,
like, I haven't noticed too much
of a drastic difference, but the
longest time, I resisted having
chat GPT on my phone. But now
(13:53):
that I have it, I can't do
without it, and I feel so I'm
not ashamed. But you know what I
mean? Like, it's maybe, am I
getting too dependent on this
technology? Am I telling you too
much of my secrets? And you
know,
Heather Murray (14:03):
I think exactly
the same thing all the time. I
think, oh, wow, this is really,
I probably am officially
dependent on this stuff now. But
like you said, it's a really
good point about the two
different having a backup,
because they glitch all the
time, don't they? I actually did
a chat GPT workshop, and at the
beginning of the workshop, live,
all these people chat. GPT went
down, and it went down for
hours. So I just said this is
(14:24):
now going to be a Claude
workshop, and we'll focus in on
so being able to kind of switch
between the two, because when
you start using these tools,
they become very important to
you. It's like having for those
who use Microsoft, it's like
having word go down, or for
those who use Google, it's like
the whole of imagine Google
Drive goes down Google, Google
workspace, and you can't access
anything, it starts to feel, Oh,
(14:44):
what do I do now? And it even
with AI note takers, is another
one. So I find with AI note
takers, when they don't attend,
sometimes they don't arrive in a
meeting, and I suddenly think,
oh, where's my pad of paper
gone? I've got to remember how I
did it before it's I've changed
that much. So what would you
say? A to somebody who is just
starting out, and they are a bit
(15:05):
cynical, a bit dubious about all
things AI, and they have got
maybe 20 to 50 pounds to spend
per month, and they're saying,
right, okay, I do want to get
into this, but where would you
recommend that they start, and
what sort of lessons have you?
Did you learn at the beginning?
Okay,
Unknown (15:22):
that's a really good
question. I would put a zero
budget to it for the first three
months at least, because I don't
think you need to get like, the
latest and the most advanced
version of chatgpt, for example,
or any of the paid versions of
it, because unless you try it, I
don't think you know how it
works, and whether it works for
(15:43):
you or not. And then the other
thing I would say is obviously
start smaller. Like I said, kind
of there's a lot of great
content and resources available
for free anyway, so start
leveraging those to begin with
what I do that really helps, and
what I did in the past, at least
in the initial few months, or up
to a year, was set aside a
(16:04):
dedicated time per week to
really, like, play with it, um,
and put it in your calendar and
have it, like, non negotiable
time, you know, because if you
don't commit to it, you're, it's
just going to fall off and
you're never going to get to it,
you know, because there's,
everyone's busy. Everyone has a
million things to do. Um,
there's never enough time in a
day. Ask me. Like, you know,
we're entrepreneurs, we'd never
have enough time, but if you
(16:25):
don't carve out time for it,
it's never gonna happen. So do
like, a week, an hour a week,
you know, start small, start
there, and then build on top of
that. Like, just try to
subscribe to a few newsletters.
If you can't do anything else,
if you don't want to start
prompting and testing right
away, do that and just read,
read, read consumers as much
(16:46):
content as you can around AI as
a topic, you know, set up like
Google Alerts or whatever it
takes. Another great resource is
obviously like podcasts and long
form content. And there are
obviously like smaller podcasts,
and, you know, bite sized pieces
that you can dip in and out of
in your date 15 minutes, like
hours or 10 minutes, five
(17:06):
minutes, 20 minutes, whatever
time you have and you want to
set aside, make a plan and kind
of commit to it and stick to it.
And I think that's a great way
to get started. So first three
months, I would say, don't even
spend any money. I
think that's excellent advice. I
love that and that. So it's
something I learned probably
years in is that non negotiable
experimentation time, I kind of
put I started calling it play
(17:27):
time, and then I had to call it
experimentation, because it's
that, because I ended up just
saying, oh, booking things over
it as entrepreneurs do, we were
always got, you know, a million
things to do. So I ended up not
doing it. But actually, when
you're thinking about that, hour
could save you 10,000 you know,
it might not be that specific
hour, but if you put in sort of
10 hours over 10 weeks, you are
very likely to save at least
(17:48):
1000 times that. That amount, at
least probably more. It's well
worth it.
Neha Kirpalani (17:53):
Yeah, and the
results really start to stack.
Haven't you noticed? Like, for
example, as a small team, or,
like, I started as a
solopreneur. Now I just have one
or two other people in my team,
like one full time and a couple
of part time people I can really
punch above my weight, you know,
as an entrepreneur, and I'm
armed with this, like invisible
army. So I always say, like AI
is like a secret co founder that
(18:14):
nobody really knows about. Give
yourself the ability to use
this, you know, and allow
yourself to leverage it because
everyone else so you might as
well start, you know. And I
always, I feel like the at the
pace we're headed and at the
scale of expansion and like,
mass, really, mass scale
(18:34):
adoption, I think if you don't
use AI for even the most basic
things, and, you know, build on
top of that, I think it's you're
just going to be left behind,
because, like, people who are AI
powered are are getting better
or put faster. You know, you can
save that time and use it for
things like strategic thinking
and planning and deep work and
(18:54):
things like that, stuff that AI
doesn't really do as well yet,
but as a human, we have the
ability to do that. So, you
know, it's kind of like figuring
out your own strengths, kind of
playing to your own strengths,
and then outsourcing the rest
that doesn't that eats up too
much of your time or that you
don't want to kind of waste, you
know, precious resource on,
yeah.
Heather Murray (19:14):
So a great,
yeah, a great way to start would
be, you know, and actually, I
think I started saying this
earlier and didn't finish when
people ask me where to start,
just say, just map out, map out
what you do in a week, and then
put a tick against the things
you don't enjoy that much and
that, then you start off and see
if AI can help you. Can help you
with that, because chances are
it probably can lots of
repetitive research type tasks,
(19:36):
analysis tasks it can do,
gathering data, distilling data,
creating draft content, editing
things, you know, creating
processes. And that's, yeah,
it's just the very beginning of
it, really, there
Unknown (19:46):
just the other just the
other day, I had a 75 page
document that I had to go
through. I obviously didn't want
to do that, so I just made chat
GPT, kind of read it and
summarise the key points and
then tell me, like action items.
Another. Use Case I had recently
was I was studying for a French
exam, and I had chat GPT,
actually clan and chat GPT both
(20:08):
correct, like my written
exercises helped me transcribe
listening exercises. So that was
really helpful, because I would
need a human, you know, Coach to
kind of do that. And I did have
a human coach. But this was,
like an extra layer, yeah, that
it could so there's literally, I
can't think of anything that I
can't do with AI, yeah, to some
(20:29):
degree, yeah, to some degree,
you know, at least, at least get
words on a page, and then it's
your job to kind of perfect that
and improve that, or at least
get some thoughts down and ideas
down, and then you kind of build
on top of that. Because, you
know, like, there's nothing
harder than staring at a blank
page or a blank it's the hardest
thing in the world. So if you
(20:50):
have some starting point and
then you want kind of AI to
partner with you to kind of
improve that, or work with you
through that as a sounding
board. Why not? Yeah,
Heather Murray (21:00):
exactly. That's
wonderful. Well, thank you so
much. That was a fountain of
value. So much. Really good
thoughts there. Really, really
appreciate it. Thank you so much
for joining us. Neha and how in
contact with you, if they'd like
to get in touch.
Unknown (21:14):
So LinkedIn is the best
way to kind of reach out to me,
because I'm very, very actual.
On LinkedIn, I also have a
newsletter which one of the
topics and one of the key themes
is obviously AI and things that
I have personally tested and
used, so I share like prompts
that I've tried, or new tools
that I've been using or
exploring. So that would be a
nice way to kind of start, I
(21:36):
guess, with with content around
AI for someone who's pretty much
never used any AI tool, and
wants to kind of get their
figure added
and get started. Perfect. I'll
put the link underneath. I'll
get the link from you and put it
underneath the show notes. So
thank you so much again. And
yeah, we'll I'll speak to you
soon, hopefully we'll have
further conversations. Thank you
very much. Thank you so
Neha Kirpalani (21:57):
much. Thanks a
lot. You.
I can really
punch above my weight, you know,
as an entrepreneur, and I'm
armed with this, like invisible
army. So I always say, like, AI
is like a secret co founder that
nobody really knows about. Give
yourself the ability to use
this, you know, and allow
yourself to leverage it, because
everyone else so you might as
well start. I
Heather Murray (00:34):
Hello and
welcome to another episode of
How I Use AI. This is a podcast
that is trying to tell the real
stories of real people using AI.
I think it's really important
everyone's talking about how
amazing AI is. And I want to
know real real stories, real
successes, real results,
specifics tools that are used. I
want to know the tools that are
(00:54):
really good and the ones that
are really not worth bothering
as well. So I'm interviewing
real life people who are using
AI in their everyday life from a
range of different jobs and
range of industries all around
the world. So welcome to Neha
today, who is an entrepreneur,
Harvard Business Review writer,
dei champion and a marketing
consultant who's based in India,
but she has clients all around
(01:15):
the world. Neha, would you
kindly please introduce yourself
and give us a bit of background
about who you are. Yeah,
absolutely. Thank you for that
introduction. And like I said,
I'm super excited to sit down
and chat with you about all
things AI. I think we've been
connected for quite some time
now, and I obviously consume a
lot of your content, including
your newsletter, and that's
where I get most of my AI news
(01:36):
from anyway. So a very, very big
fan of yours and really glad to
sit down with you. So I'm an
entrepreneur, I'm a marketing
consultant, I'm a business
strategist, and I am also a
productivity expert. I've
written an article on time
boxing in the Harvard Business
Review. I've also just recently
been featured in The New York
Times as part of my work in time
(01:59):
boxing and productivity.
Amazing. Thank you. And yeah,
I'm happy to chat with you today
about AI and helping you know,
regular folks like us kind of
adopt the tools and technologies
and kind of demystify it a bit
and understand, you know, how we
can use it in our day to day
workflows and processes.
(02:20):
Excellent, excellent. Wow. Super
impressive. So could I ask, sort
of, what tools do you use in
your everyday What are you
really rating at the moment?
Yeah. So I think, like 99% of
people who use AI, I probably
use chatgpt The most, and
Claude. I think these are my
primary tools. I'm also a big
fan of gamma, and I'll tell you
(02:40):
a little later why. And I've
also been using AI note takers,
obviously, as part of meetings,
and it's just that much easier
to kind of stay present in the
moment and not have to, you
know, sit and take notes while
you're having a conversation. So
that's been super helpful in
terms of the output of AI note
takers. I think there's still a
little ways to go when it comes
(03:01):
to exact transcriptions, but
we're getting there. So the
summaries are really helpful,
the action points and the
takeaways are really helpful.
And I'm also a big fan of I
don't know a lot of people
aren't talking about this, but I
love the AI search summaries.
You know, the little summary
that you get at the top of the
search results page. I
personally don't read um beyond
that 90% of the time, because I
(03:22):
get my answer right away, yeah.
So I'm a big fan of that. So
these are my, um, you know, main
kind of AI tools and and things
in my AI stack. Excellent,
excellent. It's really
interesting that you said gamma,
because we, I'm recording three
of these podcast episodes, and
we the gamma came up as a
disappointing tool in the in the
last one, what tell us about
(03:42):
what you like about it? I think
it's good. I would say it has
potential. But for me, the
output that final version, I
know that you can add in your
own branding colours, but the
design just isn't there. For me,
like, how do you feel about it?
So for me, primarily from a time
saving perspective, okay, I'll
give you an example. So I
basically created the content
myself on a Google document,
(04:03):
kind of gave it the context, and
that was it, you know, and it
gave me a pretty good outline
and structure, which would have
saved me, like, four to six
hours, easily, having to, you
know, put the slides together,
and then it's a question of,
like, obviously going in and
editing and refining it to make
it, you know, within your Brand
colours. You can use different
fonts. So you can really
(04:23):
customise it. That's what I
really appreciate it. So the
time savings aspect of it, and I
recently, like, I had a client
reach out to me and saying, you
know, we need to do a pitch
deck. So can you, like, Give us
something really quickly? And it
was like a two day turnaround,
really, really short turnaround.
So having to do all of that
within that short time, spread
(04:45):
and time span would have been
really difficult without, like
an AI tool, yeah, and then
obviously a question of, you
know, as a human going in and
kind of perfecting it and
refining it. So I always say AI
is like a great collaboration
tool, but it's not. I would
never like depend on the end of.
Neha Kirpalani (05:00):
Output itself,
because it's not there yet. You
know, like you said, even with
writing, AI doesn't have the
capabilities yet. And I can't
stand the way AI writes, even if
you tell it, you know, no
emojis, no em dashes, you know,
big, chunky parts of text. I
don't like any of that, so I
think it's it still has a ways
to go when it comes to writing
and certain features, but for
(05:20):
the most part, I think it's
quite serviceable at the
Heather Murray (05:23):
moment. Yeah, I
think that it's really
interesting, that it gets you a
big chunk of the way. And I
think a lot of people are really
misunderstanding what it is in
that they think it could one
click and they'll get the result
that they want. It's not that it
will take, you know, something
that used to take four days now
takes one day. For instance, an
example I've got. I'm using Gen
Spark, a super agent at the
(05:44):
moment, which I'm just I can't
believe how good it is. And it
takes me on building a become an
AI trainer course right now. And
it's like that collaborator.
It's able to go back and forth.
And each module will normally
take me maybe three or four days
to map out and to flesh out and
to do the assessments and make
sure everything's really good. I
got each module done in a day,
(06:04):
and that is just transformative
for me. That's unbelievable. And
it's all about getting you that
first chunk, isn't it?
Absolutely it's like having a
team
Neha Kirpalani (06:11):
of assistants
working for you pretty much 24/7
right? Think of it as a really,
really smart intern, but
somebody who doesn't have an ego
and who's willing to, like,
learn and try things and and the
better you prompt it, obviously,
the better your output. So you
have to be really specific in
telling it the context. You
know, otherwise, we're just
going to get very generic kind
of results. You know, no matter
(06:33):
what the tool is like you said,
it's not magic, it's not a one
click solution, you still bring
in your kind of insights and
recommendations and and your
context. I think that's the most
important thing. When it comes
to any AI tool, whether it's a
image based or or video based,
or even text based, kind of
really have to prompt. Well,
yeah, 100% and I think it's
(06:54):
really interesting. You compared
it to kind of having an
assistant, because I think also
it's like as well as the
enthusiasm and the energy and
always being on and perhaps
having a lesser kind of
knowledge base than you. I think
in the way it works, it's also
very keen to please you, isn't
it? So it will always agree with
you. It will always, if you
state something as a fact, it
will just go, yeah, yeah, that's
right. And I think that's really
(07:15):
something to be aware of, isn't
it? Because if you you need to
explicitly say, critically,
analyse what I'm saying. You
know, go against don't be afraid
to kind of disagree with me,
because it's naturally
programmed to be so agreeable,
and that's wonderful, and it
feels nice to use, but it's not
very productive. I don't think,
yeah so. And I also feel like
one of the drop main drawbacks
(07:36):
and challenges at the moment is
that obviously the
hallucination, I think it's
really challenging to kind of,
and so you have to be really
critical, you know, you have to
fact check everything that comes
out of it, because you never
know, like, if you ask for a
source, it's like, Oh, yeah.
Maybe I was kind of like,
depend, you know, like, making
stuff not it wouldn't say making
stuff up, but it'd be like,
(07:57):
Yeah, I based it off of the
context that you gave me. But,
but you should always, like,
critically evaluate every single
output that comes out of it,
especially if you're going to be
using it, you know, in a
commercial setting and a
perspective. So I would never
kind of copy paste any output
blindly. I think it's, it
doesn't serve the purpose and
it's not fit to work. So I think
it's, you have to play around
(08:17):
with the tool. You have to
collaborate with the tool and
challenge it back, you know,
like you said it, you know, ask
it to challenge you and push
back, but you do the same with
it, you know, ask for reasoning,
ask for logic about why it's
come up with certain things. And
I think that really helps the
tool kind of perfect itself and
get better and learn from you.
Yeah? And like I said, Give it,
(08:38):
like, tonnes of context.
Unknown (08:40):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
And I think, like you say that
that pro exactly that it's
learning how to communicate with
this technology, isn't it? It
might understand us
conversationally, but you still
need to put in certain
parameters. And like you say,
kind of push, push back on it.
Definitely. I think it's also
important to be in the hands of
the expert, because you can't
say if it was a copywriter, and
(09:00):
you a person who's never done
any copywriting, can't possibly
write a really good prompt. So
I've know a lot of businesses at
the beginning, it's less so now,
and I think people are
understanding this now that they
say, I don't need a copywriter.
I'll just have an all purpose
intern that can do our
copywriting for us, our editing
for us. They can't describe what
good looks like, so therefore,
they can't write about good
(09:21):
prompts, and they can't
recognise it the other side to
critically analyse the results.
So I think a lot of people
underestimate AI, but then
there's a whole segment of
people that really overestimate
what AI can do. And I've also
heard talk about, you know,
being in the marketing industry,
I've heard people say, Oh, I
don't need a marketer. I don't
need a strategist. I have AI. I
(09:42):
was like, good luck. You know,
like, go ahead, prompt it the
best you can and see the output
it gives you. And then, you
know, take a take an informed
decision, because it's very easy
to kind of imagine, and, you
know, visualise what it's going
to be, what your results are
going to be. But. Unless you've
tried it, you never really know
(10:02):
what you know, what it what it
spits out at you. So I think the
trick really is to use it as a
partner, and for somebody who's
never used AI, right? I think
you need to really start small,
like, don't go out there and try
10 different tools on day one,
you're gonna get overwhelmed,
you're gonna get worried, and
you're gonna, you know, we're
gonna get frustrated. You're
(10:22):
gonna frustrated, you're going
to, you can put it aside. So
there's really no point over
committing. So commit to just
one or maybe two tools for
certain use cases. So for
example, you want to research
something, or you want to edit
something, so give it a specific
output or task that it needs to
do. And, yeah, just, just play
around with it. Try to even with
(10:44):
the same task. And once you get
the output, refine your own
input and see what comes out
once you do that. So tweak your
prompts. And I think another
thing that's really helped me is
obviously, like learning from
people who are like, at the
cutting edge of kind of AI
adoption and usage, right? So,
for example, there's somebody on
LinkedIn learning called Dave
(11:05):
worse, and he has a whole kind
of multiple libraries of
prompts, and I think he has a
newsletter as well. I'm actually
connected with him because I
took a couple of his LinkedIn
learning courses and I loved
them, and was so simple, because
he kind of explained AI in a way
that was really easy to, like,
digest and understand, and that
really gave me the confidence to
(11:26):
start, you know, I was like,
Okay, this isn't that hard. I
can figure this out. So I think
it's just find your kind of the
resources that work for you, or
the or the content creators that
have, and there's so many people
and yourself included, you know,
who are doing such great work
around getting people to really
adopt AI and use it on a day to
(11:47):
day basis? You know, I've had,
I've had a friend recently. It's
hilarious, but she literally
showed us in a book we're all in
a book club together, and she
showed us how she uses AI as a
mentor and a coach and kind of
like a therapist. And I thought
that was such an incredible use
of AI, because it has so much
context on her already. Yeah. So
(12:07):
why not, kind of, you know, take
it to another level. I
personally have used it for,
like, things like travel
planning and, you know, to be
the best restaurants to go to in
a particular city in New York,
for example. So there's, there's
literally no limit to what you
can use it for. It's just you
need to, like, think about how
you want to use it, and
obviously, like, be goal
(12:29):
oriented in that you use it for
specific use case. And then once
you start doing it, I think you
get the confidence, you know,
and you build that muscle
memory, or whatever it's called,
you know, you start to get
better at it as, yeah, I think
that kind
of when people ask, people ask
me, like crazy, what? How do I
get started like you say it's,
there's so much out there, and
it really does go into every
area of your life, inside and
(12:49):
outside of work. And for me,
it's something I grab as easily
now as the internet. It's, it's,
it's that integrated into my my
day. I very rarely Google
nowadays. I know that you're
into it. There's a for me. It's
all about this kind of more
bespoke advice. And like you
say, with chat GPT, knowing so
much about me, and in the UK, we
don't even have the full memory.
Have you got that? In India, the
(13:10):
full memory yet, actually the
where it can remember
everything.
So chatgpt remembers practically
all of our conversations. Yeah.
And I could reference like, a
different conversation or a
different chat I've had with it,
and be like, remember the
results, or remember the context
from this and apply it here. And
I get pretty close to where I'm
going, because there are limits
right on the free plan. So you
have to kind of be creative
(13:31):
about how you how you use
different chats and things like
that. And then that's why I
have, like, a backup, because if
chatgpt is over the limit and I
need something urgently, I go
into plot and vice versa, and I
think for the most part, the
results are pretty similar,
like, I haven't noticed too much
of a drastic difference, but the
longest time, I resisted having
chat GPT on my phone. But now
(13:53):
that I have it, I can't do
without it, and I feel so I'm
not ashamed. But you know what I
mean? Like, it's maybe, am I
getting too dependent on this
technology? Am I telling you too
much of my secrets? And you
know,
Heather Murray (14:03):
I think exactly
the same thing all the time. I
think, oh, wow, this is really,
I probably am officially
dependent on this stuff now. But
like you said, it's a really
good point about the two
different having a backup,
because they glitch all the
time, don't they? I actually did
a chat GPT workshop, and at the
beginning of the workshop, live,
all these people chat. GPT went
down, and it went down for
hours. So I just said this is
(14:24):
now going to be a Claude
workshop, and we'll focus in on
so being able to kind of switch
between the two, because when
you start using these tools,
they become very important to
you. It's like having for those
who use Microsoft, it's like
having word go down, or for
those who use Google, it's like
the whole of imagine Google
Drive goes down Google, Google
workspace, and you can't access
anything, it starts to feel, Oh,
(14:44):
what do I do now? And it even
with AI note takers, is another
one. So I find with AI note
takers, when they don't attend,
sometimes they don't arrive in a
meeting, and I suddenly think,
oh, where's my pad of paper
gone? I've got to remember how I
did it before it's I've changed
that much. So what would you
say? A to somebody who is just
starting out, and they are a bit
(15:05):
cynical, a bit dubious about all
things AI, and they have got
maybe 20 to 50 pounds to spend
per month, and they're saying,
right, okay, I do want to get
into this, but where would you
recommend that they start, and
what sort of lessons have you?
Did you learn at the beginning?
Okay,
Unknown (15:22):
that's a really good
question. I would put a zero
budget to it for the first three
months at least, because I don't
think you need to get like, the
latest and the most advanced
version of chatgpt, for example,
or any of the paid versions of
it, because unless you try it, I
don't think you know how it
works, and whether it works for
(15:43):
you or not. And then the other
thing I would say is obviously
start smaller. Like I said, kind
of there's a lot of great
content and resources available
for free anyway, so start
leveraging those to begin with
what I do that really helps, and
what I did in the past, at least
in the initial few months, or up
to a year, was set aside a
(16:04):
dedicated time per week to
really, like, play with it, um,
and put it in your calendar and
have it, like, non negotiable
time, you know, because if you
don't commit to it, you're, it's
just going to fall off and
you're never going to get to it,
you know, because there's,
everyone's busy. Everyone has a
million things to do. Um,
there's never enough time in a
day. Ask me. Like, you know,
we're entrepreneurs, we'd never
have enough time, but if you
(16:25):
don't carve out time for it,
it's never gonna happen. So do
like, a week, an hour a week,
you know, start small, start
there, and then build on top of
that. Like, just try to
subscribe to a few newsletters.
If you can't do anything else,
if you don't want to start
prompting and testing right
away, do that and just read,
read, read consumers as much
(16:46):
content as you can around AI as
a topic, you know, set up like
Google Alerts or whatever it
takes. Another great resource is
obviously like podcasts and long
form content. And there are
obviously like smaller podcasts,
and, you know, bite sized pieces
that you can dip in and out of
in your date 15 minutes, like
hours or 10 minutes, five
(17:06):
minutes, 20 minutes, whatever
time you have and you want to
set aside, make a plan and kind
of commit to it and stick to it.
And I think that's a great way
to get started. So first three
months, I would say, don't even
spend any money. I
think that's excellent advice. I
love that and that. So it's
something I learned probably
years in is that non negotiable
experimentation time, I kind of
put I started calling it play
(17:27):
time, and then I had to call it
experimentation, because it's
that, because I ended up just
saying, oh, booking things over
it as entrepreneurs do, we were
always got, you know, a million
things to do. So I ended up not
doing it. But actually, when
you're thinking about that, hour
could save you 10,000 you know,
it might not be that specific
hour, but if you put in sort of
10 hours over 10 weeks, you are
very likely to save at least
(17:48):
1000 times that. That amount, at
least probably more. It's well
worth it.
Neha Kirpalani (17:53):
Yeah, and the
results really start to stack.
Haven't you noticed? Like, for
example, as a small team, or,
like, I started as a
solopreneur. Now I just have one
or two other people in my team,
like one full time and a couple
of part time people I can really
punch above my weight, you know,
as an entrepreneur, and I'm
armed with this, like invisible
army. So I always say, like AI
is like a secret co founder that
(18:14):
nobody really knows about. Give
yourself the ability to use
this, you know, and allow
yourself to leverage it because
everyone else so you might as
well start, you know. And I
always, I feel like the at the
pace we're headed and at the
scale of expansion and like,
mass, really, mass scale
(18:34):
adoption, I think if you don't
use AI for even the most basic
things, and, you know, build on
top of that, I think it's you're
just going to be left behind,
because, like, people who are AI
powered are are getting better
or put faster. You know, you can
save that time and use it for
things like strategic thinking
and planning and deep work and
(18:54):
things like that, stuff that AI
doesn't really do as well yet,
but as a human, we have the
ability to do that. So, you
know, it's kind of like figuring
out your own strengths, kind of
playing to your own strengths,
and then outsourcing the rest
that doesn't that eats up too
much of your time or that you
don't want to kind of waste, you
know, precious resource on,
yeah.
Heather Murray (19:14):
So a great,
yeah, a great way to start would
be, you know, and actually, I
think I started saying this
earlier and didn't finish when
people ask me where to start,
just say, just map out, map out
what you do in a week, and then
put a tick against the things
you don't enjoy that much and
that, then you start off and see
if AI can help you. Can help you
with that, because chances are
it probably can lots of
repetitive research type tasks,
(19:36):
analysis tasks it can do,
gathering data, distilling data,
creating draft content, editing
things, you know, creating
processes. And that's, yeah,
it's just the very beginning of
it, really, there
Unknown (19:46):
just the other just the
other day, I had a 75 page
document that I had to go
through. I obviously didn't want
to do that, so I just made chat
GPT, kind of read it and
summarise the key points and
then tell me, like action items.
Another. Use Case I had recently
was I was studying for a French
exam, and I had chat GPT,
actually clan and chat GPT both
(20:08):
correct, like my written
exercises helped me transcribe
listening exercises. So that was
really helpful, because I would
need a human, you know, Coach to
kind of do that. And I did have
a human coach. But this was,
like an extra layer, yeah, that
it could so there's literally, I
can't think of anything that I
can't do with AI, yeah, to some
(20:29):
degree, yeah, to some degree,
you know, at least, at least get
words on a page, and then it's
your job to kind of perfect that
and improve that, or at least
get some thoughts down and ideas
down, and then you kind of build
on top of that. Because, you
know, like, there's nothing
harder than staring at a blank
page or a blank it's the hardest
thing in the world. So if you
(20:50):
have some starting point and
then you want kind of AI to
partner with you to kind of
improve that, or work with you
through that as a sounding
board. Why not? Yeah,
Heather Murray (21:00):
exactly. That's
wonderful. Well, thank you so
much. That was a fountain of
value. So much. Really good
thoughts there. Really, really
appreciate it. Thank you so much
for joining us. Neha and how in
contact with you, if they'd like
to get in touch.
Unknown (21:14):
So LinkedIn is the best
way to kind of reach out to me,
because I'm very, very actual.
On LinkedIn, I also have a
newsletter which one of the
topics and one of the key themes
is obviously AI and things that
I have personally tested and
used, so I share like prompts
that I've tried, or new tools
that I've been using or
exploring. So that would be a
nice way to kind of start, I
(21:36):
guess, with with content around
AI for someone who's pretty much
never used any AI tool, and
wants to kind of get their
figure added
and get started. Perfect. I'll
put the link underneath. I'll
get the link from you and put it
underneath the show notes. So
thank you so much again. And
yeah, we'll I'll speak to you
soon, hopefully we'll have
further conversations. Thank you
very much. Thank you so
Neha Kirpalani (21:57):
much. Thanks a
lot. You.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Boysober
Have you ever wondered what life might be like if you stopped worrying about being wanted, and focused on understanding what you actually want? That was the question Hope Woodard asked herself after a string of situationships inspired her to take a break from sex and dating. She went "boysober," a personal concept that sparked a global movement among women looking to prioritize themselves over men. Now, Hope is looking to expand the ways we explore our relationship to relationships. Taking a bold, unfiltered look into modern love, romance, and self-discovery, Boysober will dive into messy stories about dating, sex, love, friendship, and breaking generational patterns—all with humor, vulnerability, and a fresh perspective.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com