There’s a main problem a ChatGPT Custom GPT is trying to solve: While ChatGPT is great for “general use” for most users’ tasks and answering questions on virtually any topic, it’s not always tailored to handle specific tasks or unique needs.
For niche subjects or specialized workflows, users often encounter limitations when relying on this AI tool. For example, researchers might need data analysis following a specific workflow; programmers could seek guidance on an uncommon programming language; and cat owners might need personalized advice on their pet’s specific behavior issues—all of them could find the “general assistance” that ChatGPT provides too broad or lacking in depth to fully address their specific needs.
ChatGPT Custom GPTs are OpenAI’s answer to situations like this.
A Custom GPT is a personalized version of ChatGPT. Instead of a one-size-fits-all model, you can customize it to focus on a particular area, expertise, or workflow. You can also define how it behaves, what tasks it prioritizes, and even its tone of voice—much like training an AI assistant to not just know a little about everything, but excel at the things that matter most to you.
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What Are The Problems Custom GPTs Are Trying to Resolve?
Here are a few common issues that ChatGPT Custom GPT feature aims to resolve. You will notice that, as mentioned above, these issues pertain to users who need AI assistance in specific areas, and are less likely to affect those using ChatGPT for general purposes.
General-purpose knowledge
Standard GPTs are designed to cover a wide range of topics, making them great for general questions and everyday tasks. However, they lack depth when it comes to niche or specialized fields. In addition to that, users needing the AI to follow certain steps when handling their tasks may receive inconsistent results due to the lack of customization in standard models.
Repeated context-setting
To get ChatGPT to provide responses tailored to your specific needs, you can provide background information and detailed instructions to “set the stage” for your task. The issue is, ChatGPT doesn’t retain context from previous sessions, so you have to start the same process from scratch every time. This can be time-consuming.
Inconsistent tone and behavior
The standard ChatGPT doesn’t offer a way to control or maintain a consistent tone of voice or behavior across interactions. This can be challenging in professional environments where consistency in tone or specific brand language is essential, such as for customer-facing roles, content creators, or even HR personnel who need to maintain a certain corporate tone.
The Benefits of Creating Custom GPTs
Custom GPTs offer several clear benefits that make them incredibly useful for personal, professional, and business applications.
- Your AI, Your Way: A Custom GPT can be built to suit your exact needs. Whether you need an AI to help with customer service, data analysis, or hobby-related tasks, you can mold it to perform those functions perfectly.
- Time-Saving Efficiency: You can employ Custom GPTs to automate repetitive tasks that would otherwise take up your time. For example, if you run a business and often deal with customer inquiries, a Custom GPT can handle those queries for you. This will save hours of work.
- Consistent Tone and Behaviors: If you want the GPT to always respond in a specific tone, you can set it. Want GPT to always follow the exact same steps when performing a task? You can define those steps too. This is especially useful for tasks that require precise workflows, like customer service interactions, troubleshooting processes, or content creation, where consistency is key.
- Integration with Tools: You can make your Custom GPTs even more powerful by connecting them to external tools and APIs, to allow them to interact with real-time data or handle specialized workflows. This is something the standard GPT cannot do.
- Easy Setup: The best part is that you don’t need to be a coder to build a Custom GPT. OpenAI’s user-friendly tools allow you to customize your GPT without needing programming or technical skills.
What Can You Customize in a Custom GPT?
We’ve talked so much about how creating a Custom GPT is like training your personal assistant, tailored to your specific needs and preferences. But what exactly can you customize to make it truly yours? Here’s a list of them:
External Knowledge Bases: You can upload selected documents or data to let the GPT absorb specialized knowledge. This allows it to quickly become an expert in the field, and will ensure both the accuracy and relevance of its responses to your tasks.
Behavior and Task Focus: You can configure your Custom GPT to prioritize workflows and define how it behaves in different scenarios. Whether it’s to offer personal financial analysis, summarizing scientific papers, or assisting with language translation, you control its focus and how it handles tasks in your defined steps.
Tone and Voice: Adjust the tone of your GPT to match your preferred style, be it professional, friendly, or humorous. Keeping responses consistent is important for specific audiences or brand communication.
Tool and API Integrations: You can connect your Custom GPT to external tools and APIs. This opens up the GPT’s capability to access third-party services, process data dynamically, and handle more advanced workflows seamlessly.
Memory (When Available): In some cases, Custom GPTs can retain context between conversations to make personalized and continuous interactions over time possible.
Understanding How Custom GPTs Work: A Case Study on ResumeGPT by Jobright.ai
To see the power of a Custom GPT in action, let’s look at ResumeGPT by Jobright.ai, a company that offers support in job search and career by tapping into the power of AI.
This Custom GPT is designed to assist with resume analysis and revision, job searches, and tailored resume advice. It’s a great example of how a Custom GPT can provide specific, practical help in a real-world scenario.
We shall dive deeper into these functions as a demonstration of the typical capabilities that Custom GPTs offer.
(Note: The following is based on our understanding of how Resume GPT works. There may be deviations from its actual functionality, but the key point is to demonstrate how Custom GPTs typically operate.)
- Resume Analysis & Improvement: ResumeGPT is designed to break down a user’s resume into key components, such as work experience, skills, and education, and assess each one across 10 key dimensions. These include action verb usage, quantifying achievements, and optimizing bullet point length. It offers specific suggestions to enhance these areas to ensure that the resume stands out. This showcases how Custom GPTs can be tailored to excel at specialized tasks.
- Tailored Job Search: ResumeGPT analyzes a user’s resume to identify suitable job titles, locations, and industries, using that information to search for compatible job listings. It accesses real-time job postings and presents options that align with the user’s profile. For each job it finds, ResumeGPT provides a structured summary, including the role, company details, location, salary (if available), and an explanation of why it matches the user’s experience, along with a direct link to apply. These functions clearly go beyond what the standard ChatGPT can do.
- Resume Tailoring: ResumeGPT goes a step further by providing advice on how to tailor resumes for specific job postings. It will suggest changes in the resume to better align with the job description. Since many companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to filter resumes, ResumeGPT is configured to optimize resumes with the right keywords and phrasing, to increase the chances of passing through these systems and getting noticed by recruiters. This is a great example of how a Custom GPT can be tailored with specialized knowledge and workflows to become an expert in its field.
Conclusion
In this article, we discussed what Custom GPTs are, how they work, and the multiple aspects they can be customized to perform specialized tasks—beyond what the standard ChatGPT is capable of.
The power of Custom GPTs lies in their ability to be configured into highly your personalized assistants who understand what matters most to you, are willing to follow your specific workflows, and are as industry experts with specialized knowledge at the same time. This makes them highly valuable in both personal and professional settings.
After understanding what Custom GPTs are and what they can do, we invite you to go a step deeper. This is Part 1 of a 2-part series on Custom GPTs. Be sure to check the following articles:
How To Create A Custom GPT for ChatGPT? — What You Need to Know About Custom GPTs (Part 2)
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