A colleague of mine had been doing the same job for 11 years.

Good at it. Respected. The person people came to when things went wrong.

She went for a promotion last year. In the interview, they asked her about a specific methodology that had been gaining ground in her sector for about 18 months.

She had never heard of it.

She didn't get the job.

The person who did? Two years of experience. But she knew what was happening in the field.

This is not a story about hard work not being enough. It's about the fact that most professionals have no actual system for staying informed. We rely on LinkedIn algorithms to tell us what matters. On colleagues mentioning things. On articles we happen to stumble across.

That's not a strategy. That's luck.

Here is a proper system. ChatGPT agent mode. 20 minutes. Once a month.

Click the globe icon next to the message bar. This switches ChatGPT from answering from its training data to actually browsing the internet in real time. You're not getting what it already knew. You're getting what's happening now.

Free tier works. You don't need a paid plan to start.

Step 2. Tell it exactly who you are

Don't be vague. A vague question gets a vague answer. Send this first:

"I am a [your job title] working in [your industry] in the UK. You are my personal industry analyst. I want you to research what is happening in my field right now. I'll give you the questions next."

Wait for it to confirm. Then move on.

Step 3. Send the research prompt

"Research the following for someone working as a [your job title] in [your industry] in [month and year]. Browse current sources, news, LinkedIn, job boards, and industry reports, and give me: 1. The 3 biggest things changing in my industry right now. 2. The 3 skills appearing most in job adverts at my level. 3. Any tools being mentioned that weren't common 6 months ago. 4. One thing smart professionals in my field are paying attention to that most people aren't. Use real examples where you can find them. Be specific."

Give it 2 to 3 minutes. It's actually searching.

Step 4. Pick one thing

Read what comes back. Then write down one thing. The skill you don't have yet. The tool you've never opened. The shift you've been quietly ignoring.

One thing. That's your focus for the month.

Step 5. Ask the final question

"Based on everything you've just found, what is the single most useful thing someone at my level could do this month to stay ahead? Be specific and practical. One thing only."

This is the question most people skip. They read the research, feel informed, close the tab, and do nothing. This forces a concrete action out of it.

Once ChatGPT has finished your research, look at the bottom of the response.

There's a clock icon. Click it.

You'll see 3 options: daily, weekly, and monthly. Pick monthly. Set the date. Done.

ChatGPT will run the same brief again automatically, without you opening it and remembering to ask. The results are waiting for you when you log in.

You can view, edit, pause, or delete everything you've scheduled at chatgpt.com/schedules.

So this isn't really a task you have to remember. It's a briefing that arrives. In the same way, a good researcher would drop something on your desk without being asked twice.

My colleague didn't fail that interview because she wasn't good enough.

She failed it because she didn't have a system. She had experience and no infrastructure around it.

The person who got the job didn't have more experience. She had more current knowledge. That's a different thing, and it's learnable.

This is exactly the kind of thing I work on inside my cohort because a prompt and a monthly calendar block will only get you so far. At some point, you need to sit down and build this properly for your specific role, your specific gaps, and your specific industry.

That's what AI, Done Properly, is.

Not a course about AI in general. A working system built around your actual job.

The next cohort starts 14 May 2026.

If that is what you need, reply to this email, and I will send you the details. Or take a look at configurai.com.

Then our first live call is on 20 May, with two sessions so people can join at a time that actually works:

It’s small on purpose because I work with people on their actual role, their actual week, and the actual tasks that are wasting their time.

By the end, the goal is simple: Not that you “know about AI.” But that you’ve built a working system around it that genuinely helps you think better, work faster, and stop feeling behind.

If that sounds like what you need, just reply to this email, and I’ll send you the details.

Or you can have a look here: configurai.com

See you next week with more ways to use AI without losing your mind (or your credibility).

Orgesa Meli

P.S. If this saved you from a future hallucination disaster, forward it to someone who's using ChatGPT/Claude for proposals, reports, or client work. They'll thank you later. Subscribe to my community here.