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leaders who have made it a priority to figure out how AI can best serve them, and they’re almost universally using AI in this way, inviting it to offer feedback or poke holes in their logic. Personally, I’ve found a lot of bene- fit in the kitchen. ChatGPT adds up tedious fractions from recipes for me instantly, and Claude actually helped me solve one of my biggest everyday burdens: feeling burned out on meal planning. I explained my weekly schedule, my dietary preferences and what worked and didn’t work about my current methods, and we came up with a structure that has saved me tons of time and made a significant differ- ence in my life. Tips for Using AI How should you decide which chatbot or platform to use? Currently, there’s no “best” one—though everyone using AI has personal preferences. Tech compa- nies are constantly rolling out new ver- sions of their products, but as of the writing of this piece, the new products generally all do the same things, and do them about as well as one other. Over- all, it’s smart to experiment: Try different platforms. Or bring the same request to different chatbots to see how each responds. When working with AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT, be specific with your prompts. AI tools are prone to fill- ing in the blanks, which can easily lead them to give you an output that doesn’t match what you’re looking for. “Con- sider what you want the AI to guess, and what you need to specify,” suggests Eren Celebi, AI lead and principal engineer 56 may 2026 at advertising firmWPP. The answer you get will only be as good as the prompt you give. Think about what level of detail you want, and whether you want an answer in a spe- cific format (like a chart, a bulleted list or a 200-word email). It also helps to break down complex requests into smaller steps. For example, instead of giving AI a broad prompt like “Helpme start a busi- ness,” first give it context about who you are and what kind of business you are looking to create. Then, have it help you research themarket and develop a busi- ness plan. AI tools have memory capa- bilities, so you can have a continuous conversation on a topic, getting deeper with every back-and-forth, unlike when you’re searching the web. With AI, context is everything. If you want help writing a difficult email to a colleague, make sure to first explain the situation, the relationship dynam- ics, what routes you already tried, the tone you want to strike and the out- come you’re hoping for. What to Watch Out For According to an analysis by Harvard Business Review , therapy and compan- ionship are the top ways people are using generative AI, but some people form emotional dependencies leading to detachment from their real lives. Research from OpenAI and MIT that looked at ChatGPT found that these types of harmful outcomes can stem from longer chat sessions—and that heavy daily use was correlated with increased loneliness. Tragically, several suicides have been linked to AI chat usage, sparking lawsuits against com- panies including OpenAI, Character.AI and Google. Another issue: AI tools also aren’t yet fully reliable in terms of accuracy. They’re known to routinely fabricate information and present it confidently as fact—a phenomenon often referred to as hallucinating. So you shouldn’t depend on them for something crucial like health or legal advice. You can ask a chatbot to use verified or scientific sourcing and to share the links of all the articles it’s referencing, but the only way to ensure accuracy is to fact-check the information yourself. Chatbots often lack the most up-to- date information as well. If you’re using AI to plan a vacation, it can certainly suggest top attractions, but it may miss crucial details (like that the museum you really want to visit is temporarily closed). As far as trust goes, it’s also vital to remember that AI chatbots are created by companies vying to beat each other in a competitive market. “Trust AI as much as you trust a car dealer,” Celebi says. “Sure, they’re here to provide you a service, but the AI doesn’t work for you. It works for a tech giant.” Connected to that, it’s important to keep data privacy risks in mind. If you share personal details and private thoughts with AI tools, know that pro- tection of your information is far from readersdigest.com.au 57