ChatGPT Work for CEOs: build an AI Executive Office in ten minutes.

Most CEOs don't have an information problem. They have an execution problem. The information they need already exists — sitting in Gmail, Slack, Google Drive, SharePoint, the CRM, project tools, spreadsheets, presentations, meeting notes. The problem is moving between all of them to understand what's happening, then turning that into decisions and action.

That's where ChatGPT Work changes the equation. It's designed to take on substantial work rather than simply answer a question — research, analyse, work across connected apps and files, create documents, spreadsheets, presentations and Sites, and stay with a complex project across multiple steps. For a CEO, that's a fundamentally different opportunity. Here is how to build it — ten short lessons, each with the exact prompt to use.

Lesson 01 Stop asking questions. Start delegating.

The traditional ChatGPT experience looks like: CEO asks a question, ChatGPT gives an answer. ChatGPT Work changes the model: CEO gives an objective, ChatGPT researches, analyses, creates, and hands back finished work. Imagine telling your Chief of Staff to prepare next week's board review — find the latest financial performance, review the sales pipeline, identify the major operational issues, analyse what changed since the last board meeting, and produce a presentation with the five decisions you need to make. A traditional chatbot might help you write the presentation. Work is designed to take on the broader assignment. That is co-work.

That single shift — from "what can you tell me" to "what work can I give you" — changes the relationship. You are no longer using software. You are co-working with it.

Lesson 02 Build your CEO Company Brief.

Before delegating serious work, give ChatGPT the context it needs. This becomes your CEO Company Brief — and because the quality of AI output tracks the quality of context, it is quietly the highest-leverage ten minutes you will spend.

Then tell it:

This becomes the foundation for everything that follows.

Lesson 03 Give ChatGPT access to the business.

The first step is not writing better prompts. It's connecting the information your company already uses. ChatGPT's Apps connect it to services you already use, allowing it to search and reference information and, for some apps, perform supported actions — availability depends on your plan, workspace, region, role and the particular app. The objective isn't to replace these systems. It's to connect them. Don't move information to ChatGPT — bring ChatGPT to the information.

Connecting an app requires the appropriate account authorisation and permissions, and availability depends on your plan and workspace. Before connecting a business system, understand what ChatGPT is allowed to do — read access, write access, and whether higher-risk actions need approval. For a first implementation: read first, act later. Workspace administrators can control app availability, access, actions and permissions in managed environments.

Lesson 04 Start every day with a CEO briefing.

Forget opening seven applications first thing in the morning. Start with one question: "Give me my CEO briefing for today." Ask ChatGPT Work to structure the briefing around what changed, what needs your attention, what's going well, what's at risk, what decisions are waiting, which meetings matter today, and your three priorities.

Then challenge it. Don't accept the first output — ask "What have you missed?", then "Which conclusions are based on incomplete information?", then "What would you investigate if you were my Chief of Staff?" This is where co-work begins. Once the workflow is good, ask ChatGPT to turn it into a repeatable weekly CEO operating review — that's the difference between a conversation and a workflow.

Lesson 05 Use ChatGPT as your Chief of Staff.

A CEO's Chief of Staff spends enormous amounts of time turning information into executive action. ChatGPT Work can assist with much of that process — before a meeting, after a meeting, and before a board meeting.

The objective is not better meeting notes. It's better execution after the meeting.

Lesson 06 Build an AI Executive Team.

Think beyond one generic AI assistant. Create recurring workflows around the functions of your business. The goal isn't to replace these departments — it's to create an AI layer around them.

Lesson 07 Make it your strategy team.

One of the CEO's highest-value activities is deciding what not to do. Use ChatGPT Work to pressure-test strategic choices — then keep pushing. Ask it to argue against its own recommendation, ask what would have to be true for the strategy to fail, ask what information would materially change the decision. You are no longer asking AI for an answer. You are using it to improve the quality of your thinking.

Lesson 08 Run the weekly CEO operating review.

Once the basic connections and workflows are established, make ChatGPT Work part of your weekly operating rhythm. Every Monday, have it examine revenue, customers, product, marketing, finance, operations, people and strategy — then finish with the five decisions that require your attention this week. That is an executive operating system.

Lesson 09 Move from read to act.

Some ChatGPT apps can do more than retrieve information — depending on the app, workspace and permissions, they can perform supported actions such as creating or updating information. For organisations using custom MCP-powered apps, ChatGPT can also be configured to perform supported write actions such as creating project-management tasks or updating CRM records (full MCP write support is currently rolling out in beta for eligible Business, Enterprise and Edu environments). That turns "understand → decide → tell someone else → wait → check → follow up" into "understand → decide → execute."

Give AI permission to execute only where the workflow is understood, authorised and appropriately controlled. The CEO retains control over consequential decisions — automate information gathering first, automate execution second.

Lesson 10 The CEO Co-Work Loop.

At GTMBench, we think the model reduces to six steps. Run them in order, then repeat — the more workflows you build, the more valuable the system becomes.

ChatGPT Work doesn't replace your existing technology. It helps you think across it. That is the difference.

The security rule.

The more connected your AI becomes, the more important governance becomes. A CEO should know what information ChatGPT can access, which applications are connected, what permissions each connection has, which actions require approval, and which workflows can write or modify information. For higher-risk environments, establish clear approval rules before allowing AI to modify systems or communicate externally.

The future CEO.

The first generation of business AI was about productivity — write an email faster, summarise a meeting, generate ideas. Useful, but incremental. ChatGPT Work points toward something bigger: delegated work. The CEO can increasingly give an objective to an AI system and let it research, analyse, reason, create, coordinate and, where authorised, act. That changes the economics of executive work — the CEO no longer needs to personally touch every piece of information required to make a decision, only to define the objective, establish the guardrails, review the output and make the judgement.

The question CEOs should be asking isn't "How do I use ChatGPT?" It's "What work should I no longer be doing myself?" Connect it to the information your company already has, give it the context it needs, delegate meaningful outcomes, let it research, analyse and build, review the work, then — where appropriate — let it execute.