Harvard Business Review: How to Use ChatGPT to Make Business Decisions
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Harvard Business Review published a fascinating feature article on how to use ChatGPT to make better business decisions.
The authors of the piece, Thomas Ramge and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, argue that new technology could revolutionize decision-making processes in the corporate sphere, even with its limitations.
We couldn’t agree more.
Forget about asking ChatGPT straightforward questions. Ramge and Mayer-Schönberger argue that its true power lies in aiding managers through a more systematic decision-making process.
They say the ChatGPT-enabled process involves three key phases: framing the decision, generating alternatives, and making the final call.
While I wouldn’t worry about AI replacing external consultants anytime soon, I appreciate how these authors are steering the conversation around ChatGPT away from narrow use cases to its role in supporting broader faculties of the mind, in this case, decision-making.
Framing the Decision
ChatGPT excels in helping you define the problem or opportunity at hand, ensuring you're asking the right questions from the get-go. It's like having a tool that pushes you to think more broadly and challenge your own assumptions.
Generating Alternatives
ChatGPT shines in the second phase: exploring options. Say you're a manager thinking about expanding into a new market. The tool can flag potential issues and offer a range of strategies, like diversifying your supply chain. This phase is all about widening your perspective and considering multiple avenues before making a choice.
Making the Final Call
But ChatGPT doesn't stop at giving generic advice. In the final phase of making the decision, it helps you dig deeper to uncover your own biases and rethink how you evaluate options. It's a neutral voice in the decision-making process, free from office politics and much cheaper than hiring external consultants.
Future Outlook
ChatGPT’s capabilities are expected to grow exponentially, and this is true in the decision-making domain as well. Imagine if you could interact with a version of ChatGPT that was trained on a treasure trove of business case studies held by organizations like Harvard Business Publishing.
Thomas Ramge and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger go so far as to argue that in the future, we could even see the emergence of "DecisionGPT," a more specialized version focused solely on aiding with business decisions.
So, while robo-managers aren't taking over just yet, the advantage clearly lies with managers who leverage tools like ChatGPT to refine their decision-making skills. It's not just about getting answers; it's about asking the right questions at each stage of the decision-making process. And that's where ChatGPT is proving to be invaluable.
