Member-only story
Chat or Work? How to Build a Reliable AI Workflow in ChatGPT
A great prompt in the wrong place is still a wasted effort. Before asking how to prompt, you need to decide what kind of space the task actually requires.
In my previous article, I explored why a well-written prompt is only one part of useful AI work.
A prompt can define the task, supply context, and set expectations. But when the work is larger than one exchange, the prompt still needs somewhere to go.
Is this a quick conversation, or is it a piece of work with several inputs, decisions, drafts, and checks?
The answer affects whether I should begin in Chat or Work. It also determines whether I need a prompt, a workflow, or eventually a reusable skill.
That was the next idea that clicked for me: before asking how to prompt, it helps to decide what kind of work I am actually asking ChatGPT to do.
The first decision happens before the prompt
Chat and Work are not simply two ways to reach the same answer. They support different scopes of activity.
OpenAI positions Chat for answers, explanations, brainstorming, and short drafts, and ChatGPT Work for tasks with a clear…








