Why You Need a Custom AI Assistant (And How It Can Supercharge Your Work)

As Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) professionals, our jobs are a juggling act. We have to gather and analyse data from multiple sources, write reports, coordinate with teams across different locations, and make recommendations to drive project impact. It's a lot.

Using a custom AI assistant specifically tailored for M&E tasks can really make our lives way easier. I know what you're probably thinking though—why go through the trouble of creating a specialised AI assistant when we already have free GPT-3 and GPT-4 at our fingertips? Let’s unravel this together, shall we?

What is a Custom GPT, Anyway?

First things first, let’s demystify what a custom GPT is. Essentially, GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is AI developed by OpenAI, which can understand and generate human-like text. The “regular” GPT-4 is like a Swiss Army knife—it can handle a wide range of tasks from drafting emails to composing poetry.

Now, a custom GPT is where things get really interesting.

Imagine taking this Swiss Army knife and adding a few more specialised tools that are designed specifically for your unique needs as an M&E officer. It’s like having an assistant who knows the ins and outs of your job, understands the specific jargon, and can anticipate what you need before you even ask.

So why bother with a Custom GPT?

Here’s why...

• "Regular" ChatGPT is a generalist. It knows a bit about everything, but a custom GPT is trained with data specific to M&E tasks. This means it can handle your reports, understand your data, and even generate insights specific to your projects.
• It gives consistency and precision. When dealing with large datasets and complex reports, consistency is key. A custom GPT can help ensure that your data analysis and reporting are always accurate and consistent, saving you from the occasional human error.
• It saves time. Imagine having an assistant that can automate repetitive tasks like generating weekly reports, updating dashboards, or even drafting emails to stakeholders. This frees up your time to focus on more strategic activities.
• It understands you and your context. Just like a human assistant, it knows the background, your preference, your writing style etc. For example, whenever I use the 'regular' ChatGPT, each time I have to explain that it should give me output from an international development perspective (not examples from a private banking sector). My custom GPT knows to bring a gender lens and international development perspective to every response it gives me.

How do you create a custom GPT?

Creating a custom GPT involves a few easy steps.

First, you'll need to gather and prepare data that is specific to your domain—in this case, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E). This might include past reports, datasets, terminology, and any other relevant documents.

Then you head on over to ChatGPT and click 'Explore GPTs' and then hit "Create" (see screenshot below).

Once there, you'll name your GPT, state what it should help you with and upload the data you had prepared.

It is as simple as this.

I will admit that it takes some amount of effort to collect the data and then train your custom GPT. As such, the temptation may be to just use the 'regular', general GPT. However, this will only cost you more work in the long run when you have to keep repeating yourself to ChatGPT everytime you interact with it. It is like training a new staff member each time. Every time you have to give the background, what your needs are, type of information you are interested in etc.

A customised GPT is similar to the human assistant, you put in the work to train the person during the onboarding period and then it is smooth sailing after that as the asssistant knows the ins and outs of the task.

Eager to learn more? I will go in more details during my interactive 90 minute webinar on using AI for M&E purposes.

As the session will be interactive, I keep the number of participants limited! So don't wait to sign up and FULL IS FULL!

?? Grab one of the few spots here: https://lnkd.in/eAgU76we