Stay ahead of the curve by turning AI from something you read about into something you use.
In today’s Ahead with AI:
Prompt: how to stop avoiding difficult conversations
Prompt: use design thinking to solve work challenges creatively
Prompt: learn to grow stronger from stress (the antifragile way)
How to: build, edit and share mini-AI apps with Opal
How to: create recurring tasks and reminders in ChatGPT
Key insight: get smarter answers by slowing AI down
What’s new in the AI blew my mind Lab
A full walkthrough of every NotebookLM feature - from creating your first notebook to generating reports, mind maps, podcasts, and videos. Learn how to turn your research into structured insights, visual summaries, and creative outputs in minutes.
Since many of you asked for it after my last post on how to make NotebookLM write in your voice, I’ve added a new resource inside the LAB - a full step by step guide on creating industry reports, with a real example you can follow.
If you collect signups in a form or keep contacts in a spreadsheet, this automation makes it easy to send personalized follow-up emails. And it’s free.
There are now 166 people (🎉!!!) in the Lab and 60 guides, prompts, and automations live - with more added every week.
Now, let’s begin.
3 prompts to kick off your week
There are endless ways to use AI, but many of them slip by because we never think to ask. Here are three to try this week with your favorite model. Add your own context so the answers are useful.
These are ready to go, but if you want prompts tailored to your own needs, try my Prompt Generator. Premium readers get 150 bonus credits.
I. For you: How to stop avoiding difficult conversations
Act like someone who helps people who are conflict-avoidant have direct, honest conversations without blowing up the relationship.
Help me figure out:
why I avoid conflict in the first place
how to get the courage to actually bring things up
how to say what needs to be said clearly, calmly, and kindly
Walk me through how to prepare for a conversation, how to regulate my emotions, how to be assertive without being aggressive, how to look for common ground, and how to protect the relationship while still addressing the problem.
Assume I care a lot about harmony, but I need to learn that avoiding conflict is what creates tension later.
Ask me a few questions first to understand my situation, then give me a plan.
II. For work: Use design thinking to solve work challenges creatively
Act as a Design Thinking facilitator helping me apply the 5 stages of Design Thinking — Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test — to solve a work challenge.
Here’s my context:
Industry & role: [e.g., education, healthcare, marketing, tech, public sector, HR, etc.]
Situation: [briefly describe your challenge, e.g., declining engagement, poor onboarding, a product feature people don’t use, low team morale, inefficient process, etc.]
Guide me through each stage step-by-step.
Empathize: Ask questions to help me deeply understand the people involved — their needs, frustrations, and motivations.
Define: Help me synthesize what I learned into a clear, actionable problem statement that reframes the challenge.
Ideate: Lead me in brainstorming possible solutions — practical or unconventional — that address the root problem.
Prototype: Help me pick one or two promising ideas and turn them into low-effort, testable experiments (e.g., mockups, scripts, workflow tweaks, pilot versions).
Test: Suggest specific ways I could test these prototypes with real users, collect feedback, and iterate quickly.
Include examples relevant to my context. For instance:
If I’m in education, it might be about rethinking student engagement.
In healthcare, improving patient communication or care pathways.
In business or startups, redesigning the customer journey or product feedback loops.
In organizations, strengthening collaboration, onboarding, or team culture.
In public or social innovation, creating community services that truly fit people’s needs.
End by summarizing the key insights and next steps I can act on immediately.
III. For perspective: Learn to grow stronger from stress (the antifragile way)
Act like a thinking partner who helps me apply the concept of Antifragility from Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder.
Guide me to explore how stress, failure, or volatility could actually make me stronger instead of breaking me down. Start by asking where in my life I try too hard to avoid uncertainty or discomfort, and how that might be keeping me fragile.
Then, help me design small, controlled doses of stress (things that challenge but don’t overwhelm me) so I can benefit from disorder instead of fearing it.
Push me to rethink what “safety” really means, and show how embracing randomness might build resilience, creativity, and long-term stability.
2 ways to put AI to use
AI isn’t measured by what it promises, but by what it does. Here are two ways you can put it to work this week.
I. Build, edit and share mini-AI apps with Opal (A Google Labs project)
This guide shows you how to use Opal to build, edit, and share mini AI apps in minutes - no coding needed.
How it works:
Go to Opal and sign in with your Google Account.
Start by browsing the App Gallery. You’ll find ready-made mini-apps for both work and personal tasks.
Each app is built from multiple steps (nodes), that show how data flows and which AI capabilities (like Gemini or Google Sheets) are used.
I tried the Book Recs App, which suggests books based on a topic. I asked for beginner books on artificial intelligence, and it worked instantly.
You can share any app or generation with a link.
To build your own app, click Create New.
In plain English, describe what you want the app to do.
My example: “Build a very simple web app called “What’s Left”. The user uploads a photo of their fridge or pantry, the app analyzes the image, extracts visible ingredients, and returns 3 meal ideas that use those ingredients.”
Wait a few seconds until Opal will generate your app structure, complete with the nodes and steps it needs to function. Some steps will include auto-generated prompts.
You can expand or customize your app by:
Editing the prompts in each step
Changing the theme, colors, and app image
Adding or removing nodes
Prompting Opal to improve or extend your app’s logic
Once ready, publish or share your app using a link so others can use it too.
Where it’s useful:
Turning ideas into working prototypes in minutes
Building small productivity tools or research assistants
Automating tasks without code
Sharing interactive mini-apps with clients, students, or followers
Estimated time:
10 minutes
Cost:
Free
(Opal is now available in 160 countries; if it still doesn’t work in yours, you can use a VPN)
II. Create recurring tasks and reminders in ChatGPT
This guide shows you how to enable ChatGPT to run automated prompts and proactively reach out to you.
How it works:
Log in to ChatGPT.
Open a new chat and ask it to send you a recurring reminder or task. Examples:
“Practice Spanish with me daily at 8pm”
“Remind me about my friend’s birthday”
“Send me the daily horscope”
To manage your tasks, go to Settings → Notifications.
Choose how you’d like to be notified — by email and/or push notifications inside ChatGPT.
Click Manage Tasks to view, edit, or delete your existing reminders.
Where it’s useful:
Building new habits with consistent reminders
Getting daily or weekly summaries without manual prompts
Managing lightweight tasks without extra apps
Automating personal or work check-ins
Estimated time:
5 minutes
Cost:
Requires a ChatGPT paid plan (Plus/Pro)
1 key insight
One idea, lesson, or finding I found useful (or thought-provoking) enough to share.
I. Want smarter answers from AI? Don’t let it respond too fast
Most people rush the model. They ask a question and expect a perfect answer instantly. But large language models, like humans, think better when they slow down.
Add this before your question:
“Before answering [add your question] , work through this step-by-step:
Understand: What is the core question being asked?
Analyze: What information, context, or assumptions are relevant here?
Reason: How do these ideas or facts relate to each other?
Evaluate: Which explanations or answers make the most sense given the context?
Synthesize: What conclusion or recommendation logically follows and what uncertainties remain?”
You’ll notice the difference.
Instead of a confident but shallow answer, you’ll get something closer to reasoning: a structured, thought-out response that actually makes sense.
Your turn
Tried any of these (or something else with AI) this week?
Hit reply or drop a comment to share how you used it. I love hearing how you’re putting this into practice.
PS: I might feature your example in a future issue.
From the notebook
In case you missed these, here are a few of my recent deep dives:
NotebookLM wasn’t built for writing, but I made it write in my voice anyway
How to automatically extract market insights from Reddit without opening the app
Catch up on past editions of Ahead with AI here.
Work with me
Consulting: I’ll help you integrate AI into your workflow and create systems that save time, reduce friction, and scale your results. If you’d like to explore working together, just hit reply.
Paid partnership: I’ll promote your product to +3,000 AI-curious readers, through either direct ad placements or hands-on tutorials and workflows.
If you found this useful, pass it along to a friend who wants to stay ahead with AI.
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OMG Ahead With AI is so resourceful! Tremendous help keeping up with the industry that changes every minute 💙
This article comes at the perfect time, thank you for showing us how to turn AI from theory into practial use, it's so important to stay ahead.