Are you actually using the AI tools you signed up for?

Tuesday 14 April 2026

Quiet week so far — no new tools launched, no pricing changes, nothing you need to react to. That makes today the right day to get more out of what you're already paying for.

Are you actually using the AI tools you signed up for?

If you grabbed a ChatGPT, Copilot, or Gemini subscription in the last few months, you're probably using about a tenth of what's there. Most business owners try it once for an email draft, maybe ask it a question, then forget about it. The subscription keeps charging.

Here's how to spend fifteen minutes today making it earn its keep:

Build one reusable prompt. Think about the message you write most often — chasing a late payment, confirming a booking, replying to an enquiry. Open your AI tool, write the prompt once, and save it. In ChatGPT, you can save these as custom GPTs. In Copilot, pin them in your sidebar. Next time that email lands, you paste in the details and get a first draft in seconds instead of typing from scratch.

Summarise something you've been putting off. Got a long supplier contract, a set of meeting notes from last month, or a policy document you've been meaning to read? Paste it in and ask for a one-page summary with the three things that matter most to your business. It takes thirty seconds and saves you the half hour you were never going to find.

Set up custom instructions. Every major AI tool now lets you tell it about your business once — what you do, who your customers are, how you like to communicate — so every answer it gives is already tailored. Most people skip this on day one and never go back. It's in Settings, and it changes everything about how useful the tool feels.

None of this requires a new subscription, a new tool, or any technical knowledge. It's just using what you've already got.

Your next step: Pick one of those three. Do it before lunch. Fifteen minutes now saves you hours over the next month.

Quick hits

• HMRC updated its Customs Declaration Service guidance — five refreshed reference documents for import and export codes. If you ship goods internationally, your customs broker should already be across this. No new rules, just updated paperwork references. Worth a quick check with your broker if you handle declarations yourself.

The bottom line: Not every week brings a new tool to try — and that's fine. The businesses getting the most from AI right now aren't the ones chasing every launch. They're the ones who actually set up the tools they already bought.

That's today's briefing. Subscribe free to get this in your inbox every morning.