Start here: the app, not the browser tab

Most people’s first try went like this: a browser tab, no login, one question, a generic answer, close. That is the worst version of the tool, and it is the one most members have judged it by. Three things change the moment you sign in and use the app: your work persists, the assistant can hold your files, and it remembers what you told it last week.

Signed in versus not

A signed-in account keeps your chats, your files and your settings. A signed-out tab keeps nothing - and, counter to instinct, it is the state with the fewest data controls, not the most: ChatGPT’s own help page lists separate, smaller options for when you are signed out. Sign in. Then check the two settings at the bottom of this page.

The desktop app, not the tab

The desktop and phone apps are where the tool stops being a search box. On a computer, the app opens with a keyboard shortcut over whatever you are working on, so the question about the report is asked beside the report. On the phone, both ChatGPT and Claude have a voice mode: dictate the site-visit notes in the car and the minutes are drafted before you reach the office. Gemini sits inside the Google apps many people already use; Microsoft Copilot is usually provided through your employer’s Microsoft account - where it is and what it can see there is a question for your IT team.

Give it files, not retyping

Upload the charter, the WBS export or the risk register as a PDF, spreadsheet or document and ask questions about them. How many files, and how large, depends on the plan - ChatGPT’s help says so in as many words - which is one of the reasons the free tier is a place to learn and not to work (see what never goes in).

Memory: what to put in, what to keep out

Memory is the assistant remembering relevant details about you across chats. ChatGPT’s can be reviewed, corrected and switched off under Settings, Personalization, Memory. The useful entries are about you, not about a client: “I am a PM in a construction company; my reports go to a board that reads Macedonian; keep it to one page.” Nothing from the red list goes into memory, ever - it is the one place a stray fact keeps coming back.

Temporary chats for the one-off

For a sensitive question you have decided is still fine to ask, both ChatGPT and Claude offer a chat that is kept apart from the rest: ChatGPT calls it a Temporary Chat; Claude calls it an incognito chat and says such chats are not used to improve the product even if you have opted in elsewhere. It is a good habit for one-offs. It is not a substitute for anonymising - the text still leaves your machine.

The two settings to check on day one

1. ChatGPT

   Settings, Data Controls, “Improve the model for everyone”: switch it off. The label is OpenAI’s own.

2. Claude

   Consumer chats are not used for training by default unless you opt in; open the privacy settings once and confirm what you have chosen.

3. GeminiandMicrosoft Copilot

   The equivalent switches depend on whether the account is personal or your organisation’s. Find them before the first work question, and if it is a work account, ask IT what the organisation has set.

Next: context - the one idea behind that before-and-after.