By skyforbes 
Go beyond the basics with these practical use cases for OpenAI’s new proactive AI feature.
Just imagine hiring a personal assistant. You wouldn’t expect them to sit silently in a corner, waiting for a command, would you?
No — a great assistant learns your routines, anticipates what you’ll need for your next meeting, and brings up interesting ideas related to your goals — often before you even think to ask.
And that is exact leap AI assistants are making today. OpenAI is building this capability directly into ChatGPT with a brand-new feature called Pulse.
Pulse is designed to work behind the scenes, figuring you out thruogh your conversations, your calendar, and your interests. But what does having a proactive AI partner actually look like in practice?
Well, the possibilities are both practical and exciting!
To show you how this changes things, here are 10 powerful ways you can — eventually — use ChatGPT Pulse to supercharge your productivity and creativity.
1. Automate Meeting Preparation
Ever walked into a meeting feeling completely prepared? Don’t sweat it.
By connecting Pulse to my Google Calendar, it can see my schedule for the day. What’s more — based on my recent chats about projects and clients, it could proactively deliver summaries, data points, and even suggest talking points for my meetings. Speaking for myself, this single use case alone would be a complete game-changer for my daily needs.
2. Stay One Step Ahead of the Game in your Industry
In any fast-moving industry like ours, staying informed is a huge competitive advantage. You can turn Pulse into your own intelligence briefer by regularly chatting about your competitors, new technologies, or market shifts.
It will then work overnight to scan for relevant news and analysis, delivering a custom report on what you need to know to stay ahead.
Hint: The secret to mastering Pulse is to consciously “seed” your chats with the topics, goals, and interests you want it to track for you.
3. Become a Deep Expert on Any Topic
Going from a learner to an expert requires connecting many disparate ideas. As I use ChatGPT to research a complex subject — from model distillation to managing embeddings — Pulse will start to spot patterns and links I might have missed and surface articles, academic papers, and overlooked concepts to deepen my understanding. This, to me, is incredibly powerful.
4. Master a New Skill, Day by Day
Consistency is key to learning a new skill. Whether you’re learning Spanish, Python, or even the piano, you can use your chats to track your progress and goals. Pulse could then support your journey by delivering a daily vocabulary quiz, a small coding challenge, or a piece of music theory to keep you engaged.
5. Have a Truly Personalised News Feed
Social media feeds are noisy, and traditional news apps are too broad. Pulse could allow you to create a news feed of one. By analysing the niche topics you consistently discuss, Pulse can build a daily summary that filters out the noise and gives you only what you truly care about.
6. Hack Your Travel and Holiday Planning
Pulse could also function like a clever travel agent that knows my tastes. By simply chatting about my dream destinations, budget, and ideal travel dates, Pulse could proactively hunt for flight deals, suggest unique itineraries that match my interests, and even spot smart opportunities, like aligning my trip with train ticket release dates to get the best price. Pushing it a bit here — but it’s a possibility!
7. Effortless Meal and Recipe Planning
My daily question of “what’s for dinner?” can be exhausting. But, if I used my chats to discuss my dietary goals, favourite ingredients, or recipes I’ve enjoyed, Pulse can deliver a fresh, interesting recipe idea each day, helping my plan your meals with zero effort.
Pulse moves beyond simple information retrieval. It can connect ideas in surprising ways.
8. Discover Your Next Favourite Book or Film
Streaming service algorithms can often feel repetitive. Pulse can offer a more organic way to discover new media. Based on your conversations about the authors, directors, genres, and themes you love, it can recommend a book or film that resonates with your tastes.
9. Generate Daily Creative Writing Prompts
For any writer or artist, beating the blank page is always the hardest part. What if you could use Pulse as your personal muse?
By synthesising the themes, ideas, and concepts from your notes and chats, it can deliver a unique, tailored creative prompt to you each morning, providing the perfect spark to ignite your next project.
10. Never Miss a Smart Gift Idea
Thoughtful gift-giving requires remembering small details over time. Mention a friend’s passion for gardening or a partner’s upcoming birthday in a chat. By connecting this information with your calendar and its own memory, Pulse can surface a timely and genuinely thoughtful gift suggestion right when you need it.
Conclusion
As these examples show, ChatGPT Pulse represents a fundamental shift in our relationship with AI. We are moving away from a world where we must constantly command our tools and towards one where they act as proactive partners, anticipating our needs and collaborating with us. For me, this is the most exciting evolution in AI assistants yet.
The real power isn’t just in answering our questions anymore; it’s about helping us discover the questions we should have been asking all along.
Which of these use cases are you most excited to try?