chat. That way you don’t have to start from scratch. Consider the differences of free vs paid AI accounts. Free Large Language Models (LLMs) are good for learning, but you’ll hit caps fast. Paying $20 a month unlocks better models, higher limits, and features that actually help you work. (See the “Take advantage of project memory” header below.) Start free. Upgrade when you hit the wall. Use multiple email accounts to avoid limita- tions if you’re a real miser. Embrace voice-to-text functionality. Voice dictation is faster than typing, and today’s voice-to-text is accurate enough for AI to clean up small errors. For busy retailers, it lets you draft emails, brainstorm, and take notes without slowing down. Use a decent USB mic for improved results. Don’t wait on AI answers. The monotasker in me doesn’t love it, but you can lose a lot of time waiting for responses from a higher-level LLM. Some answers take 30 seconds to a minute. Run two projects at once. Switch between them when you’re waiting on the AI. If you can deal with context not being consistent, open two versions of the same AI. Take advantage of project memory. Use project memory: save threads so you’re not starting over. Upload docs once and keep building — ideal for manuals, rental policies and other long projects. If your tool offers custom GPTs, set default rules (voice, style, goals) so replies stay on-brand without repetition. Share your files directly. Instead of pasting a mess of text into the chat, give the AI your actual documents. PDFs, Word files or Excel sheets to give it more context. You can ask it to reformat a policy, clean up a sales report, or build a new template. Heck, have it create the actual spreadsheet or word document for you. Combine multiple AI services for better results. For important work, use more than one type of AI. Run the same task through a few different AI services. Then, combine their answers and ask one AI to merge the best parts. You’ll catch blind spots and get a stronger result. Let AI teach you about AI. Use AI to learn more about it. Ask which
models are best for certain tasks. Have it explain what it can and can’t do before sending it after a problem it’s not built to solve. Set guardrails. Don’t paste customer info, vendor pric- ing or unreleased deals. Turn on “don’t save my data” if available. Share trimmed examples (and remove names and prices). Most importantly, fact-check everything. AI makes confident-sounding mistakes all the time. Ask for sources, verify claims and double-check before using any output.
Remember: you give final approval. Now that you know how to get bet- ter results from any AI platform, next month we’ll compare the top paid models head-to-head. We’ll see which one handles real-world tasks best and where each falls short. We’ll test them across categories to see which truly stands out. This will give you a clearer picture of which model delivers the best results for your specific needs. Until then, happy chatting! MI
Peter Dods is the owner of Honolulu-based Easy Music Center.
DECEMBER 2025 I MUSIC INC. I 25
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