How Ecommerce Founders Should Think About Using ChatGPT in Their Daily Work

Cards on the table. I’ll be honest, I use ChatGPT every day.

What started out as curiosity 2 years ago has now become embedded into how I work. It’s there when I’m mapping out strategies, building client frameworks, structuring audits, or even planning content calendars. And more importantly, I’m seeing my clients — ecommerce founders, marketers, and operations leads — start to adopt it in the same way.

I don’t shy away from telling my clients that a lot of the work we do is built upon frameworks devised through doing the 1,000 hours learning how to prompt and get the very best out of LLMs.

It’s not hype anymore. It’s a systemisation tool. And if you’re running an ecommerce business, that matters.

Not Just Content, but Clarity

Most people default to using ChatGPT to write product descriptions or polish email copy. That’s fine. It does that job well. But if that’s where it stops, you’re missing the point.

Where ChatGPT really shines is in helping you think. More specifically, helping you structure your thinking.

Founders who are juggling 50 different things a day don’t need more content, they need clarity. They need frameworks, templates, checklists, and plans. They need ways to get what’s in their head out into the world in a way their team (or agency) can actually run with.

And that’s exactly what tools like ChatGPT are for.

Frameworks That Save Time (and Sanity)

Here’s what I’m seeing work best with the ecommerce founders and teams I support:

• Creating repeatable processes: Whether it’s onboarding new influencers, briefing a creative team, or setting up an affiliate programme, you can build the bones of a process in minutes.

• Turning messy ideas into working documents: I’ll often paste a few bullet points or rough notes and ask ChatGPT to turn them into a plan or proposal. It’s like having a strategist in the room who never sleeps.

• Speeding up decision-making: Instead of starting from zero, I ask for five structured options eg. campaign ideas, messaging angles, SEO plans and iterate from there.

• Briefing external partners: You can build clear, consistent templates that agencies, freelancers, or consultants can follow, meaning fewer misunderstandings and better output.

It’s not about replacing thinking. It’s about accelerating it. (I’m sure ChatGPT would agree).

So What is Your Job Now? Your Job Is Still to Judge, Direct, and Refine

Let me be clear, using AI isn’t about outsourcing your expertise. It’s about extending it.

Founders still need to bring the insight. The instinct. The understanding of what works for your brand and your customers. But instead of spending hours staring at a blank doc, you’re now starting from a first draft that’s 70% of the way there.

That changes the game.

Because now you can spend more time making decisions and less time formatting slide decks or rewriting agency briefs.

ChatGPT Is a Systems Tool, Not a Silver Bullet

If you think of your business as a machine, with processes, roles, levers, and outcomes, then ChatGPT becomes one of the most valuable tools to help you design, build, and optimise that machine.

It helps you:

• Build internal documentation faster

• Share thinking across teams more clearly

• Reduce reliance on any one person

• And keep things moving when time is short

That’s not about productivity hacks. That’s about building a business that runs better.

Today’s Takeaway

If you’re an ecommerce founder and you’re still on the sidelines with ChatGPT dip in deeper. Not just for copy, but for the way you run your business. It’s not just a writing assistant. It’s an operating partner.

I’d hugely recommend reading Ethan Mollick’s Co-Intelligence book. He takes a very practical approach to how you do your best work collaborating with ChatGPT, Gemini etc. It’s about exploring and learning. Spending time getting to know how ChatGPT can operate for your own business.

And once you start to use it to shape how you work, not just what you write there’s no going back. And that’s not a bad thing.

As I progress writing these articles each week day, we’ll talk more and more about the use of AI. It’s a key component of the ecommerce growth machine you’re building.