Tasks in ChatGPT
May 28, 2025
A few notes from the intersection of AI, marketing, branding, and small business.
“Tasks” function worth the current hype? A few months ago ChatGPT launched what it calls “Tasks,” a new feature that can automate some of your ToDo list. A few thoughts and then I’ll get into what they’re for and how to set them up. In its current form, I found tasks to be a little gimmicky, tbh. Does it really speed things up to create a task that reports on the weather every day? The weather app on my phone is already pretty convenient, and I don’t have to prompt ChatGPT.
Perplexity pulls from the OpenAI hype machine. Here’s what Perplexity says about the Task function on ChatGPT (undoubtedly influenced by OpenAI press releases!), along with some editorializing on my part: ChatGPT’s new "tasks" feature, launched in early 2025, allows users to schedule automated actions-ranging from reminders to more complex, recurring AI-driven tasks-without needing to be online when they execute. The feature is currently in beta for Plus, Pro, and Team subscribers, with broader rollout expected soon.
What the Reviews Say
Helpfulness and Functionality
Beyond Simple Reminders: Reviewers consistently highlight that ChatGPT Tasks are more than basic reminders. They can automate daily summaries, generate learning prompts, collect information, or perform repetitive actions, making them function more like intelligent background assistants than simple alerts. Assistants, I’d add, that need a lot of hand-holding.
Personal Assistant Capabilities: The feature is praised for helping users stay organized, manage deadlines, and handle both personal and professional reminders with ease. Natural language prompts make setup intuitive, and the system can suggest tasks based on user behavior.
Automation & Productivity: Many users find Tasks helpful for automating workflows-such as daily news summaries, language practice, or custom AI routines-saving time and boosting productivity. Seems like there are better tools, though, to learn a language or get a news summary. Summarizing specific industry news, however, could be an excellent use case.
Clipping Service: A friend at a PR agency reports that they’re using tasks to find media mentions about their clients. I guess that’s “goodbye” to the old-school clipping service.
Limitations and Criticisms
Task Limit: Users are currently limited to 10 scheduled tasks at a time, which some reviewers find restrictive for power users.
No Conditional Logic: A notable shortcoming is the lack of conditional logic (e.g., "If X happens, then do Y"), which means tasks can become repetitive or less useful for more complex automation.
Occasional Inconsistencies: Some reviewers note that ChatGPT may not always deliver results in the exact requested format (such as missing links in news summaries), requiring users to refine their prompts. I found it was misspelling words in created image even though I’d spelled them correctly in the prompt.
Beta Stability: As the feature is still in beta, a few users report occasional bugs or unexpected behavior, though most feedback is positive about its reliability.
How to Set Up a Task
Switch to using ChaptGPT o4-mini.
Type in “Create a Task.”
Describe what the Task should do, and include any necessary instructions, like specialized knowledge, frequency, time of day, specific reference material or websites to check.
Enter. The task will be created.
See all your tasks by clicking on the account circle in the upper right of the screen. (Not the most intuitive.)
Example: Daily Blog Post Task
If you write a blog post every day, here’s how you can use a Task to make it easier:
Task Title: Daily Blog Post Generator
Goal: Help me write a 300–500 word blog post every day with an SEO-friendly title and subheads
Instructions:
Use a conversational tone
Keep paragraphs short
Suggest 2–3 SEO keywords
Include a short intro, 2–3 subhead sections, and a CTA
Rotate topics across branding, AI tools, content strategy, and storytelling
Remind me what I wrote about in the last 7 days
Once this Task is created, you just open it each day and say something like “Let’s write today’s post” or “Give me 3 new headline ideas for today’s theme.” ChatGPT will follow your setup automatically — like your own editorial assistant. But why do you need to open anything up. Shouldn’t the task just task for you??
So far, the tasks I’ve created have been not super helpful. But as soon as we can imbed logic and have the task sign into a web service. Like why can’t it actually schedule the blog here on my website? All that functionality is certainly on the way soon. It’ll be interesting to see how Anthropic and other AI companies roll out task like features. So for the moment I’m calling the Tasks in ChatGPT kinda gimmicky, but with mind blowing potential.
