ChatGPT’s automated agent dreams seem to be coming true. There’s a new update to your favourite generative AI chatbot that aims to add a layer of automation to your productivity. It’s called ‘Scheduled Tasks’ and the idea is to let certain prompts run on their own at preset times to do a desired activity. 

Think of this as a scheduler service, wherein you can ask ChatGPT to run a specific task at a specified time on its own, and share the results with you. Neat.

The feature is currently being rolled out as an update to paid subscribers across ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise tiers. Free-tier users don’t get it yet, but once you go through what the feature can do, you might be tempted to settle for the Plus subscription, especially if you rely on ChatGPT for conducting your workflow.

We were curious too, which is why we decided to borrow a colleague’s ChatGPT Plus account and explore how it can help with daily office workflow. 

But before we explore, the basics need to be cleared in classic theoretical form.

What is ChatGPT Scheduled Tasks?

Traditionally, using ChatGPT to extract responses for something at a specified time required active manual intervention, i.e., you type a prompt, and the AI generates a response. For example, when I asked ChatGPT for a weekly summary of the AI industry news or a daily reminder to check blood pressure, I had to ask for it every single time. It sort of defeated the purpose of having something that can technically study Black Holes.

The Scheduled Tasks feature completely changes this dynamic. It allows users to schedule recurring actions, instruct ChatGPT to monitor online data, and set up routine automation. This means that your ChatGPT account now knows when to run a prompt at what time and how to deliver the response – all on its own. 

Since there could be many automation tasks from a user, OpenAI figured that introducing a dedicated Scheduled hub is necessary, especially in the ChatGPT sidebar. This dashboard acts as a central control room where you can view all your active automations, check when they are next slated to run, and easily pause, edit, resume, or delete them.

For ChatGPT enthusiasts, do note that this feature is officially replacing Pulse — OpenAI’s previous proactive feature, which is being phased out and will be entirely removed within 14 days.

ChatGPT Scheduled Tasks: How to use it for making office workflow easy

The demands of the professional world can be…demanding. Hence, it is highly likely that an automated ChatGPT can help in certain ways to make life a tad easier. We gave it a try in our typical newsroom scenario and here’s where we found you could find useful.

1. Smart reminders and preparation work

Are you tired of basic Gmail/Outlook calendar alerts that just tell you when a meeting is? With Scheduled Tasks, ChatGPT can prepare you for the meeting.

You can schedule ChatGPT to send you a customised daily briefing every morning. You can set it to give you a broad time frame (like “morning,” “afternoon,” or “evening”) rather than a rigid hour.

For example, try this prompt: “Every morning, give me a quick summary checklist of the top three priorities for an AI and technology journalist, along with a motivational productivity tip to boost morale. Also, give me 3 major news developments from the industry.”

Sample answer:

“Top 3 Priorities for an AI & Tech Journalist

  • Verify before publishing — speed matters, but accuracy matters more.
  • Focus on implications, not just announcements — ask who wins, who loses, and why it matters.
  • Track ecosystems — AI models, chips, startups, regulations, and geopolitics are increasingly interconnected.

Productivity tip: Aim for progress, not perfection. Publish the story, then iterate. Consistency compounds.

 Three Major AI Developments

  1. Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 restrictions have triggered global debates around AI sovereignty and export controls. 
  2. Microsoft is expanding its AI footprint in China, with ByteDance emerging as a major customer for OpenAI-powered services. 
  3. New research shows frontier AI systems can outperform expert humans in persuasion, raising concerns for politics and information integrity. “

Note that you need to modify the prompt according to your job description. You can also ask ChatGPT to share some of the recent developments and active topics related to your work

2. Automating competitor tracking/market research

If your job involves keeping tabs on the business landscape, tracking competitor movements, or gathering industry news, ChatGPT can handle the heavy lifting in the background. Instead of manually going through rival sites every week, you can set up recurring prompts to automate your market research and routine analysis.

You can schedule ChatGPT to review the web at regular intervals, analyse what specific competing publishers are focusing on, and deliver a clean summary directly to your dashboard.

For example: “Every Friday morning, monitor the recent articles published by primary competitors of Financial Express Technology (such as TechCrunch, ET Tech, and Gadgets 360). Generate a summary report highlighting their top-covered themes, major breaking news scoops, and any emerging technology trends they are focusing on.”

While I can’t share the response for privacy reasons, the overall analysis was of great help in planning the kind of stories that could help serve my reader base better. 

By automating a workflow like this, you can walk into your weekly editorial or strategy meetings with a comprehensive and up-to-date snapshot of the competitive landscape, negating the need for manual weekend preparation.

3. Proactive web monitoring

One of the most powerful updates included in this rollout is ChatGPT’s ability to actively monitor the web and connected applications. Crucially, the AI won’t spam you with constant alerts; it is designed to notify you only when it finds information worth reporting. You can use it to keep an eye on industry regulations, breaking news, market trends, or software updates.

For example, consider my prompt: “Monitor the web for any official policy changes regarding AI regulations in the European Union. Only notify me if a new compliance law or draft is officially published.”

Response: “No new official EU AI regulations, compliance laws, or draft guidelines have been published since the European Commission’s June 10 Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-Generated Content and the May 19 draft guidelines on high-risk AI systems. No action required.”

ChatGPT Scheduled Tasks limitations

While ‘Scheduled Tasks’ significantly boost ChatGPT’s utility, OpenAI has put a few guardrails in place for its initial launch:

– Scheduled tasks can run at a maximum frequency of once every hour. It cannot be used for minute-by-minute automation.

– To save resources, unattended tasks that run without user interaction over a prolonged period may automatically pause until you reactivate them from your Scheduled hub.

– OpenAI notes that the entire underlying architecture has been upgraded to ensure that scheduled operations are significantly faster, more flexible, and highly reliable compared to previous backend attempts.