ChatGPT is an AI assistant from OpenAI that allows you to communicate in plain language to write texts, answer questions and analyse documents. The system responds to instructions in Dutch and generates answers based on large amounts of training data.
What exactly is ChatGPT and how does it work?
ChatGPT stands for “Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer”. It is a large language model: an AI system trained on large amounts of text to understand and generate human language.
In practice, it works simply. You type a question or command, and ChatGPT answers. The system keeps track of the context of a conversation, so you can continue and refine without starting from scratch each time.
What sets ChatGPT apart from a search engine: it generates a customised answer, rather than displaying links to other pages. You get directly usable output, not a list of sources you have to read through yourself. If you want to better understand how an AI system like ChatGPT works technically, our article on how AI works that step by step.
What are the main ChatGPT features?
ChatGPT can write and edit texts for e-mails, reports and presentations, summarise long documents, translate between languages, write and debug code, and analyse data based on uploaded files.
In addition, ChatGPT has multimodal capabilities. You can upload images for analysis, work with PDFs and spreadsheets, and use speech as input via the mobile app. Everything you can do exactly with ChatGPT is detailed in our article on ChatGPT's capabilities in the workplace.
An underestimated benefit is conversation structure. By building up context within a single conversation, you get increasingly fine-tuned results. This requires a different way of working, but produces significantly better output.
How to use ChatGPT effectively?
The quality of your results depends almost entirely on how you formulate your instructions. Always provide context: what is your role, what is the goal, who is the target audience and what do you expect in terms of output? A vague question produces a generic answer. A specific instruction delivers actionable content.
ChatGPT works best if you treat it like a junior colleague. Give clear context, specify your expected output and adjust where necessary. Start with concrete assignments and use follow-up questions to go deeper into a topic.
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What are the limitations of ChatGPT?
ChatGPT has limitations you need to consider as a professional. The system may generate outdated or inaccurate information because the training data has an expiry date and the model does not have real-time access to the internet by default.
Caution is also needed with confidential business information. Organisations with strict data protocols would do well to use the Enterprise version or explore internal alternatives, such as Claude from Anthropic or Google's Gemini, which offer other privacy options.
Always treat ChatGPT's output as a first draft, not a final product. Check critical information through other sources and adapt the output to your own expertise and context.
What is the impact of ChatGPT on the workplace?
ChatGPT has structurally changed the way professionals work. Tasks that used to take an hour - summarising a report, rewriting an e-mail, structuring a presentation - are reduced to minutes with the right approach.
That creates space for work that AI cannot take over: strategic thinking, maintaining customer relationships and making complex decisions based on contextual knowledge. ChatGPT is not the only option in this. If you want to compare which AI model best suits your way of working, our overview of the different types of AI a good starting point.
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