How to Use OpenAI Dots in Any Business

OpenAI dots are always-on AI agents inside ChatGPT. Unlike a regular chat, a dot can:

• Own ongoing work
• Keep making progress between conversations
• Handle multiple tasks
• Use its own cloud computer and browser
• Work with your connected apps
• Remember useful context
• Run scheduled and recurring tasks
• Research and solve multi-step problems
• Return finished work for your review
• Ask you when a call needs human judgment

GPT-6 Astra currently powers dots.

Create a dot in ChatGPT on desktop web or the desktop app. Give it a clear role, for example:

• Marketing Operator
• Sales Assistant
• Research Analyst
• Operations Assistant
• Customer Insights Agent
• Content Assistant
• Founder’s Chief of Staff

The narrower its responsibility, the easier its work is to judge.

Explain:

• What your company does
• Products and services
• Target customers
• Business model
• Current goals
• Brand guidelines
• Team structure
• Important processes
• KPIs
• Constraints
• Tasks it should own
• Tasks requiring your approval

Onboard it the way you would onboard a new hire.

Connect only the tools its responsibilities require.

Depending on the integrations available, this can give your dot business information from communication, productivity, development, email, calendar, and other supported tools.

Review permissions every time before you connect an app.

Tell your dot exactly how much it can do on its own. Use rules like:

Act without asking

Routine work that is low-risk and reversible.

Act if pre-approved

Work you asked for explicitly.

Ask before acting

External communication, purchases, publishing, or significant changes.

Hand off to me

Strategic, sensitive, financial, legal, or high-impact decisions.

Give your dot an ongoing brief to research:

• Competitors
• Customer needs
• Industry developments
• Product trends
• Market opportunities
• Pricing changes
• Emerging technologies
• Customer complaints
• Content trends

Stop restarting research from scratch. Make it a standing responsibility.

Your dot can help you:

• Research content ideas
• Analyze competitors
• Build content calendars
• Draft campaign concepts
• Repurpose existing content
• Research keywords
• Analyze campaign data
• Prepare marketing reports
• Organize creative assets
• Track relevant market shifts

Keep publishing and other consequential actions behind approval where it makes sense.

Hand your dot recurring sales-support work:

• Research prospects
• Prepare account briefs
• Summarize customer conversations
• Organize prospect information
• Prepare meeting briefs
• Draft follow-ups
• Research companies ahead of calls
• Spot potential opportunities
• Prepare pipeline summaries
• Flag accounts that need attention

Let AI gather and prepare the information. Keep relationship-critical decisions with people.

Your dot can review connected customer information and help you spot:

• Repeated complaints
• Common questions
• Feature requests
• Customer pain points
• Product confusion
• Churn signals
• Documentation gaps
• Emerging customer needs

Turn scattered feedback into structured business insight.

A dot can support your team by:

• Watching customer feedback
• Finding recurring requests
• Scoping smaller improvements
• Investigating bugs
• Preparing implementation work
• Building and testing changes
• Handing work over for human review

OpenAI's own demos show dots working on software improvements and returning finished pull requests for review.

Hand off repetitive coordination work, such as:

• Daily summaries
• Weekly reports
• Project tracking
• Information gathering
• Document preparation
• Meeting preparation
• Recurring checks
• Research
• Workflow coordination
• Follow-up tracking

The goal is not just faster tasks. It is handing over the right ongoing responsibilities.

Assign your dot recurring jobs, for example:

• “Every morning, review my calendar and lay out my priorities.”
• “Every Friday, summarize progress on all active projects.”
• “Every week, scan customer feedback for recurring issues.”
• “Every month, prepare a review of business performance.”

Scheduled tasks can keep running without you restarting the workflow each time.

Do not wait until you remember to ask.

Your dot can review connected information on its own, run scheduled work, research in the background, and suggest useful next steps.

That makes dots strongest on recurring responsibilities, not one-off prompts.

Give one dot the job of keeping you on top of:

• Priorities
• Meetings
• Projects
• Research
• Follow-ups
• Deadlines
• Business updates
• Important decisions
• Outstanding tasks

Ask it to surface only what needs your attention, not everything it finds.

Do not limit it to tiny tasks.

Give it an outcome, context, constraints, and decision boundaries.

Autonomous never means infallible. Review:

• Financial information
• Customer-facing communication
• Contracts
• Strategic decisions
• Purchases
• Production changes
• Sensitive information
• Important calculations
• High-impact actions

OpenAI warns that dots can make mistakes, including when they follow custom rules.

Goal

Name the business outcome.

Context

Give the dot what it needs to understand the business.

Access

Connect only the apps and systems it needs.

Rules

Decide what it may do on its own.

Execution

Let it finish suitable multi-step work.

Schedule

Put recurring responsibilities on a schedule.

Review

Check important outputs and actions.

Feedback

Fix mistakes and sharpen instructions.

Expand

Delegate more, step by step, once the workflow proves reliable.

Role

“You are my [business role].”

Objective

“Your main objective is [measurable outcome].”

Responsibilities

“You own [tasks].”

Context

“This is how our business works: [context].”

Tools

“Use these connected sources where relevant: [tools].”

Rules

“Always stay within these constraints: [rules].”

Approvals

“Check with me before [sensitive actions].”

Cadence

“Do this work [daily/weekly/monthly].”

Output

“Report results in [desired format].”

Escalation

“Come to me at once when [conditions].”

Marketing

Research, campaigns, content, and competitive intelligence

Sales

Prospect research, meeting prep, follow-ups, and pipeline support

Customer success

Feedback analysis, issue spotting, and account preparation

Product

Customer insights, feature research, bug investigation, and development support

Operations

Reporting, coordination, and recurring workflows

Finance

Information organization, recurring analysis, and reporting prep

HR

Research, documentation, coordination, and recurring admin work

Leadership

Research, priorities, project oversight, and decision prep

Start at Level 1. Expand autonomy only once the workflow proves reliable.

• Do not grant unrestricted access without need
• Do not automate processes you do not fully understand
• Do not connect sensitive systems before reviewing permissions
• Do not allow high-impact decisions without proper oversight
• Do not assume every output is right
• Do not assign vague responsibilities
• Do not automate a workflow that is already broken
• Do not skip security and privacy requirements
• Do not mistake activity for business impact

The biggest shift with OpenAI dots is moving from AI that waits for each prompt to an agent that keeps working toward set goals.

• Pick one repetitive, measurable, low-risk workflow
• Define the outcome
• Connect only the information it needs
• Set strict boundaries
• Schedule the recurring work
• Review how it performs
• Then expand what it owns, step by step