How Packaging Professionals Can Use ChatGPT and AI Tools to Save Time and Focus on What Matters Most

ChatGPT can help streamline daily tasks by creating effective email messages, setting up time-saving task lists, and using custom GPTs to keep teams and customers informed and aligned. © tippapatt – stock.adobe.com

By Donna A. Peterson, President/Owner of World Innovators

Each day, packaging professionals are pulled in multiple directions — handling supply issues, responding to customer needs, managing production schedules, and trying to keep teams aligned. With fewer hands and higher expectations, it’s easy to feel like there’s no time to step back and focus on the work that really moves the needle. But what if you and your team could get just one hour back each day? An hour to get ahead instead of catching up. To move together with more clarity. And maybe even to breathe a little.

As a business owner, I was burning the candle at both ends — juggling multiple responsibilities while trying to stay in sync with what each team was doing. When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, I jumped on the bandwagon. At first, I thought it was the answer to my prayers. But quickly, I realized the early versions weren’t helpful for World Innovators or the industrial brands we work with. The output was too elementary. Thankfully, ChatGPT evolved — and so did we. Now, we use it to handle a range of tasks that free up my team to focus on the work that truly fits their strengths. Salespeople are out building relationships, not stuck behind their desks figuring out what email to send. We’ve seen such powerful results that I now spend time helping others explore how AI tools can work for their business too.

This article will walk you through three ways I have used ChatGPT to streamline daily tasks and work more efficiently: creating effective email messages, setting up time-saving task lists, and using custom GPTs to keep myself, my team and my customers aligned so the business could grow. For years I would think the more hours I put in the better the outcome but that thinking has changed to the smarter I work the more free time I have while the business grows.

1. Creating Effective Email Messages for Specific Audiences

Whether you’re following up on a lead or nurturing a client relationship, writing a clear, relevant email takes time. ChatGPT can help draft sequences that sound like you and speak to your prospect’s goals.

Here’s how to start:

• Start with a simple prompt: “Write a three-part email sequence to a packaging engineer at a mid-size food company who needs better labeling solutions.”
• Ask ChatGPT to sound like you and how you want to help your customers.
• Tell ChatGPT that the message should be value-based not salesy and mention the prospects challenges or goals
• Ask ChatGPT to adjust tone or format: shorter, more direct, or tailored to a specific product.
• Add context from recent meetings — ChatGPT can help reflect those in the message. (Tip: Upload notes from Fathom or another note taking app)
• Personalize the intro and closing yourself. That’s where you build the relationship.
• Ask Chat to review the final letter and to be brutally honest. (Chat leans toward being too nice.) Review everything before sending. Make sure it sounds like you, and your brand.
• Tell Chat to save the email as a Downloadable Word document then it is already to use.

Watch our quick video on setting up an email sequence with ChatGPT: https://youtu.be/MELSHUgXagc*

2. Use ChatGPT to Keep Track of Your To-Dos

Instead of jumping between sticky notes, email flags, and written to-do lists, use ChatGPT’s built-in task feature to keep your day organized.

Tips to get started:

1. Each morning, tell ChatGPT your top priorities and ask it to organize them into a task list.
2. Break complex projects into smaller, manageable actions.
3. Ask ChatGPT to remind you of follow-ups or recurring weekly check-ins.
4. Revisit your task list at the end of the day and re-prioritize for tomorrow.

Need help getting started? Go to the World Innovators YouTube channel for several how-to videos: https://www.youtube.com/@WorldInnovators

3. Using Personal GPTs to Keep Teams Aligned and Close Deals Faster

If your team is remote, on-the-road, or split between departments, creating a custom GPT can be a simple way to keep everyone aligned and informed.

Why it helps:

1. A GPT can serve as a central source for FAQs, product specs, or sales messaging.
2. You can build one GPT for new hires, one for the sales team, and one for customer service.
3. It ensures consistency without needing constant back-and-forth.
4. Updates can be made easily as priorities shift.
5. It becomes a living resource anyone can access 24/7.

Preview this episode of B2B Marketing Excellence & AI were Matthew McClosky told us about the Sales Director GPT he setup:  https://youtu.be/cyUr3UG0GJI

Donna A. Peterson is the President/Owner of World Innovators

A Smarter Way to Work

At World Innovators, we’ve been helping B2B companies for over 40 years—always with the goal of making meaningful connections and easing the load for busy professionals. For us, it’s not just about getting a message out. It’s about making sure the right people hear it — and that you’re not stretched too thin trying to make that happen.

We know how hard it is to keep up with everything — especially when teams are lean and expectations are high. That’s why we’ve leaned into tools like ChatGPT — not as a replacement for your experience, but as support. Something that can take care of the repetitive work so you can focus on the conversations and strategy that matter most.

Personally, it’s helped me shift away from the tasks that used to slow me down. Now I spend more time doing what I really value—talking with clients, training teams, and thinking ahead. We’ve seen the difference it can make, and we’re here to help others see it too.

If you’re looking for ways to get started, we’re offering one-on-one, one-hour sessions. We’ll help you set up a GPT you can actually use and walk through how to create more effective, time-saving email sequences. Or, if your team would benefit from a broader perspective, we can come in and present the full picture of AI — showing how to use ChatGPT alongside other tools to streamline workflows and improve team performance.

You don’t need to adopt every new tool. But if you’re still handling everything manually, you’re running uphill. Let us show you a better way.

About the Author

Donna A. Peterson is the President/Owner of World Innovators. For 44 years, we’ve helped industrial brands reach the right people with the right message—through the channels that work—so they can build stronger relationships and grow with confidence. Visit: https://www.worldinnovators.com