We’ve always been interested in AI and how it could improve our workflow, but for a long time, we only dabbled with it, mainly using ChatGPT for brainstorming or quick edits. It wasn’t until this past year that we started using AI for very specific, high-impact tasks, and that’s when things really changed. We've worked really hard on automating all the parts of our business that have been huge time thieves and it's been very impactful for us.
Instead of seeing AI as something extra to learn, we’ve integrated it into what we’re already doing—saving time, reducing repetitive work, and making communication easier. Here’s how we’re using AI in our day-to-day workflow, along with a few practical ways it can help you too.
1. Daily Communication—Without Losing our Voice
We get a lot of messages—emails, WhatsApps, Instagram DMs—and if we're being honest, crafting professional, thoughtful responses every single time is exhausting. Now, we use the voice recorder feature in ChatGPT (paid version) to speak our response, then ask AI to clean it up—fix the grammar, structure it nicely, and make it sound polished. It’s still us, just a better-organized, more eloquent version of us. And because we're answering in our own words first, it never feels robotic or generic.
2. SOPs: Finally Getting our Processes Out of our Heads and onto 'paper'
We’ve been building out SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) for everything we do repeatedly in our business. If you don't have SOP 's for your business I highly recommend that you start. We starting our SOP library last year so there's no more trying to remember how to do that task and makes life so slick when trying to onboard new team members, if they want to know how to do something you can just refer them to your SOP.
Things like: how to upload a product to Shopify, how to post an SEO blog post with the correct tags and meta descriptions, how to respond to difficult client inquiries. So the way we do that with the help of ChatGPT is: we talk through the process using voice notes, then let ChatGPT transcribe and organize it into a clean, step-by-step guide. We even ask AI if there’s a better, more efficient way to do the task. This has been huge for saving time and making sure we’re not reinventing the wheel every time we do something.
3. Aftershoot AI: Culling Photos (So we Don’t Have To)
For photography, one of the most time-consuming parts of the job is culling thousands of images. It’s necessary, but it’s a massive time sink. Now, I’m using Aftershoot AI, which does about 80% of the work for us, sorting through images, flagging the best ones, and getting rid of obvious duplicates or blinks. We still do a final check, but it’s cut our culling time down drastically. I will also soon be using it for editing once I've trained it by loading my Lightroom catalogues so it can see how I usually edit. How crazy!!!
4. AI Editing Tools in Lightroom Classic
If you’ve ever tried to remove a distracting object from a photo, you know the old-school method was painstaking. Now? Lightroom’s AI Remove Tool does in seconds what used to take minutes (or longer). I don’t have to zoom in, carefully clone, or patch anything—it just works. And honestly, that alone has saved me so much editing time.
5. Templatizing Repetitive Tasks
We've realised that any message we send over and over (inquiries, client follow-ups, project proposals) should have a solid template behind it. Instead of using ChatGPT to write these messages for us, we speak our response, then ask AI to refine it and optimize it for clarity and warmth. That way, we still sound like us, but we don’t have to craft every message from scratch.
6. Custom GPTs—A New Level of Personalization
Here’s something we just discovered: Custom GPTs. If you’ve never heard of them, imagine having a personal AI assistant that you can train to understand your specific needs, instead of relying on generic internet knowledge.
For example, we've built a Custom GPT for our social media, where we've uploaded our brand voice, past posts, and key messaging. Now, when we need content ideas or captions it’s pulling from our own work.
But it’s not just for business— we also made a Custom GPT for health research. We uploaded resources from natural health practitioners we trust (like Hulda Clark), so when we ask about gut health or holistic remedies, it references those sources rather than just pulling random advice from the internet.
The best part? You can upload PDFs, books, even audio files, and your Custom GPT will use those references when answering questions. A quick note: Custom GPTs are only available for paid users, and you have to set them up on desktop, it will take you about 2 minutes and you can use ChatGPT to guide you through how to set it up;) but once they’re created, you can use them on mobile too.
AI Isn’t a Replacement—It’s a Tool
At the end of the day, AI isn’t here to replace creativity, connection, or human touch. It’s just a tool—one that, when used well, can save time, reduce busywork, and free up energy for the things that really matter. For us, that means spending less time buried in emails and editing workflows, and more time creating, shooting, and actually enjoying the process.
If you’ve been hesitant to use AI, our advice?
Start small. Let it refine, not replace. And always make sure it still sounds like you. Have you tried using AI for your business (or even personal life)? It might be the personal assistant you've wanted for years!
