AI for powering through the holidays ❄️🎄🎁

Hey AI Puppies, 

We’re here to get you trained up on the latest AIs to boost your business, launch your side hustle, and improve the workday experience 🤝

But this time of year, work isn’t the only thing draining your time and energy…

Between traveling, shopping, hosting, cooking, cleaning, and all those other timely to-dos, for some of us, the holidays end up more stressful than joyous 😅

Ever wish you could hire a personal assistant to offload some of those holiday burdens? 

Although we don’t have an army of elves to send your way (that would be nice), we do have something else that can help: the power of AI 💪

For this week’s edition of the AI Puppy Newsletter, we’re exploring tools and prompts to help with:

🎁Gift shopping for the whole family

🍽️Meal planning to keep everyone happy

🖼️Design tools for easy holiday cards

Let’s get into it!

Finding the Perfect Present

It doesn’t matter if you’re shopping for a Secret Santa you barely know or your partner of twenty years: finding the perfect present is never easy 🙃

Instead of wasting time wandering overwhelming aisles or doom-scrolling on Amazon, head to your favorite AI chatbot! 

Because gifting changes with the times, make sure you’re using an AI that connects to the latest version of the web 💻

ChatGPT Plus is a great go-to, but if you don’t have the paid version, go for something like:

👉Claude, a free chatbot for a limited amount of monthly searches

👉Bing Chat, Microsoft’s unlimited free web-based chatbot

👉Bard, Google’s ChatGPT equivalent

Once you’re in the chat field, it’s time to start brainstorming!

Make sure to add:

✍️Your relationship with the person you’re shopping for

✍️Anything you know about their likes and dislikes (the more the better)

✍️A budget if you have one

Here are some prompts you can tailor to your needs with example results:

For the prompt…

“I'm shopping for a secret santa at work. I don't know much about this person, but they're a woman in their 40s. I'm going to copy and paste the secret santa questionnaire she filled out. can you give me 10 gift ideas that I order online that are under $30?”

… we got this result from Bard:

For the prompt… 

“I need gift ideas for nieces and nephews. There are three boys, aged 5, 10, and 17, and two girls, who are 12 and 13. My budget for each gift is $40. The girls are both dancers and the boys play sports, except for the 17 year old, who plays in his high school marching band, but the gifts don’t have to relate to their hobbies unless you find something good. What do kids those age like these days? Can you find at least 3 ideas for each one?”

… we got this result on Bing Chat:

… and this result on Claude:

For the prompt… 

“I need to get something extra special for my husband, who’s had a hard year and deserves a really luxurious gift for the holidays. My budget is $300. I’ve gotten him watches, colognes, ties, and video game stuff in the past, but I want something totally new and out there, something really creative that he wouldn’t ever guess. Something that will give him hope. Can you give me 5 ideas?”

… Claude gave us:

… and Bing gave us:

Don’t forget that AIs can hold a stellar conversation, so respond with your favorite ideas you want to expand on, ones that don’t work, and any feedback that helps narrow down your search!

Happy shopping, puppies! 🐕🎁

Meal Planning Made Easy

Too burnt out to come up with new dishes this year? Hosting family with different tastes? Need someone to write your shopping list for you?

You know where this is going: AI is here to help!

Let’s start with a lengthy conversation we had with ChatGPT. It’s important to go back and forth with your chatbot to get the best results, so we threw a few challenges into this convo!

First, we kept it basic with this prompt:

“I'm hosting extended family for the holidays and need to come up with a menu for appetizers, mains, and desserts. I want dishes that are down to earth and easy enough to make but feel extra festive. We have elementary school aged kids coming too so I want something they will like as well. Can you provide a list of dishes I should consider adding to the menu with a bullet point of ingredients i'd need for each dish?”

And got… 

We wanted something a little fancier, so we responded with:

“Can you redo these results with dishes that are more elevated and sophisticated? I'm a pretty good cook so don't be afraid to get creative”

And got… 

We then remembered we have some speciality ingredients to include, so we added:

“my garden is doing well this year so I want to incorporate my own ingredients, I have a lot of squash to work with as well as fresh herbs like rosemary. can you add these in somewhere”

And voila! We settled on:

Oh, and we wanted to plan ahead for budgeting too, so we asked this:

“I like this last result! Can you add up the estimated cost of ingredients to buy everything brand new for a meal of 6 people? I live in Columbus Ohio for reference”

Even with the free version of ChatGPT using training data from 2022, we were able to get these results:

Happy shopping and cooking, puppies! 🧑‍🍳 🐶

Design Your Best Holiday Card Yet

Have you put off the annual holiday card this year? No problem. 

In just a few seconds, Canva’s AI-powered Magic Design tool will generate your dream template. 

👉First, click here to access Magic Design and click ‘Try Magic Design.’ Your first few searches are free! 

👉Next, type out the design or vision you have in mind. Try to use a lot of descriptors and adjectives. 

👉Then, scroll the Magic Design banner and choose your favorite template.

From there, swap in your family photo, tweak the language, and ship your design to the printer!

We tried the prompt…

“holiday card for a mellow family with a whimsical vibe and a bright color palette”

… and got customized templates like:

And… 

And…

Happy designing, puppies! 🧑‍🎨🐩

Your Next Assignment

This week’s assignment is simple: get through the holiday season stress-free! If you need some help to achieve that lofty goal, you know what tools to turn to 😗

💌As always, we’re on the lookout for topic suggestions for our next newsletter. Submit your ideas to [email protected] 💌

For fresh AI inspiration, don’t forget to check out our latest creations on the AI Puppy socials: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok 📲

Enjoy the weekend, puppies! We’ll be back next week with more 🐾👋🐾

Cheers,

The AI Puppy