Custom GPT users face a December deadline
OpenAI plans to retire custom GPTs Dec. 11, prompting users to prepare replacements and test tools they rely on for daily work.
Real estate agents who rely on custom GPTs to draft listing descriptions, prepare customer emails or handle other recurring work have a change to plan for: OpenAI is scheduled to retire the tools Dec. 11.
OpenAI is asking creators to migrate their custom GPTs to plugins, which combine reusable instructions, reference files and connected apps. The transition covers all ChatGPT plans, although certain Enterprise workspaces have approved extensions. Users should check their account notices for the timeline that applies to them.
A custom GPT is a version of ChatGPT configured for particular tasks using saved instructions and supporting material. An agent might build one with writing samples and marketing preferences, while a brokerage could create one for its team.
For those users, the work worth preserving goes beyond a few saved prompts. It could include carefully edited instructions, approved language and examples developed through months of use.
Stephanie Nivinskus, principal of Ragan’s Center for AI Strategy, recommends identifying the GPTs a team depends on and assigning someone to oversee each replacement.
“The voice calibration and approved outputs your team built into those GPTs are worth protecting,” she wrote.
Her recommendations offer several starting points for real estate offices:
- Find out who owns each tool. Include GPTs supplied by consultants or trainers, and ask their creators about replacement plans.
- Keep the underlying material. Save copies of instructions, original reference files and examples of useful results in an office-approved location.
- Give someone responsibility. Set an internal deadline that leaves time to resolve problems before retirement.
OpenAI cautions that a migrated tool may respond differently. Custom actions that connect a GPT to another service do not transfer automatically, and existing sharing settings do not carry over. Someone who uses another person’s GPT cannot migrate it simply because they have permission to use it.
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