Use AI for Contextual Problem Solving - Unlock AI Series
Let’s be honest—most of us have fallen into the classic Google rabbit hole. One minute, you’re searching for a solution; half an hour later, you’re still hunting and more confused than when you started. That’s the moment I realized there’s a better, much…
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Let’s be honest—most of us have fallen into the classic Google rabbit hole. One minute, you’re searching for a solution; half an hour later, you’re still hunting and more confused than when you started. That’s the moment I realized there’s a better, much smarter approach for solving everyday (and not-so-everyday) problems—especially once you learn to put AI to work for you, the right way.
Why Context is Everything
If you treat AI like it’s just a fancy search engine, you’re missing out. Most of us have been trained by Google to toss out vague questions and hope for a link that matches our problem. But AI, especially tools like ChatGPT, doesn’t just spit out search results. It wants your whole story.
Here’s where the magic happens:
- You can include details: location, photos, specific breakdowns.
- The AI can understand context and nuance.
- You get tailored, step-by-step solutions instead of generic advice.
Think about it: If I ask, “How do I get rid of weeds in my lawn?” Google might tell me a hundred ways, without considering my region, my grass type, or whether the problem is crabgrass or dandelions. But if I tell ChatGPT, “I live in Tennessee with Bermuda grass, it’s late April, here’s a picture,” it’s like I have a neighbor—who just happens to be a seasoned horticulturalist—leaning over the fence to help me with my exact problem.
Practical Ways I Use AI for Troubleshooting
I’ve come to rely on AI for more than just lawn care. Here are some real examples you can try yourself:
- Home repairs and maintenance: Dishwasher acting up? Snap a photo, describe the weird noise, and let AI give you possible fixes—along with ballpark estimates for repairs.
- Car issues: Error codes popping up? List your car’s make, model, year, and code, and see what the AI can dig up in seconds. I’ve even gotten reasonable pricing info and what to expect at the mechanic.
- Parenting puzzles: Have a behavioral question about your kid? (Obviously, serious medical stuff should still go to your doctor!) You might get more context and actionable tips from ChatGPT as a first step, rather than sifting through endless parenting blogs.
- Tech headaches: My video podcast setup had a tricky blinking neon light. Instead of guessing, I told ChatGPT my camera make and settings, described the flicker, and followed up with more details as it asked. In less than a minute, I had a fix tailored to my gear.
You get the picture. AI actually closes the gap between “I’m stuck” and “Here’s my next step.”
Getting the Most Out of Your AI Interactions
AI is as good as the context you provide. The more details, the better the result. Here are two pro tips that have helped me:
- Give it the full context upfront. Don’t just ask a generic question. Imagine you’re explaining the problem to a helpful expert—describe your situation, include pictures if relevant, and specify any constraints or goals.
- Ask what else it needs to know. Once you’ve sent your info, try finishing with, “Is there anything else you need to clarify before you give me an answer?” Nine times out of ten, the AI will ask smart follow-ups you didn’t even consider, making its advice much more precise.
Troubleshooting is a Conversation, Not a One-and-Done
One of my favorite things? You don’t have to stop at the first answer. Go back, ask for clarifications, tweak your question with new details, or follow up with “What if I…?” Suddenly, you’re having a back-and-forth with a digital expert who never gets tired or annoyed.
Does Using AI to Solve Problems Make Us Lazy?
I’ve heard this critique—a lot. “Aren’t we offloading too much? Won’t we lose our problem-solving chops?” Here’s the way I see it:
- Before, searching solutions was like wandering through a maze—lots of dead ends, lots of time wasted.
- Now, AI is like having GPS for your brain. You skip many headaches and make room for deeper work—the creative, strategic challenges that only you can solve.
- It’s not about shortcutting thinking; it’s about shortcutting the drudgery so you can spend your time on what matters.
How to Get Started (In Less Than 5 Minutes)
- Install the official ChatGPT app, or try it on the web.
- Next time you hit a wall—whether it’s a life problem, work dilemma, or technical glitch—give AI the full picture.
- Follow the pro tips above for maximum results.
- Don’t be afraid to have a real conversation: ask, tweak, follow up.
So, here’s my neighborly advice:
Instead of burning time on search engines, treat AI like your on-call expert. With the right coaching—your context, a couple smart clarifications, and some back-and-forth—you’ll be blown away by how much faster (and less stressful) it is to move from problem to progress. Give it a spin, and let me know how it works for you.
In this AI marketing podcast episode, Dan Sanchez kicks off a brand new mini-series called Unlock AI to teach beginners how to use AI—especially ChatGPT—for contextual problem solving. Instead of relying on generic search engine results, Dan walks through personal stories (including lawn care and flickering neon lights) to show how AI can provide highly tailored solutions. From parenting challenges to car repairs and marketing hiccups, Dan proves how generative AI can act like your ultra-smart neighbor, ready to help in real time. He also tackles the concern that AI could make us lazy thinkers—and offers a refreshing perspective on how it actually empowers deeper work.
My Favorite AI Tools
- ChatGPT - https://openai.com/
- High Level Marketing Platform - https://danchez.com/highlevel
- AI Podcasting Tools - https://danchez.com/podtools
- n8n AI Automation Platform - https://danchez.com/n8n
Resources Mentioned
- ChatGPT App (Official) - https://openai.com/chatgpt
- Home Depot - https://www.homedepot.com/
- Canon 80D (Camera Reference) - https://www.usa.canon.com/
Timestamps
- 00:00 – The frustration of endless Google searches
- 00:18 – Introducing the Unlock AI mini-series
- 00:42 – Why AI is better than Google for real-time help
- 01:40 – A lawn care story powered by ChatGPT's contextual awareness
- 03:55 – Using AI to fix real-world problems (car, kids, appliances)
- 06:30 – Live troubleshooting: flickering neon light
- 08:30 – Addressing criticisms: is AI making us dumb?
- 09:45 – The GPS analogy: AI as your problem-solving shortcut
- 10:30 – Two pro tips for getting better AI answers
Speaker: Have you ever gone searching on Google and just searched and searched and searched and 20-30 minutes go by and you're like, I still haven't found the answer. I found a answer. I found this particular general thing, but none of them quite fit my particular situation.
Speaker: I think we've all had that experience and not been able to find a solution to our problem or an answer to the question that we have. And that's where AI can be very helpful because it can help us with contextual problem solving.
Speaker: Welcome back to the AI-driven marketer. I'm Dan Sanchez, my friends call me Danchez. And today is episode one of a new mini series I'm doing called Unlock AI to help people who are just getting started with AI learn how to get the most out of it.
Speaker: We're going to be going through in a number of different episodes how to even use free AI apps like like the free ChatGPT app, which is where I usually recommend people get started so that you could learn how to unlock this new skillset, this new behavior and get more out of this new tool because it's not like Google.
Speaker: It's not like any of the tools we've had before. And we kind of have to develop a whole new way of working with this new tool called Generative AI. Again, today is episode one in that series to help you use it to do what I'm calling contextual problem solving.
Speaker: Now a lot of us when we first get started with AI we treat it a lot like Google. We put in our query and expect to get almost search results type things back and get frustrated sometimes when it doesn't give us links to external resources.
Speaker: But I'm telling you that AI is even better than Google when it comes to helping you find the answer to a problem that you have right now. Let me give you an example. The other day I was sitting on my front porch. It was a Saturday evening. The sun was setting and things were nice, but I was looking down at my grass in my front lawn and it was yeah it was more weed than grass.
Speaker: And it was something I've been putting off for a very long time. I had actually done searches for how to fix the the weed problem in my nice Bermuda grass in the middle of Tennessee, but I'd not quite found a solution. I'd found some recommendations, found this, found that. I'm like, I really need some help.
Speaker: So I took a picture and sent it to ChatGPT and asked it for help with my lawn and getting all the weeds out of it ah and giving it context, helping it understand the full problem, not just be like how to get rid of weeds and in lawn, like you'd have to go to Google and Google would give you some generic advice because it doesn't know where you live. It doesn't know what time of year it is. It doesn't know what kind of grass you have and what kind of weeds you're dealing with.
Speaker: But AI can understand all of that. So you can actually give it the full context. And that's what I did. I told it I was in the middle of Tennessee, that it was late April and the weeds were popping up all over. And I took a picture and sent it to because I didn't know the name of the weeds. And also let it know I had a Bermuda grass put in three years and I hadn't done anything but mow and water that sucker.
Speaker: The results it gave me back were outstanding. It gave me a whole regimen of things I need to be doing, including what I need to be doing now based on the time of year, based on the type of grass, based on the types of weeds it was seeing in just the photo that I uploaded to it. Yes, Chai GPT can actually look at a photo and understand what's in the photo, understand the full context.
Speaker: It's almost like having a a neighbor who's an expert on whatever the thing is that you're getting stuck on help you in that moment. Sure enough, it gave me the full list of things to do. And I didn't even know what to do with it. I was like, okay, well, where do I buy the the chemicals, the things I need to spray? It gave me a full shopping list.
Speaker: And then I said, hey, what are these can I get from Home Depot? And it rearranged my shopping list based on what I could get at my local Home Depot. I then went shopping, bought everything on the list and started implementing it just a few weeks ago.
Speaker: That's the power of ai with contextual problem solving. it's It's not just going to give you a generic answer, it's going to give you the answer that you need for your very specific problem.
Speaker: I find that I'm using it more and more to help me solve my everyday problems, from problems with marketing at work, to problems with just software that I'm troubleshooting, to problems with my dishwasher and my car engine.
Speaker: In fact, ChatGPT even has a camera, so even if I can't describe quite what's going on, I can show it a picture. I can show it a video feed or send it a picture of what's going on so it can help me troubleshoot.
Speaker: Again, it's like having an expert on hand that can help you troubleshoot whatever you're dealing with. have a behavioral problem with your kid, you're not sure quite sure how to do it, instead of going to Google and hitting up your like your first WebMD article, ChatGPT is not a bad first pass. Of course, if it's medical related, go visit a doctor.
Speaker: But if your child's like doing something, like you might be able to get a better understanding of it with the first pass through something like ChatGPT. If your car is having problems or an error code is coming up, you're like, you can at least go to ChatGPT and say, what is this error code? This is my make and model of my car. And it can help you identify the problems, what a mechanic is going to look for, how much that mechanic is going to charge, or what a reasonable price would be.
Speaker: And all of a sudden, you're armed with the information you need, not just based on a generic answer, but based on the make and model of your car, the specific error code that's coming up. and what you'd expect to see for that specific problem.
Speaker: Because when it comes to AI, you can get answers to the specifics on your problem. Let's go ahead and live troubleshoot a problem I'm having right now. As you can see, I have this neon light right behind me. And if you're listening, I have this like ah LED kind of fake neon light that says AI marketer behind me.
Speaker: And I've always had a problem with it blinking. right? I probably have some camera refresh rate. I don't really know what to do about it. Let's ask ChatGPT. In fact, I'm going to open it up to advanced voice mode and I'm going to turn it on to video.
Speaker: I'm going to say, hey, ChatGPT, as you can see in the video, I have a neon light that's kind of one of those fake ah LED neon lights. You could probably see it in your own camera.
Speaker: On the camera I use to record my video podcast with, ah it's actually blinking ah more than I'd like it to. I'd like it to be more steady. Now, I'm using a Canon 80D camera.
Speaker: I have the frame rate set to, I think, 60 frames a second, and the shutter speed is set to 30 frames a second. Or, I think that's right.
Speaker: I get confused myself. What do you think I could do to make the neon light stop blinking like that? The blinking effect happens because the camera's shutter speed and the light's refresh rate aren't synced up.
Speaker: Since your camera is at 60 frames per second, try setting your shutter speed to double your frame rate, so around 120th of a second. This often helps reduce or eliminate that flicker.
Speaker: Also, check if the light has a different mode or a steady mode that might sync better with your camera settings. That's an interesting solution. I haven't considered bumping it up in order to deal with the flicker, so I'll have to try that.
Speaker: Thank you. You can see I know a little bit about cameras, but not enough in order to troubleshoot it myself. And ChatGPT, knowing, being trained on the whole internet, knows a lot more about cameras than I do and all these different things.
Speaker: So it's an incredibly useful tool, and I help it to troubleshoot all kinds of things, whether it's a software problem problem and I pull it up and just show it my screen so it can help me navigate around the menus to find that one setting that needs to be tweaked.
Speaker: I promise if you start using AI this way, you'll start to find more and more that it's helpful for helping you navigate all kinds of problems. And guess what? what You give it your first prompt and your first problem and it gives you an answer.
Speaker: You can follow up with question two and question three and question four. ChatGPT is just handy at walking you through the whole scenario, helping you dive deeper and actually figure out the thing you need figured out.
Speaker: Now, I've had some people push back on me. Yeah, some people have said like, well, Dan, isn't this making us dumb? Isn't that this like helping us think less instead of using our own brains? Is this go to make us dependent on ChatGPT?
Speaker: It's not a bad criticism. There are certainly some people out there that don't think at all now and just ChatGPT everything. But let me give you this analogy. Before, we were wandering around in a maze.
Speaker: We were going to Google, and we'd have to go page by page by page until we found an answer that was good enough to help us fix our problems. It was like wandering through a maze and hitting dead end after dead end after dead end until we happened to find the right path forward in order to fix it.
Speaker: Having ChatGPT on hand is like having GPS, helping us find the answer to our problem. Now, you might say like, well, yeah, it's it's making it so we don't have to think. We don't hit the dead ends. We don't fix we don't have to go through the pain of solving it. And I'm like, yes.
Speaker: But now we can go deeper. We can actually solve it more fully or solve more problems or get onto the thing that we actually wanted to do and actually wrestle with. Because, of course, there's many things that ChatGPT can't help us with.
Speaker: And those are the things that we can now spend more of our time actually diving deep into and actually spending more time wrestling with. Because the point of ChatGPT isn't to eliminate all work.
Speaker: There's still lots of meaningful, creative, and significant work that we need to spend our time and focus on. But ChatGPT helps us eliminate all the little tiny baby steps along the way. And that's why we have things like dishwashers and microwaves and cars. All these things eliminate a lot of the little things so we can focus on bigger, more important, more creative problems that we can now wrestle with.
Speaker: So remember, next time you have a problem, instead of going to Google, try opening up ChatGPT. Install the ChatGPT app, make sure it's the official one, and start asking it questions or start asking it for help with problems.
Speaker: A few pro tips before you get started. One, make sure you give it enough context. Give it all the details, just like you would with somebody who's pretty knowledgeable about the area you're having trouble with. give them the details you think it needs.
Speaker: Second pro tip is that then before it gives you an answer, finish off your request by saying, hey, what are things that you need clarity on before you can give me a proper answer?
Speaker: It will ask you a few questions and then you can actually go about getting the answer you need. It is remarkably good at figuring out what it needs to know in order to help serve you better.
Speaker: So try this out. Let me know how it goes.