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- People are trying out OpenAI's ChatGPT for a variety for uses.
- I put ChatGPT to the test for a situation that many workers find stressful: asking for a raise.
- Experts said ChatGPT's response didn't seem AI-generated and probably would in fact land me a raise.
If you've ever asked for a raise before, you know the task can feel pretty daunting. How do you prepare for the conversation? What do you say?
Enter ChatGPT. For those unaware, ChatGPT is an AI chatbot that's been making the rounds online for its ability to do everything from passing Wharton business school exams to writing music.
Some people have turned to ChatGPT to outsource mundane work tasks or even help them land new jobs. In a survey of 4,500 employees conducted by professional social networking app Fishbowl earlier this month, nearly 30% reported having already used ChatGPT to assist with work-related tasks.
But can ChatGPT help you get a raise?
I recently put the tool to the test to find out. (For those wondering, no, I did not use any of ChatGPT's responses to negotiate a raise for myself!)
I started simple: I told ChatGPT "ask my boss for a raise" to see what response that would yield. The chatbot spat out a six-part outline of steps to take in preparation.
ChatGPT screenshot
I wanted to see if ChatGPT would get more specific and offer a script, so I refined my question to "What do I say when asking for a raise?" ChatGPT then gave me a very similar list of preparation steps but also tacked on a brief script template.
ChatGPT screenshot
I turned to a few experts to see what they thought of ChatGPT's suggestions.
Career coaches Esther Leonard and Mandi Woodruff-Santos told me ChatGPT's answers didn't seem obviously AI-generated and that a person could probably get a raise if they followed those steps and the script template.
But there are a few ways you can improve ChatGPT's suggestions to make a stronger case, they said.
For example, while the steps were in the generally correct order that Leonard recommends for clients preparing for a raise negotiation, they could use some more specificity, she said.
"It would be helpful to add how your contributions have impacted the company's financials or will continue to impact the financials," Leonard said. "It isn't enough to just talk about the financials."
Another useful tip that ChatGPT didn't include is to "ask for a little more than what you want," Leonard said. If you want a $5,000 raise, for example, ask for a $6,000 to $8,000.
As for the script template, Woodruff-Santos says the general foundation is solid but should be viewed as just that — a foundation to build upon. She suggests breaking down the script, line by line, on a document and supplementing it with concrete examples showing your impact.
"Take each sentence of this script and have it outlined on the doc with some additional talking points so that you're making it feel less like you're reading from a script, which can be a little awkward, and more like something that you've put thought into presenting," she says.
The script ends a bit abruptly, so Leonard advises tying it together with a closing sentence along the lines of, "I'm excited to learn how we can work on a raise to reflect my market value and my contributions to this company."
So there we have it. ChatGPT may help put you on the path to landing a raise, but you should still put in some work to make your case as strong as possible.
"At the end of the day, ChatGPT is going to give you suggestions and a nice framework to start with," Woodruff-Santos said. "But then you want to put it in your own words and make sure that it sounds natural to you."