The best AI tool for CIOs? Depends on the job. 🧠
Watch our video of how CIO, Chris Howard, breaks down how he uses ChatGPT, Claude, and Cloud Code in real workflows, from building dashboards to translating scope changes into client-ready summaries.
His advice: Don’t pick a favorite. Pick what works. AI is evolving fast, and your stack should too.
Transcript
Hi, I’m Chris Howard, I’m a CIO, and I’m going to talk to you today about some of the tools that I use in my role from artificial intelligence. Artificial Intelligence tools are pretty much incorporated into everything that I do today.
For example, ChatGPT. I like it for content creation, you know, images, that kind of thing. It helps me write professional, great-sounding email responses.
I’ve switched a lot to Claude, and I feel like it does a better job of analytical-type stuff. It will help me with diagrams, describe something more visually in diagram/analytical form.
I also really like Claude code. As an example here, recently I created a dashboard that helps us analyze utilization of resources on different projects, and I used Claude code for that, really enjoyed it. I use Claude and ChatGPT in my everyday life.
A lot of times with quotes, when somebody asks us for a project, they’ll initially come in with the initial scope, and then we’ll get some emails expanding on that scope. And, additional details from meetings. So I’ll take all of that content and load it into Claude or ChatGPT.
It saves me a ton of time, and I feel like the end result is far more accurate, and that we could go back to that customer with a holistic view of everything that they’ve described to us.
My advice to other CIOs, really anybody in the business operations space is to play around with these different tools. I will tell you, initially, I was pretty much dedicated to ChatGPT. Over the last year, you know, that’s expanded. I’ve learned what its strengths and weaknesses are.
You need to stay current. You need to be out there exploring, trying out these different tools, reading about their capabilities, exploring what other people are doing. Because I’m telling you, it’s evolving rapidly. The tools that I’m talking to you right now about in December, I can guarantee you in January, February of next year, those will change.
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Edited by: Savannah Cherry
Savannah is our one-woman marketing department. She posts, writes, and creates all things Slingshot. While she may not be making software for you, she does have a minor in Computer Information Systems. We’d call her the opposite of a procrastinator: she can’t rest until all her work is done. She loves playing her switch and meal-prepping.
Featuring: Chris Howard
Chris has been in the technology space for over 20 years, including being Slingshot’s CIO since 2017. He specializes in lean UX design, technology leadership, and new tech with a focus on AI. He’s currently involved in several AI-focused projects within Slingshot.
Frequently Asked Questions
ChatGPT and Claude stand out. ChatGPT excels at professional communication and quick content creation. Claude performs better with analytical tasks like diagramming and evaluating project scope in context. Both are effective depending on the use case.
By aggregating initial project scopes, follow-up emails, and meeting notes, tools like Claude or ChatGPT create a cohesive, accurate summary. This helps CIOs return better-aligned proposals to clients faster.
AI tools assist with code generation and logic refinement. For instance, Claude was used to build a resource utilization dashboard by helping structure logic and visualize data output efficiently.
Diversification is key. While ChatGPT may offer better writing support, Claude shines in analytical depth. Understanding their strengths and weaknesses allows CIOs to apply the right tool to each task.
Very quickly. Capabilities change month to month. What works in December may be outdated by February. Staying current, reading updates, and experimenting regularly is critical for CIOs to stay competitive.
