The title sounds like a postcard slogan and in fact it is the slogan on my latest postcard. But of course there is much more to it than that. Behind this is a chance encounter on August 24, 2024 and an intensive one-month handcrafted design phase.

What happened on August 24?

August 24, 2024 was a Saturday on which I strolled through Zurich without artificial intelligence and without ChatGPT, discovered a small design market and got to know the fashion label “Powch” and the product designer and founder of Powch “Fabio Kunz”. I was immediately impressed by the functional yet beautiful and timeless designer bags that Fabio designs himself and then produces himself in Zurich. So we exchanged numbers and I immediately realized that I would like to start a “Beyond the Algorithm” project with Fabio.

What makes “Beyond the Algorithm” so unique?

For a long time I had the idea of having a bag produced that could also be used as a rucksack. At the same time, I didn’t just want to produce a bag; the design process, the materials and the people behind it are very important to me. Fabio immediately understood my basic idea of the functional rucksack bag and took it to a whole new level with his creative ideas. During the 4-week design phase, I was impressed every day anew by Fabio’s ideas for the design of the bag – without any AI, of course. Sometimes I asked myself whether I would have achieved the same result with suitable ChatGPT prompts and I came to the conclusion that the human creative collaboration probably brought the clear added value here. Incidentally, this also includes the human exchange that Fabio and I had time and again, which not only led to such a high quality, but also to a special motivation for both of us.

What is the result of “Beyond the Algorithm”?

The result is the 24/8 bag, which can now be ordered here. 24/8 has many meanings. The primary date is August 24 – the day Fabio and I meet. But it can also mean that this bag is not only the Twenty-Four-Seven companion, but is available to the owner for more than seven days. All because of its high functionality as a backpack and as a bag and even waterproof.

And where is the artificial intelligence – where is the AI?

AI will only be used in this project from the launch. Fabio even did the image editing almost by hand. But now comes marketing and with it the use of generative AI. I now have the great task of helping to market the bag and will be using Generative AI a lot. The basis for this is a CustomGPT, which I have created with OpenAI for the time being and will implement with PeakPrivacy as soon as customer data is involved.

What can the CustomGPT already do today?

The CustomGPT with the name “24/8 Powch Assistant” generates all texts for us and always uses the same tonality. The 24/8 Powch Assistant was trained on the basis of Powch’s previous texts and supplemented with the story of Sophie and Fabio’s partnership. The 24/8 Powch Assistant also has the basic task of always creating 3 different text suggestions for its user, each in German and English.

The creation of the CustomGPT “24/ Powch Assistant” in detail

To create the instructions for the “24/ Powch Assistant” described above, I first developed a kind of master prompt with the help of ChatGPT. I entered the following prompts one after the other into the ChatGPT input field.

1. prompt:

Please analyze the texts from this website and write instructions for an editor who is to write website texts for the powch.ch brand, i.e. for this website, in the future: https://www.powch.ch

2. prompt:

Can you please explain exactly how you came up with these guidelines and give specific examples from the existing website that led you to these guidelines.

3. prompt:

Okay, and now please complete the guidelines you wrote for the website editor of powch.ch with your examples.

4. prompt:

That’s already very good. But now I would like you to make the guidelines much more detailed. Imagine the new website editors of powch.ch don’t even know the label yet. They also don’t know how to write for websites. You must take this into account when writing the guidelines and examples.

5. prompt:

Okay, and here’s another addition to Powch’s tonality and values: this is a brand new collaboration with AI expert Sophie Hundertmark. Sophie is a consultant for artificial intelligence and chatbots, advising international, national and local companies and NGOs on the use and responsible use of AI, ChatGPT and similar technologies. Sophie Hundertmark is very interested in AI and is enthusiastic about new technologies relating to AI and chatbots. At the same time, the responsible and sustainable use of these new technologies is very important to her. She is always strongly committed to this in both her professional and private life and also gives many training courses in this area. She represents Powch’s values 100%. In addition to all her digital activities, Sophie also loves being outdoors, doing outdoor activities and is interested in culture and creativity. What I like most about working with Powch is the variety and the chance to do something completely different and at the same time to use AI technologies responsibly and where appropriate. Their first joint product bears the name: 24/8 Bag. August 24, 2024 is the day on which Sophie met Fabio by chance at a small, but fine design market in Zurich. Sophie had actually had the idea for weeks to have a functional yet stylish and timeless bag or backpack produced and to do something completely beyond the algorithms. When she saw Fabio’s collection, she was immediately impressed by the well-thought-out products. The two quickly agreed on a collaboration in which Fabio supplemented and perfected Sophie’s original design idea with his years of experience in product design. The first prototype was ready after just 4 weeks and the soft launch of the new bag followed a few weeks later. Can you please integrate all these new findings into the guidelines and provide new and again very extensive guidelines for laypersons who have not yet heard of Powch, hardly know Sophie and have little experience with website texts.

I gave these five prompts to the classic ChatGPT one after the other. The result now serves as a general guide for the 24/8 Powch Assistant. By the way, you can also find out more about CustomGPT in my last post on creating CustomGPTs.

What happens next?

The CustomGPT is now being used diligently. CustomGPT has already created the majority of the website texts for the landing page of the new bag. The 24/8 Powch Assistant has also created the first newsletter texts.

The first email responses to customer inquiries will follow and by then the 24/8 Powch Assistant will have been implemented with the data protection-compliant Swiss solution from Peak Privacy.

Further marketing measures will follow shortly and I will keep you up to date via WhatsApp group, Linkedin, Instagram and website.

What else is there?

I almost forgot, but the bag can also be requested as a B2B product with various customizations and in large quantities at special prices. And anyone who meets me in person at a workshop in the future is welcome to ask for a discount code.

This article is also available as a podcast episode

Attention! The podcast was created entirely by my AI-Assistant based on my contribution – no guarantee for incorrect content.