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Color stock checks with ChatGPT video for hair salons

Talk through the color shelf with the phone camera on, then have ChatGPT turn your counts into a reorder list. From about $9£7€8A$13C$13 a month.

At a glance

  • What it costs$9£7€8A$13C$13 a month

  • Worth, in extra profit or time saved in the worked example$84£63€75A$121C$118 a month

  • Pays for itselfIn about a week

  • Sign up and configure; no technical skills neededEasy to set up

Figures come from the worked example below, using its stated assumptions. Tool prices checked . How we check prices

The problem

The weekly color stock check means going shelf by shelf with a clipboard, squinting at shade numbers. In a salon carrying about 120 shades that's around an hour a week, about 4.3 hours a month, and one miscounted shade still means an emergency order or a client's color changed on the day.

What the AI does

ChatGPT's voice with video lets you point the phone camera at the shelf and talk at the same time, so your hands stay free for the tubes. You say each shade and count, and ask it to read a label you can't make out. When you end the call, the transcript stays in the chat with your usual stock levels, and you type one request: compare the counts with my usual levels and list what to order. Video works in the iPhone and Android apps using the Advanced voice option, on Go (about $9£7€8A$13C$13 a month) and above.

A worked example

A four-chair salon in Leeds stocks about 120 color shades. On Monday mornings the senior stylist talks through each shelf with video on and asks ChatGPT for an order list at the end.

Before

About 60 minutes a week counting and writing up the color order

After

About 25 minutes a week, including checking the order list

What it's worth

About $84£63€75A$121C$118 a month in time saved, against about $9£7€8A$13C$13 for ChatGPT Go. The check drops from 60 to 25 minutes a week, and 35 minutes times 4.3 is about 2.5 hours a month at an assumed $33£25€30A$48C$47 an hour.

How to set it up

  1. Choose ChatGPT Go (€8, about $9£7€8A$13C$13 a month) or above in the iPhone or Android app; voice with video isn't on Free.
  2. Start a chat called 'Color stock' and paste your usual level for each shade, once.
  3. In Settings, Voice, choose the Advanced option, start voice in that chat and tap the camera button to share video.
  4. Go shelf by shelf saying each shade and count out loud, and ask it to read any label you can't make out.
  5. End the call and type: 'Compare these counts with my usual levels and list what to order, by brand.' Check the list against the shelf before ordering.

What goes wrong

  • OpenAI says voice transcripts are not word-for-word records. '8.1' and '8.11' are easy to confuse, so read the order back against the shelf.
  • Video uses the Advanced voice option. The newer Live option doesn't support video, so switch in Settings, Voice if the camera button is missing.
  • Video has its own usage limits on each plan, so a long check may need splitting into two calls.
  • It doesn't know about big color bookings this week. Add those to the order yourself.

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Last updated October 17, 2026.