The problem
On hot days walks need moving to early morning or cutting short, and owners need telling the evening before. In summer, a walker with 15 regular dogs who checks forecasts for each area and messages owners spends about 30 minutes on each hot day, and with 8 hot days a month that's 4 hours.
What the AI does
ChatGPT can run a scheduled task every day on its own. Ask it once: each afternoon, check tomorrow's forecast for your walk areas, tell you if temperatures during walk times will pass your limit, and draft one short message to owners explaining the change. It sends the result as a push notification, an email or both. You decide the walk plan, then send the message from your usual app. Scheduled tasks are on every plan: Free runs them in flexible windows such as 'afternoon', and paid plans such as Go (about $9£7€8A$13C$13 a month) add exact times.
A worked example
A solo dog walker in Cambridge walks about 15 regular dogs in 2 parks. From June to August a ChatGPT task checks the next day's forecast every afternoon and flags hot days.
Before
About 30 minutes on each hot day checking and messaging: about 4 hours a month in summer
After
About 10 minutes on each hot day reading the alert and sending one message: about 1.3 hours a month
What it's worth
About $72£54€64A$104C$102 a month in time saved in summer, on the Free plan or about $9£7€8A$13C$13 a month on Go. Hot-day admin drops from about 4 hours a month to 1.3, and 2.7 hours at an assumed $27£20€24A$38C$38 an hour is about $72£54€64A$104C$102.
How to set it up
- Decide your own temperature limit and what changes above it, such as early walks only or shorter walks, and write it in your terms.
- In ChatGPT, ask: 'Every day from June to August at 3pm, check tomorrow's forecast for these post codes between 8am and 6pm. If it will be over my limit at walk times, tell me which hours are safest and draft a short message to owners.'
- Open Scheduled to check the task, and choose push, email or both under Settings, Notifications.
- On an alert day, check the forecast yourself, set the plan and send the message from your usual app or booking system.
- Pause the task in September and resume it in late spring.
What goes wrong
- A forecast isn't the pavement. Check ground temperature with the back of your hand on the day, whatever the task says.
- Free runs tasks in a flexible window rather than at an exact time. Exact times need a paid plan such as Go (€8, about $9£7€8A$13C$13 a month).
- Tasks can pause when inactive or if their chat is archived or deleted. Check Scheduled at the start of each summer.
- Don't put owners' names, addresses or key details into the task. It only needs post codes and times.