I turned ChatGPT into a personalized gift planner, and it changed my holiday shopping

• Rashel Hariri, a founder and podcast host, uses ChatGPT to create personalized, intentional gifts.
• She builds profiles and uses her own framework to tailor gifts to each person.
• She said the approach saves time, reduces decision fatigue, and helps her give better gifts.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rashel Hariri, a 38-year-old founder and host of "She's Interesting," who lives in Arkansas. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I've always shown care through gift-giving. When I choose something for someone, I want them to feel seen and have something they'll actually use. I'm not someone who is going to give luxurious, massive gifts — but the gifts I give are meaningful.

Over the last year, AI has become the most effective way for me to do that. ChatGPT has become like a gifting concierge, helping me organize my brainstorming and land on presents that feel thoughtful, personal, and aligned with someone's real life.

I developed a framework for what makes a good gift

Through conversations with the women in my podcast community, "She's Interesting," I realized that people — particularly women in their 30s like myself — value three main things: gifts that feel a little luxurious, gifts that expand our brains (like books or courses), and gifts that make the day-to-day easier. This became my three-part framework for ChatGPT.

With this information, I started a project in ChatGPT — which creates a space to group similar chats around the gifting topic — and provided custom instructions for the AI to follow, like background information on my framework.

If you want to create your own framework, think about what's most important to you and the people around you. What makes you the happiest? What types of things make your life easier? Use the answers to those questions as main points in your framework.

I started an ongoing conversation for each recipient in ChatGPT

Within my ChatGPT project, I have separate conversations for each of the people I'm shopping for: my husband, friends, and colleagues.

I start by describing each person, including basic demographics, as well as deeper information, such as what's important to them, their likes and dislikes, personal goals, and things they're struggling with. I might also include their astrological sign and their favorite colors.

You have to be someone who pays attention to your friends, because otherwise, AI will give you basic suggestions. I try to give ChatGPT everything I know about the person. If I have a conversation with a friend or family member and something stands out, I can go into the chat and say, "Take note that this person said X." The more I use it, the more it learns.

When it's time to buy a gift, even if it's months later, all those details are stored. It's a mental relief, like your notes app, but way smarter because it responds to you.

With all of that information uploaded, I prompt ChatGPT to come up with gift ideas within my framework for each person. You can also give it a specific budget to work within.

The tool comes up with initial ideas and explains why each gift works for the recipient. From there, it becomes a conversation — almost like talking to the person I'm shopping for. I might ask for more ideas within a category, or the ideas might remind me of something else about the person, and I'll ask it to generate new suggestions with that information.

I still make the final gift decision, but ChatGPT can be speedy and creative

I used to brainstorm all of this myself, but AI has made the process 60 to 70% faster, and given me a tool I can return to for future gift ideas.

I still choose the final gifts to give, but if I'm feeling stuck between ideas, I'll go back to ChatGPT and say, "Here are two items I'm deciding between. Help me narrow it down." It asks me questions to help decide: Does she need this? What's her plan for the next three months?

AI often makes suggestions I wouldn't have thought of. I told ChatGPT about a friend who struggles to find any time for himself while balancing a busy career and two kids. The tool recommended "The Five-Minute Journal." He loved it — it was thoughtful and tailored.

The best part of gift-giving is that moment when someone opens it and says, "Oh my God, you know me so well!" We want to give the people we love something that makes them feel good, and this process has made it easier for me to do that.