Claude vs. ChatGPT for Small Business: Why I Use Both in My Own IT Business

Shay
21 hours ago
22 min read

Claude vs. ChatGPT for small business graphic from SNL-Tech Services explaining why I use both AI platforms in my IT business and why the business problem should come before the product decision.

If you are a small business owner trying to decide whether your company should use Claude or ChatGPT, I understand why the decision can get confusing quickly. Search for an answer and you will find plenty of comparisons telling you one is better for writing, another is better for research, or that one particular model just beat another on a benchmark. I pay for and regularly use both Claude and ChatGPT Business inside SNL-Tech Services, and after spending a lot of time working with both platforms, I do not think choosing a winner is the most useful question for most small businesses.

I did not start using both because I decided every business needs two AI platforms. It happened naturally as I incorporated AI into more of my actual work. There is plenty of overlap between Claude and ChatGPT, and there are many tasks where I could use either platform. What has become much more interesting to me is how I use them, how I instruct them, how I verify what they tell me and why I sometimes deliberately research the same question with both.

That experience has changed how I answer one of the questions business owners are increasingly asking. When someone is researching Claude vs ChatGPT for small business, they are usually trying to figure out which platform is going to be the better fit for their company. I would not start by recommending either platform. I would start by asking what you are actually trying to accomplish.

The Short Answer: Why I Use Both Claude and ChatGPT

If you are looking for the short answer, I use ChatGPT Business heavily for research, search, troubleshooting, software evaluation, content, SEO and ongoing Projects. I use Claude for some of those things too, but Claude has developed differently in my business as I have built more structured workflows with Projects, Skills and Claude Cowork. I do not consider those hard boundaries between the platforms, and I would not recommend that another small business choose between them based only on how I use them. The better starting point is understanding what your business wants AI to accomplish, what information will be involved, how employees will use it and who will be responsible for managing it.

That distinction is important because these platforms are changing quickly. I am much more interested in what I can accomplish with them in my actual business than I am in declaring that one platform permanently owns a particular category. What works best for SNL-Tech Services may not be what works best for another company with different employees, applications, workflows and security requirements.

How I Actually Use ChatGPT Business at SNL-Tech Services

ChatGPT Business has become one of my primary research environments. I use it to research SNL-Tech Services and competitors, investigate technical subjects, research third party applications for clients, troubleshoot problems and work through questions where I need considerably more than a simple search result. I also use it extensively for the content and SEO work behind SNL-Tech Services, including researching what business owners are asking, evaluating existing articles, looking at search visibility, developing new content and helping me maintain the voice and writing standards I have established for the company.

One of the things I like about researching through ChatGPT is that the process does not have to end with the first search. I can start with a broad question, examine what it finds, ask follow up questions, compare products or sources, challenge something that does not make sense and continue digging into the pieces that actually matter. I also use ChatGPT as part of how I search the web, so conversational research has become a natural extension of how I look for information rather than something I only open when I want AI to write something for me.

I have built very specific instructions around how I want ChatGPT to research for me. I do not want it to find one article, summarize it and tell me the research is finished. I want a deep dive, cited sources and the most current information available. If it finds a relevant source that is three months old, I want it to continue searching to determine whether something has changed since that information was published. That matters when I am researching technology, cybersecurity, Microsoft 365, AI, licensing, compliance or software products because those subjects can change quickly. For important research, I also want at least three different relevant and trusted sources whenever that is reasonably possible, and I prefer current primary sources such as vendor documentation, Microsoft documentation or government guidance when those sources apply.

The purpose is not to collect three citations just so an answer looks researched. I want enough evidence to compare what I am finding, identify inconsistencies and recognize when something deserves a deeper investigation. ChatGPT's Deep Research capability fits that process particularly well because it can research across the public web, specific websites, uploaded files and enabled applications and produce a report with citations or source links that I can review. I still do not treat the presence of citations as proof that a conclusion is correct. I look at the sources.

Where Claude Fits Into My Business

There is significant overlap between Claude and ChatGPT, and I do not want to create artificial differences just to make a comparison article easier to write. Claude can research and provide citations, while ChatGPT has increasingly sophisticated research, Projects and other tools of its own. Both platforms can support ongoing work, and both continue to evolve.

What has happened in my own workflow is that Claude has become particularly interesting to me for the structured and agentic work I have been developing with Projects, Skills and Claude Cowork. I have been experimenting extensively with Claude Cowork inside my own IT business, building workflows around real administrative and IT work inside SNL-Tech Services. That has pushed me beyond thinking of AI as something I simply ask a question. I am increasingly interested in what happens when AI is given a defined job, detailed instructions, appropriate access and a process it can work through, while I still determine where human review and boundaries belong.

I have also experienced this from the client side by setting up Claude Teams for a small business. That engagement involved much more than purchasing licenses. I worked through policies, Projects, Skills, testing, access and ongoing management so the business had a defined way to use the platform rather than simply handing employees accounts and hoping everyone made good decisions. That experience reinforced something I think is easy to miss when a business first becomes interested in AI. Buying AI licenses is not the same thing as implementing AI.

One of the practical rules I used in that rollout is simple enough for an employee to remember when they are working quickly:

“If you would not email it to an outside vendor, do not paste it into an AI tool.”SNL-Tech Services

That rule does not replace a real data policy, but it gives an employee a practical way to stop and think about what they are sharing before they put information into an AI platform.

Claude vs ChatGPT for Small Business: Is One Actually Better?

For the way I work today, ChatGPT Business is where I naturally go for a lot of everyday research, web search, software investigation, troubleshooting, content work and ongoing Projects. Claude has become the place where I am doing more experimentation with structured Skills, repeatable workflows and Cowork. Those are descriptions of how the platforms have settled into my own workflow, not claims that one product is incapable of doing what I use the other one for.

That distinction matters because both platforms are evolving extremely quickly. Product capabilities, integrations and business features can change quickly enough that a comparison permanently declaring one platform the winner of a particular category can become outdated surprisingly fast. That is one reason I pay so much attention to current documentation when I research AI products instead of relying on a comparison that may have been accurate several months ago.

If an owner asks me “Which AI is better for my business?”, my first question is still going to be “What are you trying to accomplish?” The answer may be ChatGPT. It may be Claude. It may be another platform entirely. The business problem should come before the product decision.

One of My Favorite Uses for ChatGPT Is Researching Software for Clients

One of the most practical ways I use ChatGPT Business at SNL-Tech Services is researching third party software and applications for clients. Sometimes a client has a problem that I think software could solve, but I do not yet know which applications are worth investigating. Other times I already have several products in mind and want to understand how they compare before I start scheduling demos and talking with vendors.

ChatGPT gives me an efficient way to start that process. Depending on what I am researching, I can use it to help me:

Find applications that could potentially fit the client's needs
Compare the pros and cons of several options
Investigate features, integrations and compatibility
Identify limitations or concerns that deserve deeper research
Find current vendor documentation and other sources I can review
Research what actual users are saying about a product, including what they like, dislike and repeatedly report as a problem

Once a product looks promising, I can go much deeper. I can compare what I am finding across different sources and verify the important technical details against the vendor's current documentation rather than relying on an AI summary or user reviews alone.

The goal is not to have ChatGPT decide which software my client should buy. I use it to make myself better prepared to evaluate the software. By the time I schedule a vendor demo or conversation, I want to understand what the product is supposed to do, how it may fit into the client's existing environment, what compatibility questions I still have and which claims I want the vendor to explain in more detail. Instead of spending the entire demonstration learning the basics, I can ask specific questions about integrations, security, implementation and how the product would work in that particular client's environment. AI makes the research process more efficient, but the responsibility for evaluating the product and making a recommendation is still mine.

Can You Trust ChatGPT or Claude to Give You the Right Answer?

This is one of the most important things I think every business owner, office manager and employee using AI needs to understand. ChatGPT and Claude can produce an answer that is detailed, polished, professional and completely believable, and none of those things guarantee that the answer is correct. AI can sound very confident and still be wrong, which is why I do not think the person using it can completely hand over their judgment to the tool.

The more I understand about a subject, the more useful context I can give the AI and the more specific my questions can become. If I am troubleshooting a technical problem and understand the environment, I can explain the configuration, what has already been tested, what changed and what the expected result should be. If I am researching software, I can describe the client's existing systems, integrations and requirements. That gives the AI a much better problem to work with than a vague question ever could, and my own knowledge also makes it easier to recognize when something in the answer does not make sense.

If I know very little about a subject, I am even more conscious of the fact that I may not know enough to recognize a bad answer. That is when sourcing, verification and additional research become more important, not less. I do not think AI removes the need for subject matter knowledge. In many situations, having that knowledge is exactly what allows you to use AI effectively.

I Tell Both Claude and ChatGPT Not to Assume What I Mean

One of the instructions I have deliberately built into both Claude and ChatGPT is that I do not want either platform quietly filling in missing information just so it can give me an answer. If I have not been direct enough or there is not enough context to understand what I am trying to find, research or accomplish, I want the AI to tell me that and ask me five more focused questions before moving forward. I would much rather spend another minute providing context than receive a detailed solution to a problem I never actually had because the AI made an assumption I never gave it.

That rule is especially important in IT work because a missing detail can completely change the answer. If I ask for help troubleshooting a problem but do not explain enough about the network, Microsoft 365 tenant, firewall, server, software or client environment, I do not want the AI inventing the missing pieces. The same applies when I am researching applications for a client. The client's size, existing software, security requirements, integrations and workflow may all affect which products are worth investigating. Sometimes the most useful thing an AI can do is stop and ask better questions before it tries to give me an answer.

I think that is an important lesson for businesses adopting AI. Good prompting is not necessarily about learning a collection of clever phrases. A lot of it is about understanding what you are trying to accomplish well enough to provide useful context, define the objective, explain the constraints and establish what the AI should do when information is missing.

Why I Sometimes Research the Same Question With ChatGPT, Claude and Google

I do not always rely on one AI platform for research. For subjects where I want a deeper understanding, I may research the same issue with ChatGPT and Claude and compare how each platform approaches it, what each one finds and which sources each one surfaces. I may then take the same subject to Google and research it there as well. I am not doing that so I can take a vote and assume whichever answer appears twice must be correct. I want a well rounded view of the subject.

If ChatGPT, Claude and traditional search lead me in different directions, that is useful information because it tells me there is something worth investigating further. One platform may surface documentation another missed, one may interpret the question differently, or traditional search may expose discussions and sources that lead me to ask better questions in the AI platforms. I use a similar approach when I am fine tuning how I prompt and instruct AI. I want to see the subject from multiple directions rather than assuming one platform has given me the complete answer.

That process has become useful for my SEO work too. People are no longer finding businesses and information exclusively through a traditional list of Google results. AI powered search and answer systems are another way people research companies, products and technical questions, so I want to understand how information appears across different systems. Comparing those views helps me understand what is being surfaced, what is missing and where additional research is necessary.

I Use Claude and ChatGPT to Help Me Improve Each Other

Another part of my workflow is using each AI platform to help me improve the instructions I use with the other one. I have used ChatGPT to help fine tune instructions for Claude, and I have used Claude to help fine tune instructions for ChatGPT. I also research prompting and instruction design through other sources because I do not assume either AI automatically knows the best way for me to communicate with another AI system.

Over time, that has made me less interested in finding a magical perfect prompt. I care more about providing useful context, defining the objective, explaining constraints, supplying appropriate reference information and telling the AI what to do when it does not have enough information. I test instructions, look at the results and adjust them when they are not producing what I need. The underlying AI model obviously matters, but so does the quality of the information and instructions I give it.

For a business owner asking “How do I get better answers from ChatGPT or Claude?”, that is where I would start. Do not assume switching platforms will automatically fix a poorly defined request. First look at whether the AI actually understands your business, the problem you are trying to solve, the constraints it needs to respect and what a useful result should look like.

ChatGPT Has Become Part of How I Built the SNL-Tech Services Voice

Content is another major part of how I use ChatGPT Business, but saying that I use AI to write blogs would leave out most of what I am actually doing. I have spent a lot of time shaping the SNL-Tech Services voice and defining what does and does not sound like me. I have specific standards around paragraph structure, grammar, technical depth, research, sourcing, SEO, client confidentiality and how my role should be represented when I discuss real client situations. I do not want generic MSP marketing content, and I do not want AI inventing missing details because they would make an article sound stronger.

Those instructions have developed into a detailed content standard that I use throughout my SNL-Tech Services work. ChatGPT helps me research what business owners are asking, evaluate existing content, investigate search opportunities, improve internal linking, develop supporting content and maintain consistency across articles without turning everything into the same generic AI voice. That experience has reinforced something I think businesses often overlook when they first start using AI. The tool becomes considerably more useful when you give it good instructions, useful context and clear boundaries instead of expecting the default experience to somehow understand your company.

How I Use ChatGPT Projects to Keep Different Work Separate

Projects are another reason ChatGPT has become useful to me. OpenAI describes Projects as workspaces that keep related chats, files and custom instructions together, and that is essentially how I use them. I maintain different Projects for different areas of work, learning and planning so the instructions and context for one subject do not have to be mixed with everything else I am doing.

For example, I have a dedicated Project for certification study where I use ChatGPT to help me develop study guides, practice questions and testing material. I also maintain a completely separate Project for another business concept I am developing, with its own instructions, research and business planning context. I use ChatGPT personally as well for things such as travel research, trip planning and other projects. The value for me is being able to establish a body of context and instructions around ongoing work and then return to it rather than explaining the entire purpose again every time I start another conversation.

For a small business asking “What is the difference between employees simply using ChatGPT and actually setting it up for business use?”, this is part of my answer. Giving someone access to an AI platform is easy. Developing useful instructions, organizing appropriate business context, deciding what information belongs there and establishing rules for how it should be used require more thought.

Does a Small Business Need Both Claude and ChatGPT?

Probably not, and I would not recommend that every small business start buying multiple AI subscriptions simply because I use both. AI is directly connected to the work I do, I manage technology for other businesses, and firsthand experience with these platforms helps me understand what I am discussing with clients. I also genuinely get different value from using both, including the ability to compare how they research the same subject and use one platform to challenge or improve work I am doing with the other.

For a business that is just getting started, I would rather see the owner identify a few real problems first. What takes employees too much time? What are people repeatedly researching? Where are there administrative processes that could potentially be improved? Are employees already using AI without anyone in management knowing what they are putting into it? Once those questions are answered, the business can choose an appropriate platform, establish rules around its use and learn how to use it well. If another platform later solves a problem the first one does not, there is a much stronger reason to add it.

for multiple AI subscriptions is easy. Building useful workflows and managing them responsibly requires considerably more thought.

Should My Employees Use Personal ChatGPT or Claude Accounts for Business?

This is another question I think owners and office managers should ask before encouraging employees to use AI. I use ChatGPT Business for SNL-Tech Services, and I think the specific product and plan matter when a company moves from casual AI experimentation to actual business use. OpenAI currently states that ChatGPT Business workspace data is excluded from model training by default. OpenAI also provides Business workspace controls including MFA, roles, GPT controls, SAML SSO and basic analytics.

Those facts matter, but they do not mean that anything you put into a paid business AI account is automatically appropriate. Whether client information, regulated information, financial information, credentials or other sensitive data can be used depends on much more than a vendor's model training policy. The specific product, plan, configuration, connected systems, contractual obligations, applicable regulations and the business's own policies all matter. A statement that business data is not used for model training by default is an important piece of the evaluation, but it is not an AI governance program.

For an owner asking “Is ChatGPT Business safe?” or “Is Claude safe for my employees?”, I think the better question is

“What information does my business intend to use with AI, what rules apply to that information, and have we configured and managed the platform appropriately for that use?”

AI Governance Is Bigger Than Picking the Right Subscription

A business can choose ChatGPT Business, Claude for Work or another commercial AI platform and still have a problem if nobody has established how employees are supposed to use it. Employees may already have personal ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini or other AI accounts that the business does not know about. They may be using those tools with good intentions to work faster, but without an approved platform, a written policy or clear guidance about what company or client information belongs there.

This is why I do not think responsible AI adoption should begin with a debate over which AI platform to buy. As I discuss in AI Governance for Small Business, I want to understand the business first. That means understanding the technology environment, the information the business handles, the employees who will be using AI, the workflows they are trying to improve and the security underneath all of it. Once that foundation is understood, it becomes much easier to determine where AI can provide real value and what controls need to exist around it.

“Responsible AI adoption doesn't start with choosing an AI product. It starts with understanding the business, securing the environment underneath it and then deciding how AI fits into it.”SNL-Tech Services

I also do not think good AI governance should become a giant list of things employees are prohibited from doing. If a business approves ChatGPT Business, Claude or another AI platform, employees need enough guidance to understand how they are supposed to use it. That includes which tools are approved, what information is appropriate, what requires additional review and where human judgment still belongs. Policies and controls should protect the business while still giving employees a practical path for using approved AI tools productively.

“Good AI governance shouldn't only tell employees what they can't do. It should make it easier for them to use the approved tools correctly.”SNL-Tech Services

That is why my AI Governance Assessment looks at more than whether a business has an AI policy. I want to understand what AI tools employees are actually using, how they are being used, what information is involved and where the business may need clearer rules, controls or guidance. My SNL-Tech AI Governance Kit includes an AI Acceptable Use Policy because employees need something more useful than simply being told to be careful with AI.

Human review is another important part of how I approach AI. I am comfortable using AI to help with research, organization, drafting and working through information, but that does not mean I automatically trust the result or allow the AI to make the final decision for me. If the work affects a client, a technical recommendation, security, compliance or another important business decision, someone still needs to understand what the AI produced, verify the information when necessary and decide whether the result is appropriate to use.

What Should a Business Owner or Office Manager Ask Before Choosing AI?

When an owner, office manager or operations manager asks me whether the company should use Claude or ChatGPT, I want to understand the business before recommending either one. The technology matters, but I am much more interested in what the business is trying to accomplish and what will be involved in getting there. Some of the questions I would want answered include:

What are employees actually trying to accomplish with AI?
Which tasks are consuming enough time that AI could potentially help?
Are employees already using ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini or other AI tools on their own?
What company or client information would employees need to provide to the AI?
Which applications and systems does the business already use?
Is the goal primarily research and individual productivity, or is the business looking for repeatable workflows and automation?
Who is going to manage the AI platform after it is implemented?
Who decides which AI tools are approved?
Who maintains instructions, Projects, Skills or other company specific configurations?
Which applications should the AI be allowed to connect to?
How will important AI generated information be reviewed and verified before someone acts on it?
What should the AI do when it does not have enough information to provide a reliable answer?

Those questions tell me considerably more about what a business needs than a benchmark showing that one model scored a few points higher than another. They also help expose issues that are easy to overlook when the conversation starts with nothing more than “Should we buy ChatGPT or Claude?”

What Paying for Both Claude and ChatGPT Has Actually Taught Me

Using both platforms has made me less interested in AI brand loyalty and much more interested in AI literacy. The technology matters, and so do capabilities, security, privacy, integrations and the exact business plan being used. At the same time, the person using the AI still needs to understand that it can be wrong, provide enough context for it to understand the problem, question answers that do not make sense, examine sources and recognize when additional research or subject matter expertise is required.

I think that is one of the most important lessons for small businesses looking at AI right now. You can give two employees access to exactly the same AI platform and get dramatically different value depending on how they use it. Someone who provides useful context, asks good follow up questions, verifies important claims and understands the subject well enough to challenge the response is using a very different tool from someone who types a vague question and accepts whatever comes back.

That is also why I would be careful about handing a business owner a list of ten AI prompts and calling it an AI strategy. The right use cases depend on the business. For one company, the best starting point may be research and helping employees work through documents. For another, it may be reducing repetitive administrative work. Another business may discover that employees are already using AI and the immediate priority is not adding more AI at all. It is establishing policies and controls around what is already happening.

My Recommendation if You Are Choosing Between Claude and ChatGPT

If you are trying to decide between Claude and ChatGPT for your small business, start with the work instead of the feature comparison. Identify a few tasks that consume time or create frustration, understand what information is involved, determine what the AI would need access to and decide what information should not be exposed to the platform. Then test the tools against real work and pay attention to which one actually fits the way you and your employees operate.

You may end up choosing ChatGPT. You may prefer Claude. You may eventually find a legitimate reason to use both. What I would not do is choose one simply because somebody online declared it the winner, and I would not assume that buying a business subscription automatically gives employees the knowledge or guardrails to use it responsibly.

I use both inside SNL-Tech Services because both have become useful parts of how I work, research, learn and build new processes. Using them side by side has also made me better at recognizing what they can do, where they can fail and how much the quality of the result depends on the context, instructions, verification and human judgment I bring to the conversation. For me, that has become a much more useful lesson than deciding whether I am Team Claude or Team ChatGPT.

Frequently Asked Questions About Claude and ChatGPT for Small Business

Is Claude or ChatGPT better for a small business?

There is no universal winner. Both platforms have broad business capabilities and both continue to change quickly. The better choice depends on what your employees need to accomplish, what information is involved, which systems the company already uses and how you plan to manage AI within the organization. I use both because they have developed into different parts of my own workflow, but that does not mean every small business needs both.

Do I need both Claude and ChatGPT for my business?

Most small businesses probably do not need to start with both. I use both because AI is closely connected to my work and I have developed different workflows around each platform. For a company getting started, I would identify the business problem first, select an appropriate platform and learn how to use it well before adding another subscription.

Can ChatGPT or Claude give me incorrect information?

Yes. Both can produce information that is inaccurate, incomplete or outdated while presenting the answer convincingly. Important information should be verified against appropriate current sources, particularly when it affects clients, technology, cybersecurity, compliance, finances or other business decisions.

How do I get better answers from ChatGPT or Claude?

In my experience, context makes a significant difference. Explain what you are trying to accomplish, provide relevant background information, identify constraints and tell the AI what it should do when information is missing. I specifically instruct both platforms to ask me additional questions rather than assume details I have not provided.

Should I trust AI research if it provides citations?

Citations make research easier to verify, but I still review the underlying sources. For important research, I want current, relevant and trusted sources, and whenever reasonably possible I want at least three different sources so I can compare the information. If the information I find is several months old in an area that changes quickly, I keep researching to determine what has changed since it was published.

Is ChatGPT Business different from a personal ChatGPT account?

Yes. ChatGPT Business is an organizational workspace with business specific administration and data protections. OpenAI currently states that Business workspace inputs and outputs are not used for model training by default, while personal ChatGPT workspaces have different data controls. Businesses should evaluate the exact product they intend to use rather than assuming every ChatGPT account has identical terms.

Does Claude use business data to train its models?

Anthropic currently states that it does not train its generative models on data from its commercial products by default. Businesses should still review the current terms and configuration for the specific Claude product they are considering because model training is only one part of evaluating how company information is handled.

Should my employees use personal AI accounts for company work?

I would evaluate that before allowing it by default. Business offerings can have different administration, data handling and organizational controls from personal accounts, but moving to a business plan is only part of the answer. The business still needs policies, appropriate access, configuration and human oversight.

What is AI governance for a small business?

AI governance is the process of deciding which AI tools are approved, what employees can use them for, what information can and cannot be entered, who controls access and how important AI generated work is reviewed. My AI Governance Assessment also looks at how AI is actually being used within the business so policies and controls can reflect the real environment rather than assumptions.

How should a small business start using AI?

Start with a real business problem rather than an AI product. Identify work that could benefit from better research, analysis, drafting or a repeatable workflow. Determine what information the AI would need, establish rules around what information can be used and test the results with human review. Once you understand where AI is genuinely creating value, decisions about platforms, integrations and automation become much easier.

Ready to Figure Out Where AI Fits in Your Business?

If your employees are already using ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or other AI tools and you are not sure what information is being shared or whether you have the right rules in place, that is a good place to start. My AI Governance Assessment looks at the tools already in use, the way employees are using them and where policies, controls or additional guidance may be needed. I also use the SNL-Tech AI Governance Kit as part of my governance work, including an AI Acceptable Use Policy that gives employees clearer guidance about approved tools and information.

If you are still at the earlier stage and simply trying to figure out whether ChatGPT, Claude or another platform makes sense for your company, I can help with that too. I would rather understand what you are trying to accomplish and help determine what actually fits than recommend an AI tool your business does not need.