Using AI Tools

Check out the spreadsheet with all the tools here!

For regular projects:

1. Start with ChatGPT:
   1. Choose and suggest the most appropriate Custom GPTs. See the list suggested by the Innovation Team HERE.
   2. If the list doesn’t provide what you need but you feel there may be a Custom GPT for it out there, you can try searching for pre-compiled lists of Custom GPTs for a specific purpose, e.g., best Custom GPTs for data analysis.
   3. Quickly verify if what you are suggesting can be helpful at all (e.g., it may be that a specific GPT matches the topic but isn’t actually useful due to the nature of the request/project type, or the other way round).
   4. If the above still doesn’t provide useful results, depending on the project type, you can consider different tools, depending on the project type.
      1. E.g., see the tools proposed in the “Other Useful Tools” of this spreadsheet, such as Phlanx for social media analysis or Plus AI / Gamma AI for slides.
   5. TIP: If you encounter/anticipate any apparent limitations of the tools, briefly explain them to the analysts to prepare them for additional research needed.

For scraping projects:

1. Ask yourself the following questions:
   1. How many rows do you have to scrape? (Note: Octoparse has the highest free limit of 10,000 rows.)
   2. Do you need to scrape data from multiple pages? (Note: Octoparse, AnyPicker, and ChatGPT Site Harvester allow that under free plans.)
   3. What is the pagination on the website that you need to scrape? (Note: Most tools should support infinite scroll and switching between pages, but if one of them gives you trouble, check another one.)
   4. Does the website require filling forms, logging in, closing pop-ups? (Note: Desktop apps such as Octoparse may be less ideal for this compared to browser-based ones such as Bardeen or SimpleScraper. They have features to solve this, but it doesn’t always work out.)
2. Based on the answers and the overview of the tools provided HERE and HERE, choose the most appropriate tools.
3. Note that not all the websites can be scraped so if you are scoping a scraping project, you need to check if the tool will work.
4. TIP: For simple and small projects, use/suggest easy browser-based tools like Site Harvester, SimpleScraper, or AnyPicker.