But if you have a repetitive task, like answering questions about leave policies or estimating starting salaries for candidates, it can be time-consuming to start those conversations from scratch each time.
Custom agents solve this problem by letting you set up the context and information you need in advance and jump right in with your question. You can take a successful chatbot prompt, add source documents like the district’s policies and bargaining unit contracts, and create a specialist AI agent that can answer similar questions quickly without you needing to re-explain the background, context, and output parameters.
Google has Gemini Gems, ChatGPT has CustomGPTs, Microsoft has Copilot Agents. For the modern SBO seeking actionable solutions, these tools offer more powerful, flexible options to speed up daily workflows. I will go into more depth here about Gems, as it is the tool my district, Newfield Central School District, uses, but the lessons should be broadly applicable.
A Gem is more than simple automation that performs a rigid sequence of actions. Gems can analyze, apply context, and generate as well as validate outputs.
What Makes a Gem Shine in the Business Office?
A Gem is more than simple automation that performs a rigid sequence of actions. Gems can analyze, apply context, and generate as well as validate outputs. You don’t have to create a perfect set of instructions; it will infer quite a lot and also ask questions when it needs more info. More information on how to create a good prompt for a Gem is below.
Crucially, Gems can leverage district context by accessing internal documents, such as your district's policy manual or fiscal procedures stored in Google Drive, enabling them to handle requests in accordance with your specific organizational standards.
You can build multistep workflows. Envision a Gem that reviews the transcript of your Google Meet, generates a summary of the meeting, identifies action items and who they’re assigned to, drafts a summary email with all of the above — ready for you to review, edit, and click send. This strategic application streamlines entire end-to-end processes, freeing up valuable staff time for more strategic work.
Practical Applications for SBOs
Gems can significantly enhance efficiency for challenges that come up repeatedly in district business offices:
- Policy Compliance and Validation: A Gem could be tasked with reviewing specific policy documents before approving a financial request or purchase order, ensuring consistency and adherence to governance rules.
- Data Analysis and Reporting: A Gem could analyze large volumes of documents, like vendor contracts or maintenance reports, to extract critical insights, and then automatically log that structured data into a Google Sheet for reporting or further action.
- Drafting and Communication: A Gem could draft budget updates for a school newsletter or create HTML code for your website to display financial data visualizations, incorporating the district's specific context and communication tone.
Building Your AI Assistant: The Four Pillars
Creating a successful AI agent requires giving it clear boundaries and goals. A successful prompt for customizing a Gem should be structured around four key pillars:
- Persona: Define who the Gem is, giving it a role. For example, "You are a school district budget analyst with expertise in visualizations " or "You are a communications specialist with a background in sharing complex financial information with general audiences."
- Task: Define what specific action the Gem must take. This usually involves a clear command verb, such as "Summarize this document," "Draft an email," or "Analyze this dataset." A Gem can do multistep workflows, so feel free to combine actions.
- Context: Provide the background information necessary for the task. This might include instructions like "This is for a non-technical audience" or "Use the attached file containing the district's capital project schedule."
- Format: Specify how the output should look to ensure it's immediately useful. Examples include: "A bulleted list," "A table with columns for X and Y," or "A stacked bar chart."
But no need for the perfect prompt — you can start creating a Gem by asking the regular Gemini to help. For example: “I want to create a Gem that will take two .csv files I upload, extract the key data about year-to-date expenditures as a percentage of the overall budget, and break that by category.” Gemini starts by asking questions to understand your needs. You can request a test run with demo data, view the created prompt, and suggest revisions to achieve your desired output.
Tips for Polishing Your Gem
When writing instructions for your Gem, start by approaching it as if you were conversing with a colleague, then add more specifics as you refine the prompt.
- Clarifying Questions: You can specify that you want the Gem to ask clarifying questions or request additional information from the user that would improve the output.
- Define Tone: Depending on the audience, you might want different styles of communication. You can put in the Gem prompt that it should use a technical, professional, accessible, or other tone.
- Iterate and Refine: Remember that interacting with the AI is a conversation. If the first output isn't perfect, use follow-up prompts to refine, shorten, or elaborate until the results meet your precise requirements.
With some experimentation, these strategies can create specialized AI agents that will transform hours of administrative burden into instant, reliable outputs and help SBOs dedicate more time to their biggest priorities.