50 AI Skills for Work

What a skill is, how to turn one on in ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and 50 skills worth adding. Every one was reviewed before it made the list.

The short version

• A skill is a saved set of instructions your AI follows any time that kind of task comes up. It is a folder with one text file in it.
• The format is open, so the same skill can work in ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Where you add one is different in each tool, and this guide shows each path.
• Do some due diligence before you add a skill you found online. Look into who built it and who is recommending it. Some skills include code.
• Below are 50 skills for ordinary work: writing, meetings, research, planning, design, spreadsheets, people, customers, teaching, and career. None of them has scripts in its own folder.

What a skill is

A skill is a saved set of instructions. You write down how you like a task done once, and your AI follows it any time that kind of task comes up. You do not have to call it up. The AI reads the short description of each skill you have, and when your request matches one, it loads the instructions and uses them.

Say your AI does a great job building a presentation. Instead of hoping it does that again next time, have it turn that work into a skill. Now every presentation it builds follows the same approach. The same idea works for how you format a status report, how you answer a tricky customer message, or how your team likes slides built.

One required file with three parts, plus optional supporting files the AI loads only when it needs them.

A real one. doc-coauthoring, from Anthropic, is a folder with a single file in it. Source: GitHub, anthropics/skills.

The format is called Agent Skills. It started at Anthropic and became an open standard, which is why a skill made for one tool can often be used in another. A lot of simple, instruction-only skills carry over as they are. Skills that lean on one tool's own features need edits.

The open format's own page: a skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md file. Source: agentskills.io.

Turn skills on in ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini

Each tool puts skills in a different place. Pick the one you use.

Three tools, three doors. The format behind them is the same.

ChatGPT

Skills in ChatGPT live in the desktop app. Open the app, go to Work, and type @skill-creator, then describe the task. ChatGPT asks follow-up questions and builds the skill with you. Codex, which sits in the same app, can also load a skill folder you place on your computer. The ChatGPT add-ins for Excel and PowerPoint have a Skills option under the plus button too.

If you do not see a Skills tab. In regular ChatGPT chat, OpenAI's help page lists the Skills tab for work plans. For personal plans, OpenAI documents skills in Work, Codex, and the Excel and PowerPoint add-ins. So if that tab is missing, that is expected. OpenAI edits these pages often, so check the pages linked at the end when you set up.

OpenAI's own page: standalone skills are available in the ChatGPT desktop app, and skills bundled in plugins work in Chat and Work. Source: OpenAI, Build skills.

Claude

Go to Settings, then Capabilities, and make sure code execution and file creation is turned on. Then open Customize, then Skills. You will see skills Anthropic provides, including ones for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDFs, and you can turn each one on or off. To add one you downloaded, put the skill folder in a ZIP file and upload it from the same screen. The folder name has to match the skill's name, or the upload fails.

Claude's help page: skills work on Free, Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans and need code execution turned on. Source: Claude Help Center, Use skills in Claude.

Gemini

Go to gemini.google.com, open Settings in the sidebar, and choose Skills. You can make a skill with Gemini's help, start from a template, or upload a skill file or a folder that has a SKILL.md file in it. To use one, type / in any chat and pick the skill. You need a personal Google account, you have to be 18 or older, and Keep Activity has to be on. Google's help page says skills are available without a Google AI subscription. It also says the rollout is gradual, so if you do not see Skills yet, check back.

Google's help page: what you need, then Step 1, go to Settings, then Skills. Source: Gemini Apps Help, Create and manage skills.

Upload works on the web and on Mac, not on phones. Gemini wants skill names in lowercase with hyphens, and it accepts text, PDF, and image files inside a skill, not Word or Excel files.

Do some due diligence before you add a skill

A skill is instructions your AI follows, and some skills include code or tell the AI to take actions. That makes a skill from a random GitHub page a bigger decision than it looks. Treat it the way you would treat any file you are about to give access to your work.

Five questions that take two minutes and catch most problems.

1. Who built it? A company, or a person with a track record, is a better sign than an account created last month.
2. Who is recommending it? Look for people who have used it, not just a download count.
3. What does it ask the AI to do? Open the SKILL.md and read it. Look for instructions to send, delete, share, or connect to anything.
4. Does it include code or install commands? A folder with a scripts folder deserves a closer look. Skip anything that tells the AI to download or run something you did not ask for.
5. Is it still maintained, and what is the license? An abandoned skill goes stale, and some licenses limit what you can do with it.

How the 50 below were checked: each skill folder was opened and reviewed, and every file in it was searched for scripts, install commands, and network calls. Skills that bundle scripts, tell the AI to install or deploy something, have no license, or had almost no real guidance were left out. The few that need a connected app (Notion, Canva, Gmail) are marked.

Test before you trust. Try every new skill on a throwaway task first and watch what it does. A review is not the same as your own test, and tools change how they read skills.

How to load one you downloaded

1. Open the skill's page (each skill below links to its folder) and download that folder. If the page is a whole repository, use Download ZIP and pull out the folder you want.
2. Check that the folder name matches the name at the top of its SKILL.md file. Rename the folder if it does not.
3. Zip just that one folder.
4. Claude: Customize, then Skills, then the plus button, then upload the ZIP. Gemini: Settings, then Skills, then upload the file, folder, or ZIP.
5. ChatGPT is the least simple for downloads. Codex, in the desktop app, loads a skill from a folder named .agents/skills in your home folder. If that sounds like too much, ask Work to help you build the skill instead, or load downloaded skills in Claude or Gemini.
6. Test it on a throwaway task.

The 50

They are grouped by the job they help with. Each name links to the skill's folder. By says who made it. A few need a connected app to be useful, and the By column says which.

50 skills in this guide · 17 different makers · 0 with scripts in the skill folder

Writing and editing (9)

Skill	What it does	Use it when	By
doc-coauthoring	Walks you through writing a proposal or decision doc, then tests it on a fresh reader.	A document has to be right before others read it.	Anthropic
internal-comms	Drafts status reports, newsletters, FAQs, and progress, plans, and problems updates.	You write the same kinds of updates often.	Anthropic
copy-editing	Edits and polishes copy you already wrote.	A draft is done but not sharp.	Corey Haines
humanizer	Rewrites text that sounds like a chatbot so it reads like a person, without changing the facts.	An AI draft sounds stiff.	blader
no-ai-slop	Edits a draft and keeps your voice, or only flags the AI patterns without rewriting.	You want a check, not a rewrite.	Peter Yang
written-communication	Coaches you to lead with the conclusion and write short updates for busy readers.	You write to leaders or in async channels.	Lenny (Refound AI)
draft-response	Drafts a professional reply to a tricky message, tuned to the relationship.	A hard email or customer message is waiting.	Anthropic plugins
stakeholder-update	Writes an update tuned to who is reading it and how often.	Different people need different versions.	Anthropic plugins
status-report	Builds a report with the key numbers, risks, and action items.	A weekly or monthly report is due.	Anthropic plugins

Meetings and email (4)

Skill	What it does	Use it when	By
summarize-meeting	Turns a transcript into one page: decisions, owners, due dates, and open questions.	You have a transcript or rough notes.	Paweł Huryn
meeting-intelligence	Prepares agendas, pre-reads, and decision briefs from your Notion pages, then records the outcomes.	You run meetings out of Notion.	Notion (needs Notion)
call-prep	Builds a brief before a meeting: who is in it, what happened before, what to ask.	A meeting with someone starts soon.	Anthropic plugins
inbox-triage	Sorts unread email into reply, quick reply, flag, and archive, and drafts replies in your voice. It never sends.	Your inbox is piled up.	Craig Hewitt (needs Gmail)

Research and knowledge (6)

Skill	What it does	Use it when	By
synthesize-research	Turns interviews, surveys, and feedback into structured insights.	You have many opinions and need the pattern.	Anthropic plugins
customer-research	Pulls themes and customer wording out of interviews, tickets, and reviews.	You want to hear what customers are really saying.	Corey Haines
research-documentation	Answers a question from your Notion workspace with cited findings, from a quick answer to a full report.	The answer is somewhere in your notes.	Notion (needs Notion)
knowledge-capture	Saves decisions, how-tos, and FAQs from a conversation into Notion without inventing owners or dates.	A chat produced something worth keeping.	Notion (needs Notion)
discernment-nudge	After a big answer, adds two or three questions so you check the facts, the logic, and what is missing.	You are about to act on an AI answer.	Anthropic
validate-data	Double-checks an analysis, chart, or number before you send it.	A number is going to your boss or a client.	OpenAI (link only)

Planning and decisions (7)

Skill	What it does	Use it when	By
grilling	The AI interviews you about a plan, round by round, until nothing is left assumed.	A plan feels done but has not been tested.	Matt Pocock
strategy-red-team	Attacks the shaky assumptions in a plan and names the cheapest test for each.	You want the plan challenged.	Paweł Huryn
pre-mortem	Imagines the project already failed, sorts the risks, and plans for the blockers.	Before a launch or a big commitment.	Paweł Huryn
product-brainstorming	A thinking partner that challenges your assumptions.	You need to think out loud with pushback.	Anthropic plugins
write-spec	Turns a vague idea into a clear written plan.	An idea has to become something others can act on.	Anthropic plugins
process-doc	Documents a process as a flowchart, a who-does-what chart, or written steps.	A process lives in one person's head.	Anthropic plugins
design-kpis	Picks the few numbers that show a project is working, with targets.	You need to measure a project.	OpenAI (link only)

Presentations and design (5)

Skill	What it does	Use it when	By
theme-factory	Applies one of ten ready color-and-font themes to slides, documents, or pages.	A deck or document needs a consistent look.	Anthropic
brand-review	Checks content against your brand voice and style guide.	Several people write for the same brand.	Anthropic plugins
design-feedback	Gives prioritized feedback on a Canva design and never edits it.	You want a second set of eyes on a design.	Canva (needs Canva)
resize-for-social-media	Turns one Canva design into Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn sizes.	One graphic has to go everywhere.	Canva (needs Canva)
slide-deck	Builds a single-file web slide deck from your notes that you can print to PDF.	You need a quick deck from rough notes.	Craig Hewitt

Image and creative (2)

Skill	What it does	Use it when	By
image (visual-skills)	Writes ready-to-paste prompts for image tools such as Nano Banana and GPT Image, with edit rules.	You want better image results.	Serge Shima
image (marketingskills)	Plans marketing visuals and writes prompts for many image tools.	You need blog, social, or product images.	Corey Haines

Spreadsheets, data, and money (4)

Skill	What it does	Use it when	By
formula-detangler	Explains a monster spreadsheet formula in plain sentences and rebuilds it in readable steps.	A formula nobody understands is in your file.	mohitagw15856
budget-variance-analysis	Turns budget versus actual numbers into a table and plain commentary.	Numbers moved and you have to explain why.	mohitagw15856
variance-analysis	Breaks a variance into its drivers with a plain narrative.	You need the why behind a change, in depth.	Anthropic plugins
charlie (CFO)	Gives rules of thumb on cash runway, unit economics, and hiring costs for a small business.	You are weighing a money decision.	Every

People and management (4)

Skill	What it does	Use it when	By
onboarding	Builds a new-hire checklist and first-week plan.	Someone starts soon.	Anthropic plugins
performance-review	Structures a review with a self-assessment, a manager template, and calibration prep.	Review season.	Anthropic plugins
interview-kit-builder	Builds an interview kit: skills to test, behavioral questions, and a scorecard.	You are hiring.	w95
giving-feedback	Helps you prepare and deliver feedback with proven frameworks.	A hard conversation is coming.	Lenny (Refound AI)

Customer work (2)

Skill	What it does	Use it when	By
ticket-triage	Categorizes, prioritizes, and routes a support ticket.	Requests pile up faster than you can sort them.	Anthropic plugins
customer-journey-map	Maps a customer's stages, touchpoints, and pain points.	You want to see the experience from start to finish.	Paweł Huryn

Learning and teaching (2)

Skill	What it does	Use it when	By
professional-development-session-designer	Designs a training session for adults: talk under 20 percent, start from what people already do, plan the follow-through.	You teach or train.	Gareth Manning (link only)
retrieval-practice-generator	Writes low-stakes recall questions at several levels, with spacing advice.	You want people to remember what you taught.	Gareth Manning (link only)

Career and personal (5)

Skill	What it does	Use it when	By
interview-prep-generator	Builds STAR stories and likely questions from your resume and the job posting.	An interview is coming.	Paramchoudhary
offer-comparison-analyzer	Compares job offers side by side with a weighted grid.	You have more than one offer.	Paramchoudhary
linkedin-profile-optimizer	Rewrites a LinkedIn profile section by section.	Your profile is out of date.	Paramchoudhary
building-a-promotion-case	Lists your impact and scripts the conversation with your manager.	You want to ask for a promotion.	Lenny (Refound AI)
time-energy-management	Audits where your time goes and drafts polite ways to say no.	Your calendar runs you.	Lenny (Refound AI)

A few things to know

• charlie (CFO) states benchmarks, like ratios and months of runway, without sources. Treat them as rules of thumb, and none of it is financial advice.
• linkedin-profile-optimizer quotes figures about profile views without sources. Treat them as claims.
• performance-review, interview-kit-builder, and giving-feedback touch sensitive people topics. They are not legal advice.
• validate-data and design-kpis are part of the Data plugin from OpenAI and can hand work to sibling skills that do bundle scripts. Ask them to stay in chat.
• image (marketingskills) shows command-line examples in an optional section. It does not run them.
• inbox-triage reads a sample of your sent and received email to learn your voice. It saves drafts and never sends.
• image (visual-skills) keeps its real rules in reference files, so zip the whole folder, not just SKILL.md.
• The Notion and Canva skills need those apps connected. Rename the folder to match the skill name before you upload, for example notion-meeting-intelligence.
• Link only means the license asks you to link to the skill, not copy it into your own materials. Serge Shima's image skill needs a credit if you share it.
• professional-development-session-designer was written for school teachers. The rules about adult learning carry over to trainers.

Skills left out, and why

The list is shorter than the internet's. These kinds of skills did not make it.

• Skills that bundle a local server or tell the AI to run installs or deploy something publicly.
• Skills with no license, because there is no clear right to share them.
• Skills with hundreds of bundled code files, and skills built for developers.
• A popular product-management pack whose license is non-commercial.
• Two skills from a big community list that were thin or unfinished.
• Novelty skills.

Make your own

The easiest way is to do the task once, have the AI do a great job, and then ask it to turn the work into a skill.

Do the work once, then let the AI package it.

• ChatGPT: in Work, type @skill-creator and describe the task.
• Claude: say you want a skill that knows how to do the task, and upload any example you want it to follow.
• Gemini: in a chat, say Create a skill based on these instructions: and paste them, or build one from the Skills page.

Turn what we just did into a skill. Before you write it, ask me a few questions about when I would use it and what a good result looks like. Then write it so I can keep it.

Add one real example of a great result. One example teaches more than a paragraph of description.

Sources and where to learn more

• Claude Help Center: Use skills in Claude
• Claude Help Center: What are skills
• OpenAI Help Center: Skills in ChatGPT
• OpenAI: Build skills (ChatGPT and Codex)
• OpenAI Help Center: Plugins in ChatGPT and Codex
• Gemini Apps Help: Create and manage skills for Gemini Apps
• Agent Skills open format
• Anthropic skills repository
• Anthropic knowledge-work plugins repository
• Corey Haines marketing skills repository

Built by Hank Barker // AI Essentials // @hankhelpsai. Current as of October 11, 2026. Skills, plans, and menus change often, so check the linked pages when you set up.