Author: Franz Malten Buemann

When you’re managing spreadsheets, even a relatively small amount of data can become difficult to manage pretty quickly. But tools like Google Sheets have many functions that help you work with data more efficiently.

A common challenge is figuring out how many instances you have of specific values within a large spreadsheet. That’s where the SumIf function in Google Sheets comes into play. Using this function, you can add up numbers in a spreadsheet based on certain conditions.
Using a SumIf function in Google Sheets effectively can take some practice, especially in more complex situations. So here are step-by-step instructions and examples of using SumIf in Google Sheets to help you on your way.
Table of Contents:

What does SumIf do in Google Sheets?
The Benefits of Using SumIf in Google Sheets
How to Use SumIf in Google Sheets
SumIf in Google Sheets Example
Best Practices for Using SumIf

What does SumIf do in Google Sheets?
In Google Sheets, the SumIf function adds up the values in a range of cells that meet certain criteria. It allows you to add numbers in a specific range based on a given condition, such as values that meet a specified condition, fall within a certain range, or match a particular text string.
The syntax of the SumIf function in Google Sheets is as follows:
=SUMIF(range, criteria, [sum_range])

Range: The range of cells that you want to evaluate.
Criteria: The criteria that you want to use to determine which cells to sum up.
Sum_range: The range of cells that you want to sum up. If this argument is not provided, the cells in the range argument will be used.

Let’s say you have a column of sales data, and you want to sum up a particular person’s sales. You could use the SumIf function.
You would specify the range of cells that contain the sales data, the criteria that specify which salesperson’s sales you want to sum up, and the sum range (which, in this case, would be the same as the range argument).
The function would then calculate the sum of all the sales that match your specified criteria.

The Benefits of Using SumIf in Google Sheets
Sometimes, you may need to sum up values in a range based on specific criteria or conditions. Without the SumIf function, you would need to manually sort, filter, and add up the values that meet your criteria, which can be time-consuming and result in many errors.
You might also need to perform dynamic calculations that update automatically as your data changes. By using the SumIf function, you can create formulas that are linked to your data and update automatically whenever new data is added or existing data is changed.
The SumIf function is also very flexible and easy to customize. It can be as straightforward or as complex as you need it to be. Google Sheets allows you to select a wide range of criteria and conditions for summing up values through the SumIf function.
Plus, it’s compatible with plenty of other functions within Google Sheets if you need to extend your formula or create complex calculations. This includes AverageIf, CountIf, MaxIf, and more.

How to Use SumIf in Google Sheets

Open a new or existing Google Sheets document.
Enter your data into the worksheet. For example, you might have a list of sales transactions with columns for date, product, quantity, and price.
Decide what criteria you want to use to sum up your data. For example, you might want to sum up the sales for a particular product or for a specific date range.
Click on the cell where you want to display the sum of your data.
Type “=SUMIF(” into the cell. This will start the SUMIF formula.
Select the range of cells that you want to search for the criteria. For example, if you want to sum up the sales for a particular product, you would select the column that contains the product names.
Type a comma “,” after the range of cells.
Enter the criteria that you want to use for summing up the data. For example, if you want to sum up the sales for a product named “Boots”, you would enter “Boots” in quotation marks.
Type another comma “,” after the criteria.
Select the range of cells that contains the values that you want to sum up. For example, to sum up the sales for the “Boots” product, you would select the column that contains the sales values.

Close the formula by typing “)” and press Enter. The sum of the values that meet your criteria will be displayed in the cell. In this instance, the SumIf function shows us that 16 pairs of boots have been sold in total.

You can also use the SumIf function to sum up values based on multiple criteria by using the “&” operator to combine the criteria. For example, to sum up the sales for the “Boots” product for 2023 so far, you would use the formula:
“=SUMIF(B2:B11,”Boots”,C2:C11&A2:A11,”>=1/1/23″)”
In this instance, B2:B11 contains the product names, C2:C11 contains the sales values, and A2:A11 contains the dates.

SumIf in Google Sheets Example
To get a sense of how useful SumIf can be with large data sets, let’s take a look at a more in-depth example. In this instance, you need the SumIf statement to use data from multiple sheets.
Suppose you have a list of employees and their corresponding salaries on one sheet and a separate sheet containing each employee’s job title.
In this instance, we’ll use the SumIf function to sum up the overall salary spent on employees with a specific job title.

Select the cell where you want the final value to appear and begin your SumIf formula. First, select the data in Column C (“Job Titles”), as this is the range you want to evaluate.
In this case, we’re trying to find out how many Occupational Therapists are on the payroll. So, “Occupational Therapist” has been entered into the formula as the criteria.
Next, we need to tell the function the range of cells you want to sum up based on the criteria. We want to know about the salaries of occupational therapists, which means selecting the data under Column B (“Annual Salary”).
When the Enter key is hit after closing the formula with “)”, we can see that the company spends $622,435 annually on salaries for Occupational Therapists.

If you wanted to know this information about each job title in the company, you would simply create another table in a separate sheet with one instance of each job title and copy the formula down, replacing the criteria for each row to match the job title you want to reference.

So, in just a couple of steps, you’d be left with a table that sums up all the information in one place rather than manually counting and adding up hundreds of cells.

Best Practices for Using SumIf
The SumIf function is fairly simple and easy to use. But like all spreadsheet functions, it’s easy to get an ERROR result if your formula isn’t formatted correctly or if you don’t stick to some key best practices.
Use descriptive criteria.
Using descriptive criteria can help make your formula more readable and understandable.
For example, if you are summing sales data for a particular region, use the name of the region as your criteria, rather than a generic term like “Region A”.
Use cell references.
Using cell references instead of typing criteria directly into your formula makes it easier to update your criteria if needed.
For example, if you need to change the name of the region you are summing, you can simply update the cell reference instead of editing the formula.
Check your ranges.
Make sure that the range you are summing and the range you are using for criteria are the same size and have the same layout. If the ranges are different, you may get unexpected results or errors.
Use the correct syntax.
The syntax of the SUMIF function is SUMIF(range, criteria, sum_range). Make sure that you are using the correct order of arguments and that each argument is separated by a comma.
Test your formula.
Testing your formula with a small subset of data can help you catch errors or unexpected results before applying it to a larger dataset. This is especially important if you are using more complex criteria or formulas.
Use other functions for more complex criteria.
If you need to sum data based on more complex criteria, consider using other functions such as SUMIFS, which allows you to specify multiple criteria.
For example, you can use SUMIFS to sum sales data for a particular region and time period.
Keep your data organized.
Keeping your data organized and well-formatted can make it easier to use SUMIF and other functions in Google Sheets.
Consider using tables or formatting your data as a named range to make it easier to reference in your formulas. You can also use filters or sorting to quickly find the data you need.
Getting Started
The SumIf function is a simple solution to summing up data based on specific criteria. By using cell references, descriptive criteria, and other best practices, you can make your formulas more readable, accurate, and efficient.
Whether you are summing sales data, tracking expenses, or analyzing survey results, the SumIf function can help you quickly and easily calculate totals based on specific conditions. With a little practice, you’ll soon be using this function with ease.

The world of fundraising for nonprofits is evolving rapidly with the advent of new technologies and tools. In the past, most fundraising was done through direct mail and telephone calls, but now, nonprofits have a wide range of digital tools at their disposal. From digital giving platforms and crowdfunding to peer-to-peer fundraising and email marketing,…
The post The Future of Fundraising for Nonprofits appeared first on Benchmark Email.

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I taught my first online class on modern calligraphy only about one month after I began learning how to do it myself. It all started when I needed a new creative practice, a habit that I’ve learned is helpful for my mental health. I had seen people practicing modern calligraphy on social media and wanted to learn, so I looked for tutorials online. I struggled to find good resources, so I decided to teach myself by looking at modern calligraphy I liked and figuring out how to emulate it.Around this time, I discovered Skillshare—an online platform offering video courses for creative skills—and saw they were running a challenge to get new teachers on the platform. I already found myself regularly oversharing how I achieved a specific technique when someone complimented my work, so teaching felt like a natural evolution. I decided to give it a shot, spent about a week planning and recording my first class, and published it on the platform.When I got my first monthly payment for $2,200, I thought there was an extra zero on the check. The class was a hit, despite the fact that I still didn’t really consider myself “good” at calligraphy yet. I was shocked, and I was hooked.That first class kicked off the past seven years of my career. Since then I’ve taught over 50 classes on topics from hand lettering to painting to running a creative business, written eight books sharing creative techniques, launched my own line of art materials, and grown my brand, The Pigeon Letters, into a thriving seven-figure business that supports hundreds of thousands of students.I truly believe 80 percent of my success has been thanks to my mindset: how I see the value I have to offer, how I navigate hurdles, and how I build a business in a way that’s exciting to me and my audience. Here are four of the mindsets that have helped me build such a thriving business as a completely self-taught creator.1. I decided I only needed to be one step ahead to provide valueIt would have been so easy to hold myself back from starting my business until I considered myself a true “expert” in calligraphy. Many people feel too self-conscious about their skills to teach as a beginner, waiting months or years to gain more proficiency.Luckily, I’m such a bulldozer that it’s pretty hard to shake my confidence. But I also truly believed that I only needed to be one step ahead of someone else to have something to teach them. In fact, I saw this “weakness” as a strength I could lean into. By teaching as I was learning, I could connect with beginners more easily and encourage them that it’s totally possible to go from zero to creating beautiful art in a short amount of time. So, I showed up with confidence that I had something to offer students, and with full transparency about where I was. I didn’t pretend to be a master of calligraphy: I told my students that it was a new skill to me, but that I’d figured out a structure that could help other people.Students enjoyed coming on the journey with me, and soon, being a beginner became my niche that helped me stand out among more expert creators. When students asked when I was going to teach a watercolor class, I thought, “What makes you think I know how to watercolor?!” Then, I spent a couple of months learning so I could deliver—and it’s since become a huge passion of mine and a core part of my business. When AI came on the scene and all the creatives around me were unsure about it, I dove into ways I could integrate it into my workflow and immediately turned around and taught. It’s so empowering when you flip the switch and take ownership of whatever place you’re in. And if you’re authentic about it, other people will connect with that.2. I thoughtfully built up different revenue streams for stabilityEarly on, I knew that I wanted multiple revenue streams to be part of my business model so that I would feel more secure through economic ups and downs. But I also didn’t want to spread myself too thin, trying so many new things that none of them would become a solid foundation.So, to start, I chose to hyper-focus on teaching Skillshare courses until that felt established as my core. And then, I started thinking about what other branches I wanted to add that could be rooted in the work I was already doing. One by one, I’ve built different revenue streams, giving each one about four months of my focus to see if it gains traction before deciding whether to put it aside or put more energy there.Most of those new revenue streams came directly from listening to what my audience was asking me for and looking for ways to deliver. When students were constantly asking about what brushes, pens, and tools I used, I saw an opportunity to sell my favorites directly and even create my own line of brushes. When they asked for my teaching secrets, I launched my Creative Course Lab training and coaching program; when they wanted support on running a business, I created a membership community for creative entrepreneurs, Flock. I’ve also made money from licensing my art, selling on print-on-demand sites, hosting events and retreats, speaking and running corporate workshops, and teaching classes on other platforms.Some of these are larger branches, some are smaller, but they all contribute to my seven-figure business. As some income streams waned over the years, I was glad to have others to lean on. And they all came about organically from the mindset of looking for opportunities in the needs of my audience, thinking about which of them excited me, and then giving them a try.3. I rooted my marketing in excitement more than strategyIt’s wild to me how much working for yourself turns you into a full-time marketer. So many business owners let this bring them down, because marketing exhausts them or makes them feel slimy. To avoid that feeling, I’ve always kept my marketing organic—both in the sense that I’ve never paid for ads and also in the sense that I’ve always put myself out there in ways that feel authentic to me rather than trying to keep up with the latest trends. When I first started promoting my classes, I was shooting in the dark, impulsively sharing my excitement rather than building any kind of promotional plan. I also did a lot of cross-marketing with other artists to promote each others’ work, mostly because it sounded fun to collaborate with people I admired. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Peggy Dean | For Creatives 🎨 (@thepigeonletters) Eventually I did start to get more strategic, teaching myself about marketing best practices (and then, in true Peggy fashion, turning around and creating classes on those topics). But even then, I tried to make sure I felt enthusiastic about every promotional tactic I was implementing. For instance, when I decided to lean into growing my mailing list, I created lead magnets that provided a lot of value, like a whopping 52-page guide of my favorite supplies. Creating this offering excited me, making it easy for me to push it out to my audience.4. I look at failure as a growth opportunityLike every entrepreneur, I’ve gotten slapped in the face by failure. While some people get beat down and discouraged by that, it excites me because I know it means I’m being given an opportunity to learn and push myself (which, in case you couldn’t tell, is one of my favorite things to do).A great example: I’ve only had one item on my bucket list, ever, which is to write a book. About four months into teaching, I started writing a modern calligraphy how-to book and pitching it to publishers. Every single one of them said no, never responded, or said they already had something similar in the works. Instead of letting that stop me, I decided to self-publish my book—which ended up being a bestseller and landing in bookstores (which is rare for self-published books). View this post on Instagram A post shared by Peggy Dean | For Creatives 🎨 (@thepigeonletters) Nothing that I’ve achieved ever would have happened if I’d let fear of failure stop me. Yes, there’s always room to grow and improve, but that shouldn’t stop you from putting something valuable out in the world. By putting myself out there, no matter how imperfectly, I’ve helped hundreds of thousands of students tap into their creative potential—and helped myself build a thriving business that I love.

ChatGPT has been one of the hottest topics in the B2B industry. Since it was made widely available to the public in late November 2022, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media have become flooded with examples of the chatbot’s responses.
No one is questioning how smart ChatGPT is. The question, however, is how good it can be at providing accurate information or making our lives (both private and professional) easier.
I’ve put the chatbot to the test to see how helpful it can be in day-to-day life. Here are the results.
What is ChatGPT?
How is ChatGPT being used today?
10 Examples of ChatGPT
Use with caution.
Make the most of ChatGPT.

What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a chatbot created by OpenAI, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically generate text. It’s able to communicate in a very human way as it’s trained on large data sets, which explains its eloquence.
The more data it’s fed, the more “knowledgeable” it becomes.

How is ChatGPT being used today?
As of 2023, ChatGPT has about 13 million unique visitors a day. So, you can imagine just how diverse the conversations are.
Some of the traffic comes from individuals who are simply eager to see what it’s like to chit-chat with the world’s most famous chatbot. However, it’s also popular among educational institutions and businesses.
In most cases, companies use AI technology like ChatGPT to run preliminary research on a topic or to generate business assets like social media copy, product descriptions, or even code.
One of the most interesting use cases I’ve seen so far comes from Exit Five’s Dave Gerhardt. He believes that AI can be a great advocate for brand voice if it is given information on your desired tone, voice, and company personality.
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So, if I were to find a human analogy for ChatGPT, I’d say it’s like a resourceful assistant — someone who can help you get the wheels rolling.
Just like humans, the tool can occasionally generate inaccurate or misleading information, especially since it doesn’t know much about what’s happened past 2021.
So, anyone currently using the chatbot for professional purposes needs to fact-check the information before they use it to build an opinion or business claim.

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10 Examples of ChatGPT
Without further ado, let’s see how Open AI’s tool handles a variety of questions — from simple research tasks to more detailed, sophisticated requests.
1. Provide me with a list of companies currently looking for a freelance performance marketer.
Here, I step into the shoes of a performance marketing specialist who wants to get a list of potential clients.

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What I like: The answer is short and to the point. This can be a good starting point for those new to the freelance scene.
What I dislike: ChatGPT can’t access the internet to collect data in real time, which shines through in this GPT-3 example. For anyone unaware of its limitations, this could be a huge disappointment.
Still, I appreciate that the bot didn’t leave me empty-handed and did all it could to help.
2. Write a social media post where I announce that I’ve started writing for HubSpot and that I write on sales and marketing topics.
Let’s now see a ChatGPT social media post example.
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What I like: I like how it turned out.
Given how little context I’ve provided ChatGPT with, I’d say it did a pretty good job. Notice how it mentions what I’ve asked for straight away in the second sentence and then adds a few supplementary sentences.
Bonus points for the hashtags. I didn’t expect they’d come as part of the results.
What I dislike: After giving it an initial read, I liked the tone but felt that one or two of the sentences could have been shorter.
I popped it into another popular AI tool, Hemingway, to check the readability score. Also, I would probably avoid using the term “HubSpot” three times in a post this short.
Still, I don’t think this is a big issue — you can always add the final touches yourself.
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3. How to write a high-converting blog post?
Writing a blog post that ranks well in Google and results in conversions is a challenge. I wanted to check how my AI friend would tackle it.
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What I like: The suggestions I got make sense. They pretty much cover everything that should be included in a high-converting article. I like the fact that it provided an explanation for each tip.
It can easily act as a checklist, which you can use prior to writing your content.
What I dislike: It seems like there is nothing to dislike. ChatGPT did a good job.
4. How can I promote a newly written blog post?
As marketers, we know that content distribution is a tough cookie to crack. So I was really curious to see how ChatGPT would cope with growth suggestions.
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What I like: It did what I asked — it might be a good starting point for a newbie.
What I dislike: From the perspective of an experienced marketer, these growth suggestions appear really basic. It’s something I could easily come up with.
I’d like to get ideas that are more outside the box — tactics that I could experiment with.
Since ChatGPT bases its answers on the already published content, it makes me think that the articles available are either poor or that the platform makes bad choices. It can’t really judge which tactics are worth mentioning.
5. Provide me a list of hotels in Vienna that charge below 70 Euros, located close to the airport.
I’m traveling to Canada this summer with a long stopover in Vienna, which calls for a hotel stay. I asked ChatGPT to come up with a list of hotels that are close to the airport and within my budget. Here is what I got:
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What I like: While I didn’t get accurate pricing, since ChatGPT doesn’t have access to real-time data, it gave me a list of hotels close to the airport. It also told me roughly how much it would cost.
It’s a good starting point, even though I’ll have to verify each option.
What I dislike: I don’t know how much exactly each hotel charges per night or if they have rooms available for my dates.
I think going to Booking.com would be much easier. I could simply select the dates I am interested in, the distance from the airport, and the price per night to get a list of hotel options.
6. Write me a poem on how great content marketing is.
Since I am a passionate content marketer, I couldn’t resist asking for a poem that glorifies this marketing technique. You won’t believe what I got!
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What I like: The result simply blew me away! Honestly, I didn’t expect anything as good as this. It understands the specificity of content marketing, it’s playful, and it rhymes. And look how long it is — way to go, ChatGPT!
What I dislike: I love it. There is nothing to dislike. And I can sincerely admit that I wouldn’t be able to come up with a better poem (and definitely not as fast).
7. Generate a list of companies that might be interested in outsourcing software development to a Python software development agency.
Let’s see how helpful ChatGPT can be for those who need new clients.
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What I like: Out of all the GPT-3 examples on this list, this is the answer that I am least satisfied with. How so?
What I dislike: The results are very general. Since ChatGPT’s data sets come from 2021 (so, not that long ago), I thought that it might suggest some companies that reported using Python.
I can imagine a company posting a blog post on “Why we went with Python to develop our CRM.” A software agency could then reach out and ask if they needed help with maintenance or extra support for their team.
While a similar question, listed above, worked well for a freelancer looking for work, it’s not actionable for a B2B enterprise.
8. Write me a social media post on a new line of IKEA chairs (in three tones of voice).
Time for a ChatGPT advertisement script example. Say that IKEA wants to post a social media video or a social media post in two tones of voice — a formal and informal one.
Next, let’s imagine what would happen if IKEA paired up with Eminem and asked him to endorse their latest chair line.
Here’s the formal version…
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Here’s the informal one…
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And, finally, here’s the IKEA-Eminem collab fantasy:
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What I like: There’s a clear distinction between each advertisement script or post. As for the last example, no one but Eminem can confirm if it sounds like him (particularly given how bold some statements are).
Still, I can see a big effort here. Kudos, ChatGPT!
What I dislike: I’m happy with the results; this was just an experiment. But I’d be careful with ChatGPT’s impersonations — at least for now. I generated a similar request for rapper Lil Wayne, and they were quite similar.
9. I’m writing a novel, and I need help with my main protagonist’s backstory.
What if you were a novel writer? Could ChatGPT help you build your characters? Let’s see.
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What I like: I feel like ChatGPT can be a fun brainstorming buddy in the creative process. And the backstory it came up with looks good but…
What I dislike: It took me about five tries before it generated the above response. The previous attempts had hints/storylines which didn’t fit the Victorian era. They referred to modern-day drug cartels and overall had a “modern” feel.
That said, would I read such a story or watch a series on Netflix? Possibly!
10. Write a 500-word article on perfume that features tips from the world’s top beauty experts.
For the final course, the most interesting result of all — a ChatGPT blog post example. At this point, I’d like to take you through the stages before summarizing what I liked and disliked in the result.
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It took a few seconds for ChatGPT to start working on the text. I stopped the answer generation quickly, as in the image above. Why? I’ve noticed that experts weren’t mentioned by name, which is what I expected.
I decided to run the query again and explicitly ask for the names and links to sources. Here’s the second take:
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The tips are the same as in the previous version, but now they’re attributed to the experts. However, I still didn’t get a list of links. I asked for them in a follow-up question, and here are the results:
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I clicked on all of the links, and here’s where things got interesting. Four out of five pages were unavailable.
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The only link that worked was the last one on the list. I realize that this could come down to the fact that ChatGPT uses posts from 2021 or earlier.
Perhaps, these pieces have been removed? Still, I found it suspicious that four out of five would have been deleted. So, I decided to dig a little deeper. I asked if, by any chance, any of the information generated was made up by ChatGPT:
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What I like: The only positive thing I can say is that the copy was OK.
What I dislike: I can’t help but have mixed feelings. The post read nicely, but — as a content marketer — I would never risk publishing an article that I can’t trace back.
Nor would I want to risk attributing words to experts without proof. What if they never said it in the first place?

Use with caution.
ChatGPT has great potential, but it should be used reasonably.
While it can be a good source of inspiration, you shouldn’t use it for writing blog posts or scripts for your campaigns.
You should always strive to write original content, not only to avoid plagiarism but also to provide more value to your readers.
Bear in mind that the answers that ChatGPT comes up with are only as good as the data it bases them on. And unfortunately, there is a lot of low-quality content circulating the internet, which impacts the quality of ChatGPT’s outcomes.
Still, let’s not demonize ChatGPT. Its shortcomings aren’t a result of manipulation. As it is with AI, it’s a work in progress, and it will become better with time.
Surely, it will never be able to appeal to emotions or our own experiences. But will it be able to substitute a big chunk of human tasks in three, five, or ten years from now?
Possibly, so if you’re against AI, refer to the old saying — if you can’t beat them, join them.

Making the Most of ChatGPT
I had a lot of fun playing with ChatGPT. While it can be very helpful when it comes to research, I definitely wouldn’t see it as an oracle.
You can treat the content it creates as inspiration or a starting point. But don’t use it as your final draft. It will never be able to understand your target audience as well as you can — it’s not a human being but brilliant technology.
That said, don’t treat it as your enemy or competitor either. Think of it as your assistant or a junior who can take over some of the mundane tasks you’d normally have to deal with yourself.
Check how ChatGPT can serve you and learn how to use it to its full potential. Enjoy!