ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini: Which AI Should Your Sabah Team Use?

Almost every week, someone in one of my workshops asks me the same question: 'Edison, which AI is the best one? Should I use ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini?' It is a fair question. These three names come up everywhere now, and if you run a small business here in Sabah, you do not have time to test all of them properly. You just want to know which one to put your money and your team's time into.

So let me give you the honest answer up front, then explain it properly. There is no single 'best' AI. All three are genuinely good, all three keep improving fast, and the right choice depends on what your team actually does day to day. What matters far more than the brand name is whether your people know how to use the thing properly. A team that knows the workflow will get more out of any of these tools than a team that picked the 'best' one and still only uses it to write the occasional email.

Let me walk you through each one in plain language, then show you how to choose by use case.

ChatGPT: the all-rounder most people start with

ChatGPT, made by OpenAI, is the one that brought AI to the masses, and it is still the easiest place for a beginner to start. Think of it as the dependable all-rounder. It writes well, it brainstorms, it can help with code, it handles images and voice, and it has a huge ecosystem of add-ons and custom assistants built around it. If your team has never touched AI before, ChatGPT is a very comfortable front door because so many guides, templates, and YouTube tutorials are built around it.

For a small business, ChatGPT is a strong general assistant: drafting social media captions, replying to customer enquiries, summarising a long email thread, turning rough notes into a proper proposal. It is a jack of many trades, and for most everyday office tasks, that is exactly what you want.

Claude: strong with long documents and careful writing

Claude, made by Anthropic, is the one I personally lean on a lot, and it is the tool my workshops are built around. Where Claude tends to shine is working with long documents, careful writing, and step-by-step reasoning. You can paste in a long contract, a thick report, or a messy set of meeting notes and ask Claude to read the whole thing and pull out what matters. It is also known for writing that sounds natural and considered rather than robotic, which is handy when you are sending something to a client and tone really matters.

For a Sabah business, that strength shows up in real work: reviewing a tenancy agreement before you sign, turning a 30-page policy into a one-page summary for your staff, or working through a tricky problem one logical step at a time. If a big part of your day is reading, writing, and thinking through documents, Claude is very comfortable to work with. Just note that a Claude Pro subscription is needed to get the full experience, which is also why we ask workshop participants to have one before they join.

Gemini: tight Google Workspace integration

Gemini, made by Google, has one big advantage that is easy to overlook: it lives inside the Google tools your team may already use every day. If your business runs on Gmail, Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive, Gemini can work right there alongside you, helping draft an email, tidy up a document, or make sense of a spreadsheet without you copying and pasting between apps. It is also strongly connected to Google Search, so it is comfortable pulling in current information.

For a small team already inside the Google world, that integration can save real time, because the AI is sitting right next to your actual work instead of in a separate browser tab. If your office basically runs on Google Workspace, Gemini deserves a serious look.

How to choose, by use case

Instead of asking 'which is best', ask 'best for what'. Here is how I usually guide business owners depending on the job in front of them:

• Writing and content (captions, emails, proposals, blog drafts): All three are strong here. Claude is a favourite when tone and polish matter; ChatGPT is a comfortable, flexible all-rounder; Gemini is convenient if you are drafting straight inside Google Docs or Gmail.
• Research and making sense of long documents: This is where Claude tends to be very comfortable, because it handles long reports and contracts well. Gemini is handy when you want current information pulled from the web.
• Spreadsheets and numbers: If you live in Google Sheets, Gemini's built-in integration is the natural fit. For one-off analysis or explaining a formula in plain English, ChatGPT and Claude both do a solid job too.
• Customer support and replies: ChatGPT is a popular starting point for drafting friendly, on-brand responses, and Claude is great when you want careful, considered wording for sensitive messages. The real win is building a reusable set of prompts your whole team can use.

One more practical note: these tools update constantly. New versions, new features, and new prices appear all the time, so do not get too attached to a snapshot comparison you read six months ago. The smarter move is to learn how to work with AI in general, so that when the tools change, you simply carry your skills across.

The honest takeaway

Here is what I tell every business owner who asks me this: stop hunting for the perfect tool. Most teams benefit far more from learning the workflow than from agonising over which logo to pick. The difference between a team that gets results and a team that does not is almost never the brand of AI. It is whether they know how to write a clear prompt, how to give the AI the right context, how to check its work, and how to fold it into their real daily tasks.

The best AI is the one your team actually knows how to use. Skills beat brand names every time., Edison Chua

Pick one to start with, ideally the one that fits how your team already works, and get good at it. Once your people are confident with one, trying another becomes easy, because the thinking is the same. If you would like a hands-on way to get there, that is exactly what we do at NextGen Training Academy. Our beginner-friendly, HRDC-claimable workshops in Penampang, Sabah are built to get your team comfortable and productive with AI on real, practical tasks, not just theory on a slide. Come learn the workflow, and the tool will look after itself.