A fractional CFO called me frustrated last week.
"I fed my $300K turnaround framework into ChatGPT. Three hours later, I got MBA word salad."
I asked him one question: "Why are you using a generalist for specialist work?"
He didn't understand. Most executives don't.
The Specialist You're Missing
ChatGPT is brilliant. But it's a general practitioner, not a specialist.
Your strategic frameworks need specialized intelligence:
The CFO had 6 months of company data to analyze.
ChatGPT can hold about 50 pages in memory. Claude can hold 500 pages.
We switched to Claude. It immediately spotted cash flow patterns across months that ChatGPT couldn't even see.
His framework required complex reasoning.
ChatGPT gives instant answers. o1-preview shows its thinking, step by step.
We fed o1 one decision: "Should we close the Phoenix division?"
It worked through 15 steps, self-corrected twice, and identified $8M in hidden risk ChatGPT missed.
He had 147 implementation tasks.
ChatGPT would cost $15 to analyze them all. Mistral cost $0.30 and was more accurate for task classification.
The Right LLM Stack
Gemini searches his 15-framework library → finds the right one (5 min)
Claude analyzes framework + all company data → deep patterns (10 min)
o1-preview reasons through strategic decisions → clear logic (10 min)
Mistral processes 147 tasks → flags 12 critical ones (5 min)
Local Llama handles confidential valuation models → complete privacy (5 min)
Total: 35 minutes. Cost: $12.
ChatGPT alone: 3 hours. Cost: $45. Quality: Generic.
The Pattern That Matters
Different thinking needs different intelligence.
Need massive context? → Claude
Need visible reasoning? → o1-preview
Need volume processing? → Mistral
Need library search? → Gemini
Need total privacy? → Local Llama
Your frameworks are too sophisticated for general AI.
Stop asking "Which AI is best?" Start asking "Which AI thinks the way this framework needs?"
The CFO's response: "This changes how I think about thinking."
Exactly.
Your move: Take your most important framework. Match it to the right AI. Watch what happens.