ChatGPT Launches Scheduled Tasks: The AI That Watches the Web for You

On June 17, 2026, OpenAI shipped a change to how people use ChatGPT day to day: scheduled tasks. Until now you had to open the app and ask a question to get an answer. Now you can ask ChatGPT to do a piece of work at a set time, repeat it daily or weekly, and even watch the web or your connected apps and alert you only when something important moves.

For a business in Trois-Rivières, the Mauricie or anywhere else in Quebec, that small change can save genuine time. Instead of remembering to check something every morning, you let the tool do it and you get a notification. Here is what it actually does, what it is good for in a real company, and the precautions to take before you automate everything.

1. What ChatGPT just added

The change centres on a dedicated page called "Scheduled", which gathers every automatic action you ask ChatGPT to handle in one place. You can create them, view them, pause them, resume them, edit them or delete them. Three broad uses are on offer:

• Reminders: ChatGPT notifies you at a time you choose, for instance a client follow-up or a deadline.
• Recurring work: the same request repeated, such as a summary every morning or a draft post every Monday.
• Monitoring tasks: the AI watches the web or your connected apps and only warns you if it detects a meaningful change.

You can schedule a task for a precise time, or for a wider window such as morning, afternoon or evening. OpenAI also says these tasks are faster and more reliable than before, with better notifications. The older Pulse feature is being retired in the coming weeks.

2. How it works in practice

The idea behind scheduled tasks is to go from an assistant that answers when spoken to, to one that acts at the right moment without you having to think about it. You phrase your request once, you choose when it should run, and ChatGPT takes care of the rest.

The most interesting case for a company is monitoring. Rather than getting a flood of email or checking ten sites a day, you ask the tool to bother you only when there is genuinely something new. A few rules frame all of this, based on indicative figures from OpenAI:

• A task cannot run more than once an hour.
• A task left without any interaction can pause itself automatically after a period of inactivity.
• The number of active tasks depends on your plan, which we cover below.

If you are wondering how to bring this kind of tool into your operations without creating a mess, that is exactly the kind of support we provide through our managed IT services. Setting up an automation is easy. Making it reliable, secure and useful over the long run is another trade entirely.

3. Five concrete uses for a Quebec business

Beyond the technical novelty, the real question is always the same: what does this change for my company on Monday morning? Here are realistic examples you can apply without being a specialist.

• Competitive monitoring: watch a competitor’s site or listings and get alerted when a price or a page changes.
• Regulatory tracking: keep an eye on government pages tied to your sector, for instance the obligations under Law 25, and get an alert when they are updated.
• Morning briefing: a daily rundown of your industry’s news, delivered before your first coffee.
• Follow-up reminders: chase a quote, review a client file or prepare a report at a fixed time each week.
• Reputation monitoring: get notified when your company name shows up online, so you can react quickly to a review or a mention.

None of these uses replace an employee. They remove the chore of checking by hand, which frees time for higher-value work. It is the same logic we apply when we automate the IT routines of our clients.

4. Which plans, and what the limits are

The feature is rolling out across several plans, on the web and on mobile. According to reporting in the trade press, scheduled tasks are arriving for the Go, Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise plans. The number of active tasks varies by subscription level: as an indication, roughly 3 active tasks on the Go plan and up to 15 on the Pro and Enterprise plans.

These figures and the exact offering can change quickly, as they often do with AI tools. For current values and precise terms, always check OpenAI’s official page rather than a dated article. The free plan remains more limited, which is expected: the feature targets paying users and teams first.

5. Privacy, oversight and Law 25: the precautions

Automating a task often means handing information to an outside tool. That is where care is needed, especially in Quebec where Law 25 governs the protection of personal information. A few basic reflexes:

• Keep a human in the loop: an automatic notification is a suggestion to verify, not a final decision.
• Avoid feeding the AI sensitive client or employee data without first checking the privacy terms of your plan.
• Favour business plans: on the Business and Enterprise tiers, OpenAI states that shared data is not used to train its models, which is not guaranteed on the consumer versions.
• Document your automations so you know who built what, and can shut everything down quickly if you need to.

Good automation is automation you control. If you want to govern AI use in your business without slowing your teams down, we can help you set clear, secure rules. Talk it over with our team through the contact page.

Frequently asked questions

Are ChatGPT’s scheduled tasks free?

The feature is rolling out mainly on the paid plans (Go, Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise), with the number of active tasks depending on the subscription level. The free plan remains more limited. Since the offering moves quickly, check the current terms directly on OpenAI’s site.

Can ChatGPT really monitor a website for me?

Yes, that is one of the three intended uses. You ask it to watch the web or a connected app, and it warns you only when it detects a change it judges meaningful. A task does not run more than once an hour, however.

Is it safe for my company data?

That depends on the plan and on what you put into it. On the business plans, OpenAI states that data is not used to train its models. In Quebec, keep Law 25 in mind as well: avoid entrusting sensitive personal information without clear guardrails, and always keep a human check in place.

Automation, yes, but with proper guardrails

ChatGPT’s scheduled tasks show where AI is heading in 2026: fewer one-off questions, more actions that fire at the right moment. For a business, it is a genuine chance to save time on monitoring, follow-ups and routine work. Like any new tool, though, it is better introduced with method, protecting your data and keeping control. If you want to bring AI into your operations safely, take a look at our IT services for businesses or write to us through the contact page to talk with our team in Trois-Rivières.

Complete guide: Law 25 for Quebec businesses
The obligations by deadline, the official sources, the fines the law provides for and the common questions, on a single page kept up to date.