Claude, ChatGPT, and Perplexity are the three tools online educators reach for most during live Zoom workshops — and each one earns its spot for a different reason.
The Live Assistant Problem
Teaching live on Zoom is a lot like spinning plates. You’re explaining a concept, watching the chat, reading the room, and trying to remember what comes next — all at the same time. Adding AI to that mix sounds like one more plate to spin. But the educators who use it well treat AI as a silent co-facilitator sitting just offscreen, ready to help the moment they need it.
The key is having the right tool open before your session starts — not hunting for it mid-class. Think of it like a sous chef prepping ingredients before service. If everything is already on the counter, cooking is smooth. If you’re still chopping when the orders come in, it gets messy fast.
Which Tool Does What
Claude works best for in-session drafting tasks: generating a quick discussion prompt, rewriting a confusing explanation in plain language, or summarizing what a student just said. You can type a short instruction and get a usable response in under 20 seconds. Its conversational tone also fits naturally into a teaching environment without sounding robotic.
ChatGPT with browsing or plugins is stronger when you need real-time information — a quick fact-check, a current statistic, or a tool comparison a student asks about that you weren’t expecting. Perplexity is even faster for web-sourced answers and gives you citations, which is helpful if students want to verify something on the spot.
For Zoom specifically, keep one browser tab with your AI tool open alongside your slides. Practice a few simple prompts before your first live use: “Give me three follow-up questions on [topic]” or “Summarize this student question in one sentence.” Once the habit is built, it takes about five seconds to get something useful.
What This Means for Educators
As a trainer or coach running live sessions, your biggest asset is your presence and expertise — not the AI. AI in the background handles the moments where you’d otherwise stumble: coming up blank on an example, needing to rephrase something for a confused learner, or wanting to give the group something to chew on while you think. It fills gaps without replacing your voice.
Start with one use case per session rather than trying to use AI for everything at once. Many educators begin with discussion prompt generation, then add real-time rephrasing, then fact-checking — building the habit gradually over a few weeks.
The Simple Rule
Open your AI tool before you open Zoom, have one simple prompt ready to test it, and treat it like a reference book on your desk — not a co-host on your call. Once you’ve used it in three or four sessions, reaching for it mid-class will feel as natural as checking your speaker notes.