One of the most practical stories from the Berkeley Haas AI Conference came from Maggie, who leads go-to-market at OpenAI. She shared how she used ChatGPT's study mode to learn an entire industry from scratch in four months — and the result was one of OpenAI's biggest enterprise partnerships.
The Challenge
Four months before the conference, Maggie's CRO asked her to figure out OpenAI's strategy for their healthcare and pharma vertical. The problem: she had zero experience and zero background in healthcare, "other than I'm a patient."
This is one of the most important things that Sam Altman and the OpenAI leadership want to tackle — healthcare is at the core of their pursuit of AGI. No pressure.
The Speed-Run
Rather than spending months in traditional learning mode — reading textbooks, attending conferences, interviewing experts — Maggie turned to ChatGPT study mode. Every single night, every weekend, every free minute.
She used it to learn the industry jargon, understand what healthcare professionals care about, map out the processes of clinical trials, and build a strategic understanding of the vertical. Study mode was her on-demand tutor for an entire industry.
The Result
The outcome speaks for itself: OpenAI announced a massive partnership with UCSF. Every student, doctor, clinician, admin — even bus drivers — at UCSF is getting ChatGPT access. That deal was Maggie and her team's work.
"Four months ago we had pretty much no real healthcare expertise. And we have just sprinted so hard at it."
Why This Matters Beyond the Story
This isn't just an anecdote about one person at one company. It's a proof point for a new way of building domain expertise. The traditional model for breaking into a new industry — spend years building relationships, read everything, attend conferences, get mentored by experts — still has value. But AI tools have compressed the knowledge-acquisition phase from years to months.
The implications for career navigation are huge:
Domain expertise is more accessible. The moat around specialized knowledge is lower than ever. If Maggie can learn enough about healthcare in four months to close a deal with UCSF, the traditional requirement of "5+ years in healthcare" starts to feel like gatekeeping rather than a genuine qualification.
Learning speed is a competitive advantage. The ability to rapidly build functional expertise in a new domain — using AI tools as tutors, research assistants, and sparring partners — is now one of the most valuable career skills. It's not about what you know; it's about how fast you can learn what you need to know.
AI tools are force multipliers for ambition. Maggie didn't have the background. She had the assignment, the urgency, and the right tools. That combination produced results that would have previously required hiring a team of healthcare industry veterans.
The Broader Panel Context
This story came during a panel where all three speakers — from Intercom, Perplexity, and OpenAI — were sharing their personal AI tricks. The Intercom speaker described using their own AI product (Finn) to run an 800-person conference with just three people, handling sponsorship intake, speaker qualification, and support. Perplexity's VP of Growth admitted to asking Perplexity embarrassingly basic parenting questions at 3am as a new father.
The through-line: the people building AI products are also the most aggressive users of AI products in their own lives. They're not just building tools — they're constantly discovering new use cases by using AI for everything, from enterprise strategy to midnight parenting emergencies.
The Takeaway
If you're thinking about breaking into a new domain — whether it's healthcare, fintech, enterprise, or anything else — the playbook has changed. You no longer need years of immersion to build credible expertise. You need intensity, the right AI tools, and the willingness to sprint.
The people who will thrive in the AI era aren't the ones with the deepest existing expertise. They're the ones who can build new expertise fastest — and then have the judgment to apply it in ways that create real value.