How to Supercharge Your Team’s Brainstorming with ChatGPT Group Chat

As of November 2025, ChatGPT’s new group chat feature has quietly turned your AI assistant into a live brainstorming partner for entire teams. Instead of one person pasting screenshots into ChatGPT, up to 20 people can now collaborate with the model in a single shared conversation, powered by GPT‑5.1 Auto. Used well, this doesn’t just add a bot to your meeting – it fundamentally changes how quickly you can generate, refine, and document ideas.

This evergreen guide shows you how to supercharge your team brainstorming with ChatGPT group chat. You’ll learn how the feature works, how to structure high‑energy sessions, which prompts unlock the best creative ideation, and how to capture outcomes so they turn into shippable work. The focus is practical: agendas, templates, and prompt patterns you can plug straight into your next workshop.

What ChatGPT group chat is (and why it’s ideal for brainstorming)

On November 13, 2025, OpenAI introduced group chats in ChatGPT, and on November 20 started rolling them out globally to all logged‑in Free, Go, Plus, and Pro users. Group chats let multiple people join the same conversation with ChatGPT, on web or mobile, using GPT‑5.1 Auto to pick the best model available for each participant’s plan.

Key characteristics that make ChatGPT group chat perfect for team brainstorming:

• Up to 20 human participants plus ChatGPT in one shared thread.
• Shared context: everyone sees the same prompts, responses, links, and files.
• Mixed media: support for search, image generation, image upload, and file upload within the chat.
• Smart participation: ChatGPT is trained with new “social behaviors” so it doesn’t reply to every message, and can be explicitly mentioned when needed.
• Per-group custom instructions: you can set how ChatGPT should behave in a specific group (e.g., “act as a product strategist and push us beyond safe ideas”).
• Separate from personal memory: as of the launch, group chats don’t use your personal ChatGPT memory, which is great for clean, workshop‑style sessions.

Combined with products like ChatGPT Team (launched January 2024) and ChatGPT Business, which add shared workspaces and admin controls, group chat gives you an AI‑native collaboration environment for ideation, not just a personal assistant.

Designing a high‑impact brainstorming session with ChatGPT group chat

Most brainstorming sessions fail because they lack structure and neutral facilitation. ChatGPT group chat gives you an always‑on facilitator, but you still need a clear design. Here’s a battle‑tested structure you can reuse.

1. Decide the session type and outcome

Before inviting anyone, define one concrete outcome. For example:

• “Generate 50+ raw ideas for Q2 growth experiments.”
• “Create 3-4 campaign concepts we can validate with customers.”
• “Map possible new features for our 2026 roadmap, then shortlist 5.”

Then choose the session type:

• Divergent (volume of ideas, no critique).
• Convergent (prioritizing and refining an existing pool of ideas).
• Hybrid (first diverge, then converge in the same session).

Make this explicit to ChatGPT in the group’s custom instructions so it knows when to push for more ideas vs. when to narrow down.

2. Set up the ChatGPT group chat correctly

1. In ChatGPT, start a new chat and tap the people icon to create a group.
2. Name it clearly, e.g. “Q2 Growth – Brainstorm with ChatGPT”.
3. Invite participants via link (up to 20 people). Share expectations and timebox in the calendar invite.
4. Configure custom instructions at group level. Example:

   “You are a senior innovation facilitator. This group is running a 60-minute divergent → convergent brainstorming session on [topic]. In divergent phases, prioritize volume and diversity of ideas and do not critique. In convergent phases, help us cluster, rank, and stress‑test ideas. Ask us questions when the brief is ambiguous.”

   Suggested group custom instruction

As of late 2025, responses are powered by GPT‑5.1 Auto in group chats, so you get up‑to‑date knowledge, strong reasoning, and better following of complex instructions compared with early GPT‑4‑era workflows.

3. Use a tight, time‑boxed agenda

For a 60‑minute group chat session, this structure works well:

1. 5 minutes – Frame the challenge and rules.
2. 10 minutes – Warm‑up & alignment prompts.
3. 20 minutes – Divergent ideation (broad + deep).
4. 15 minutes – Clustering and evaluation.
5. 10 minutes – Prioritization and action plan.

Ask ChatGPT at the start: “Please act as timekeeper for this agenda. Warn us 2 minutes before each segment ends and summarize interim results.”

Prompt playbook: turning ChatGPT into your co‑facilitator

How you prompt ChatGPT in a group setting matters more than when you use it alone. You’re designing not just answers, but interaction patterns for multiple people.

Warm‑up and alignment prompts

Start by aligning everyone on the challenge and success criteria.

Prompt (facilitator):
ChatGPT, help facilitate the kickoff of this brainstorming session.

1. Ask the group 3 clarifying questions to nail down:
   - The problem we’re solving
   - Who we’re solving it for
   - What a successful outcome would look like

2. Then restate the problem and success criteria in one concise paragraph.

Let each participant answer directly in the thread. ChatGPT can then synthesize:

Prompt (after people respond):
ChatGPT, synthesize the group’s answers into:
- One problem statement
- A short description of our primary audience
- 3 bullet success criteria

Highlight any disagreements or ambiguity we should resolve before ideation.

Divergent idea generation prompts

In this phase, your goal is volume and variety, not perfection. Encourage participants to add their own ideas between ChatGPT’s batches.

Prompt:
Based on our agreed problem statement, generate:
- 20 unconventional ideas
- 10 “boring but likely effective” ideas
- 5 “moonshot” ideas that would be hard but game‑changing

Label each category clearly and keep each idea to one sentence.

To avoid generic lists, layer in constraints:

Prompt:
Now generate 15 more ideas that:
- Could realistically be tested in < 2 weeks
- Cost < $5,000 each
- Don’t require engineering changes to our core product

Present them as a table with columns: Idea, Why it might work, What we’d need to test it.

Using frameworks (SCAMPER, “How Might We”, etc.)

ChatGPT is particularly good at driving structured frameworks that many teams skip because they’re tedious to facilitate manually.

Prompt:
Act as an innovation coach. 
Using the SCAMPER framework, help us generate ideas for [product / process].

For each of the 7 lenses (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse):
- Briefly explain the lens in 1 sentence
- Ask the group 2-3 targeted questions
- Suggest 3 example ideas to get us started

Work lens by lens and wait for our input between each step.

This keeps the group engaged while ChatGPT does the heavy lifting of structuring the conversation.

Clustering and naming idea themes

Once you have a long list, paste or reference all ideas and let ChatGPT cluster them.

Prompt:
Here is our current list of ideas (including those we wrote, not just yours). 
Cluster them into 5–8 themes.

For each cluster:
- Give it a short, punchy name
- List the ideas under it
- Add a 2-sentence summary of the underlying strategy behind that cluster.

Ask the group to react: “Which 2-3 cluster names resonate most with our strategy?”. ChatGPT can then help you go deeper into those clusters only.

Prioritization prompts

To avoid “highest paid person wins,” anchor prioritization in simple criteria like impact, confidence, and effort.

Prompt:
From our top 10 ideas, build a table with columns:
- Idea
- Expected impact (High/Med/Low)
- Confidence (High/Med/Low)
- Effort (High/Med/Low)
- 2-sentence rationale

Use what you know about similar companies and tactics in 2024–2025, but mark any assumptions clearly so we can challenge them.

Then move to voting:

Prompt (facilitator to group):
Everyone, reply in-thread with your top 3 idea numbers.

Prompt (after votes):
ChatGPT, tally the votes, show the ranking, and highlight:
- The top 3 ideas
- Any “controversial” ideas with highly mixed votes
Suggest which 3-5 ideas we should take forward to experiment design.

Using ChatGPT as a real‑time scribe and knowledge base

One of the biggest advantages of ChatGPT group chat over traditional workshops is automatic, structured documentation. You don’t need a separate note‑taker; you just need to prompt for the right summaries at the right time.

Live summaries during the session

Every 10–15 minutes, ask:

Prompt:
ChatGPT, summarize what we’ve produced in the last 15 minutes into:
- Key decisions (if any)
- New ideas added (bullet list)
- Open questions that still need answers.

This keeps late joiners oriented and makes it easy to turn the session into an artifact later.

End‑of‑session decision log and action plan

At the end, have the group agree on next steps in plain language, then have ChatGPT encode them.

Prompt:
Based on this entire group chat, produce a concise workshop report with sections:
1. Problem statement
2. Success criteria
3. Idea clusters (with brief descriptions)
4. Top 5 prioritized ideas
5. Action plan:
   - For each idea: owner, first next step, deadline, and success metric.
Format this so it can be pasted directly into a project management tool.

If you’re using ChatGPT Team or Business, you can also connect files from Google Drive, OneDrive, etc. (via connectors introduced in 2025) so the model can reference past research, roadmaps, or user feedback while drafting the report.

Exporting outcomes into your tools

Use ChatGPT to convert raw output into the exact formats other systems need:

• Jira / Azure DevOps – Ask for user stories with acceptance criteria.
• Linear / Asana / Trello – Ask for CSV‑ready rows: title, description, owner, due date, labels.
• Slide decks – Ask for a slide‑by‑slide outline with talking points.

Prompt:
Turn our top 5 ideas and action plan into a CSV with columns:
Title, Description, Assignee, Due date (YYYY-MM-DD), Tags.
Keep each description under 200 characters.

Practical tips, limitations, and comparison with traditional methods

Best practices for smooth team brainstorming

• Set etiquette up front: no idea‑killing, keep messages short, and reference idea numbers instead of retyping full text.
• Use mentions deliberately: only mention “ChatGPT” when you want the AI to jump in, to avoid clutter.
• Rotate who drives prompts: don’t let the facilitator be the only one talking to ChatGPT – invite others to ask “what if…?” questions.
• Blend sync and async: run a 30‑minute async divergence phase in the group chat before a shorter live call to converge.
• Challenge the AI: regularly ask, “What assumptions are you making?” or “What would someone who disagrees with this say?” to push beyond obvious answers.

Known limitations and how to mitigate them

• Averages, not outliers: LLMs tend to propose “average” ideas. Counter this by explicitly asking for weird, rule‑breaking or cross‑industry examples.
• Information freshness: GPT‑5.1 Auto can search the web, but always ask it to cite recent sources for data‑driven assumptions (e.g., “use sources from 2024–2025 and list them”).
• Over‑reliance on AI: Keep human‑only segments where ChatGPT is briefly muted so people can think without anchoring on AI suggestions.
• Confidentiality: If you’re dealing with sensitive data, use ChatGPT Team/Business or Enterprise, which offer stronger data controls, and avoid pasting personally identifiable or highly confidential information unless cleared by your org’s policies.

How ChatGPT group chat compares with classic tools

ChatGPT group chat doesn’t replace whiteboards or Miro; it complements them. Here’s how it stacks up on key dimensions:

For the strongest results, pair ChatGPT group chat with a visual tool (Miro, FigJam, Lucidspark) and ask the AI to help you turn raw ideas into structured canvases or maps you then visualize elsewhere.

Putting it all together for your next team brainstorm

Used intentionally, ChatGPT group chat is more than a novelty; it’s a repeatable system for faster, better team brainstorming. You get a neutral co‑facilitator, a limitless idea generator, and a real‑time note‑taker in the same environment where your team already talks.

To recap, you’ll get the most from ChatGPT group chat when you:

• Define a clear outcome and choose a divergent, convergent, or hybrid session structure.
• Set up the group with strong custom instructions so ChatGPT behaves like a facilitator, not just a Q&A bot.
• Use targeted prompts for each phase: alignment, ideation, clustering, prioritization, and action planning.
• Let ChatGPT continuously summarize and structure outputs into decision logs, tables, and next‑step plans.
• Combine AI with human judgment, challenge its assumptions, and export results into your existing tools.

For your next brainstorming session, try moving it entirely into a ChatGPT group chat. Start with a 60‑minute pilot following the agenda above, then refine your prompts and structure based on what worked. Over time, you’ll build your own library of reusable group prompts and workflows, turning every ideation session into a collaborative AI powerhouse.