Welcome to Prompt, Tinker, Innovate, my AI playground. Each edition gives you a hands-on experiment that shows how AI can sharpen your thinking, streamline your process, and power up your creative work.
This week's playground: migrate your custom GPTs and Gems to Skills
OpenAI and Google are both retiring their custom AI assistants. Google is replacing Gems with skills. OpenAI is replacing GPTs with plugins built around skills. If you rely on a GPT or Gem you built, the clock is running.
What are skills?
A skill is a packaged set of instructions for a specific task: a file with a name, a description of when to use it, and the steps to follow. You can attach reference files, templates, or examples. Skills can also include Python scripts and other code, so a skill can run a calculation, format a file, or process data instead of only describing how.
Skills work differently from custom GPTs and Gems. With a GPT or Gem, you chose the assistant first, then made your request. With a skill, you just make your request, and your AI applies the right instructions. You can also call one yourself: in most tools, type a slash and pick a skill from the list. You can use more than one in the same conversation. The AI doesn't load every skill at once, only the ones that match what you're asking. You can also describe what you want in plain language and ask the AI to build the skill for you.
I've long expected this shift from custom AI models to skills, and I think we're better for it. Skills are more useful (you can build automated workflows with them), and they aren't tied to one platform. And the skills you create work across ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Gemini, and other agents, such as Hermes and OpenClaw.
That portability is a big reason this migration is worth your time. While GPTs and Gems stayed inside one vendor, skills don't have to.
The two deadlines
ChatGPT: December 11. OpenAI is replacing GPTs with plugins, which bundle skills, reference files, and connectors. But it won't move yours for you. You have to push the button, and any GPT you don't migrate stops working on December 11. To do this, open My GPTs and click "Migrate to plugin". Keep in mind that your conversations and your model selection won't move, and custom actions may need rebuilding.
Gemini: November 17. Google will do the work for you. Starting that date, it automatically converts Gems to skills; no button required. Until yours converts, you can keep using them, but creating and editing reportedly stops on October 13. One caution: skills currently require a paid Google AI Pro or Ultra plan. What happens to free accounts is unclear.
Either way, migrate your custom tools. They're worth keeping.
Want to take them to another platform?
You can. At its core, a skill is just a file that you can upload anywhere that supports it. To transfer your skill, open it up in your platform and then download the skill file—it will be in a .md, .zip, or .skill format. This is the file that you can then upload to your platform of choice.
From ChatGPT: Unfortunately, plugins don't natively work on other platforms. To migrate these, you download and open the plugin, navigate to the skills folder, then instructions, then find the SKILL.md. This is the file you can upload to your desired platform. There may be missing functionality that was in the plugin. Alternatively, you can build fresh skill files using the prompt below.
From Gemini: No export tool exists today. Skip the manual rewrite and use Claude's or ChatGPT's skill builder instead. It's free, and you download the finished skill.
Your AI experiment: try this prompt
👉 Time to tinker: Open your GPT or Gem and copy its instructions. Grab any reference files too. Then open Claude or ChatGPT and paste the prompt below.
A note on the prompt: the Skill Creator is itself a skill that makes skills. It's a little meta, but it's also a live demo of what a skill does. You name a task, and the AI brings in the instructions built for it.
📝 Prompt:
Using the Skill Creator, please turn these GPT/Gem instructions [and reference files, if applicable] into a Skill. Keep my instructions intact. Tighten wording only where it's vague or repetitive. Flag anything the original relied on that a skill can't do on its own, such as connectors, actions, or uploaded knowledge files. Tell me what to use instead. List the reference files I should attach. Here are my instructions: [paste instructions]
💡 Pro tip:
Run several real requests through the old version and the new skill, and compare the results side by side. If the skill drifts, the cause is usually a missing reference file or a vague description. Keep refining by telling your AI what to change.
Until next time—keep tinkering, keep prompting, keep innovating.
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