Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has been painted in a negative light even before it exploded onto the scene in a big way with ChatGPT. One example is the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day, where the AI known as Skynet has taken over the world and awoken killer machines to destroy humanity.

And recently, horror stories have been creeping up in the news.

One story involves the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA), a TV and movie screenwriter collective. They went on strike on May 2, 2023, which is still ongoing. Besides fair residuals from streaming content, one of the issues behind the strike is that writers want AI tools like ChatGPT to help only with research or brainstorming ideas, not to replace writers.

The horror stories continue with headlines like: 

Before you throw your hands up in despair and declare your business lost to the readily accessible technology of AI, let us give you some comfort. Jobs will always need people. AI is merely a tool that can complement skills and help increase productivity. 

Are you breathing easier now? Good. Let’s review some ways you can leverage AI’s capabilities. 

Brainstorming and outlining 

You know when you’re in a situation and feeling stuck for an idea for a marketing campaign, a social media post, or a blog post? You can take your writer’s block to AI and type in your question. For example, Can you give me a list of five ideas for social media posts for LinkedIn that talk about why you should appreciate work/life balance? 

Here’s a tip: when using AI this way, get specific with your question to get the best answer.

Also, we advise you to refrain from copying/pasting the answer to your question and using it as is. Instead, take the answer as a starting point to generate your concepts and create the marketing campaign, write the post in your own words—you get the idea. AI, when used as a brainstorming and outlining tool, blasts through the wall of writer’s block and gets you moving in the right direction to creating content.

Automated chatbots for customer experience 

You see automated chatbots on sites where you type a question in the box, and it points you to the answer you seek. Automated chatbots are excellent for your website, so you don’t have to be on-call 24/7 to answer questions, and your customers can get the answers they need when they need them. Of course, you want to always have a human element behind your business, but AI can help you pick up the slack in cases like this.

Completing repetitive tasks 

There are tasks you may find yourself doing repeatedly, such as filtering emails, invoicing, data entry, and scheduling. You can use AI technologies and software to help you automate those processes, returning minutes and hours to your day (and week!). This frees up your time and employees’ time to focus on other tasks.

Optimizing processes and workflows

Your business has a lot of processes and workflows. AI can optimize these by managing priorities, streamlining task assignments, tracking and managing time, overseeing goals, and conducting performance analysis. AI can also identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies in company processes and offer suggestions for improvement.

When used this way, AI can improve the way your business runs and increase collaboration, productivity, efficiency, and accountability.

Analyzing reports and sets of data 

If you have reports and data you want to analyze and compile into writing pieces such as white papers, presentations, or case studies, AI can analyze that data to identify trends, patterns, or correlations. For instance, you can use AI to look at your customer product preferences and ask it to suggest ways to tailor your marketing strategies. Or you can analyze business data to optimize your productivity and performance.

Enhancing communication 

Are you writing something like a social media post, blog, or email? Tools like ChatGPT, Grammarly, and Wordtune can help you enhance your communication skills, improve your writing’s grammar, spelling, and tone, and communicate more clearly and effectively with your audience.

Not all AI is created equal

To keep things flowing smoothly, it's important to change our perspective on AI. Instead of seeing it as a threat, consider it a valuable addition to your skills. By embracing its potential and incorporating it into our workflows, we can tap into its many capabilities.

This approach helps us adapt to the changing tech landscape, making our businesses more resilient and open to new ideas.

But not all AI is created equal. Do thorough research on the different AI tools and platforms, and choose the ones that fit your company's and employees' needs.

 

Content provided by Q4intelligence

Photo by sdecoret