Brendan Howe, CEO, Techify.
There is something big missing in all of this talk on AI.
There is tons of talk about the risks and ethics as well as many mentions of new whiz-bang exciting AI things that have come out. Speakers and authors preach about how AI will revolutionize how we work and live. They talk about how quickly ChatGPT was adopted versus any other recent technology.
Despite all of this, many business leaders are still left wondering how they’re really going to use AI for their businesses. A paper published by Harvard Business School found that highly skilled workers using generative AI can boost performance by 40% compared to those who do not use it.
How do we all get there and make our businesses wildly more productive and efficient? Let me take this opportunity to empower you with some ideas of how to potentially start your journey into the world of AI, broken down by common job roles in your workplace.
The CEO
Leadership matters. As the visionary of the company, it is prudent that the CEO lead by example. I was at an AI talk recently when the CEO of a midsized company said, “I’m going to use it every day.” That is a fantastic example and inspiring to other folks in the room.
Here are some ways the CEO can use it every day:
• As an assistant for drafting emails, reports, commentary or background.
• Managing inbox overload by summarizing email threads, allowing for quick responses to emails.
• Finding information faster than Googling and finding files within a Microsoft 365 environment that may have taken five or 10 minutes to search for.
• Sending a video to a team member, client or prospect in their native language.
• Creating proposals or presentations in minutes.
• Creating internal chatbots that can answer questions from staff about processes and procedures that CEOs would normally answer.
• Asking ChatGPT for jokes to make people laugh or to create a cartoon of yourself.
The Business Development Rock Star
Activity is at the core of great sales results. Generative AI can automate much of the day-to-day activity of a salesperson, leading them to be massively more effective.
• Writing great prospecting emails and crafting better responses to objections from prospects.
• Adding a chatbot to the website to answer simple questions quickly about the company.
• Reaching out to prospects on LinkedIn.
• Doing research on a company.
• Drafting a blog article specific to a target vertical market and allowing it to do the SEO work.
The Finance Guru
Finance regularly does many repetitive manual tasks. This is an area with enormous potential for AI.
• Automating all manual reporting.
• Entering payables into accounting systems by allowing it to read invoices from a mailbox and post them to the correct GL.
• Interpreting large Excel spreadsheets and creating graphs, analyses and summaries.
• Managing staff expenses, postings, policies and reimbursements.
The Customer Service Star
Strong customer service involves saying the right thing, finding the right information and getting back to a customer quickly—things that AI can fuel.
• Using chatbots to gather information from customers.
• Having customer service people ask an internal chatbot that is trained on company policies and procedures rather than a manager.
• Drafting better emails to customers.
• Analyzing calls for sentiment analysis and training by plugging it into phone systems.
The Everyday Developer
In the age of AI, the everyday code developer emerges, shaping the future of automations and applications. Here is how AI becomes an ally.
• Transforming prompts into code snippets leveraging generative AI for low-code brilliance.
• Bridging the gap between stakeholders and developers by translating business needs into technical requirements.
• Assisting in creating complex apps and automations using natural language.
How To Get Started
These ideas are just the beginning. There are so many ways to implement AI, as new integrations and platforms are constantly being released. Here are some tips to take the above ideas and turn them into action:
1. Do a brainstorm with your team on what repetitive manual tasks are in each department that you would like to automate with AI. Note for each how much time it will save.
2. Explore which ideas would have the greatest impact with the least amount of effort to implement with your IT director or outsourced CIO.
3. Implement a few and evaluate their success.
4. Put in place an ongoing process in your business to implement an AI integration each quarter that addresses a manual task.
For example, we were in a meeting with an engineering firm that is a client of ours, and we asked them to brainstorm manual repetitive tasks they wanted to automate. They came back with a list that was almost three pages long. On the list were items that were easy pickings, and we were able to implement these right away—some in only days. It had a huge immediate impact and has led to a number of bigger initiatives.
Once an organization sees quick progress, it’s amazing how quickly people get excited about AI’s potential. The challenge is that many people are stuck doing the same thing every day and are overwhelmed by their workloads. They don’t take the time to zoom out and figure out how to save hours each day for their team.
I hope this article empowers you to reframe your business road map and capitalize on AI capabilities. Every idea and implementation will not be perfect, do not give up if something does not work the first time. Keep pushing forward and you will achieve that 40% mark in your business sooner than you expect!
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