Megan Kelley, Head of Research for Fidelity Center for Applied Technology at Fidelity Investments.
Over the last year or so, the spotlight on AI technology has continued to uncover opportunities to improve the interfaces that many employees and customers rely on in their daily jobs. To start, here are three ways AI could change how we work.
1. Breaking Silos And Democratizing Innovation
Large corporations generate incredible amounts of data. AI can quickly scan and digest all that information to provide a comprehensive view of the company’s operations, allowing employees to easily access expertise and insights from different areas of the business and make data-driven decisions collaboratively. Large language models can offer a simple one-stop solution for employees to quickly find in-house expertise.
AI is also adding more sophistication to no-code and low-code development software that helps people with little to no programming experience generate applications. Employees across the organization can now experiment with creating solutions that don’t involve coding, easily producing proof of concepts to showcase their ideas. And customers can weigh in to ensure organizations consider their perspectives during product development. No-code tools can take co-creation further by allowing customers to design tools themselves or co-create with company designers and engineers.
AI-powered tools represent a significant step forward in fueling collaboration while offering new ways to break down silos and democratize innovation at companies.
2. Teaching Differently
Generative AI can be used to sift through vast amounts of content, provide summaries and synthesize findings on complex topics, speeding up time-consuming work. The technology provides an interactive, responsive way for people to explore topics, gather research and track down the most pertinent materials.
Although new AI-based tools help in the research process itself, people have different learning styles. One of the most exciting developments with generative AI is the ability to produce output in a format or mode that works best for the learner. If the person is a visual thinker, a tool could display content using more images or adjust the output to a different format. Also, AI can not only translate text into multiple languages, but it’s also now possible to infuse the generated language with a different tone that may help the learner absorb the content more effectively.
This next era of more general, democratized AI may well change the nature and timing of how employees are trained and how people seek advice. Imagine consulting AI for tailored suggestions before meeting with customers or having better-informed customers arriving with specific questions after chatting with an AI bot. In the finance industry, for example, the technology could help guide consumers in deciding on a large purchase such as a home, determining how much money to put away for their children’s college education, or even getting a better understanding of how a potential health expense may affect their future retirement.
One huge benefit of AI chatbots for education: There’s no shame in feeling uneducated. People can ask any question to AI—even very basic ones—without having to feel like someone may be judging them.
3. Encouraging New Ideas
When the point is to find new ideas or spark provocative conversations, the verifiability of the content isn’t as important as the novelty of the concept. Here, chatbots are already becoming a useful brainstorming assistant.
The technology can be a handy first stop for written communication, particularly when summarizing a series of activities or data points. Whether it’s financial reports, emails to customers, website copy or even job descriptions, AI tools can help us make the writing process more efficient by developing first drafts for us or even editing our own writing. Remember, though, that it’s important to understand the variable accuracy of the outputs when it comes to generative AI. These tools don’t understand what they’re saying and must be checked for accuracy, but they can be a useful starting point for prompts.
Although it’s clear that AI is growing at a steady pace, it still has some ways to go before it comes close to achieving levels of general human intelligence. But it’s safe to say that it’s only a matter of time before we see AI grow to new levels of power and efficiency, which will not only change and optimize future innovation and collaboration but may even transform the way we work forever.
Views expressed are based on the information available at the time of writing and may change based on market or other conditions. Unless otherwise noted, the opinions provided are those of the author and not necessarily those of Fidelity Investments or its affiliates. Fidelity does not assume any duty to update any of the information.
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