The genie is out of the bottle. AI is not going anywhere.
I have my concerns about what we’ve unleashed - see the intelligent and important commentary from the grandfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton and Yuval Harari among others. But I choose to be an AI optimist. That means, even more so, that I need to stay current and understand how I can positively incorporate AI into my personal and professional life.
Jamie Dimon, The Head of JP Morgan Chase, suggested that AI might help us get to a 3.5 day workweek.
Ways In Which AI Has Improved My Life (and My Family's Life):
My partner and I wrote a children’s story about our families for our kids. It is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Kids who know their family history - those who know they come from a long line of individuals who faced challenges and overcame them - are more resilient. I’m still trying to figure out how to illustrate it well with AI, but I know it is possible.
We used AI to make a meal plan that would satisfy the health we want for our family, the fuel I need for my running, and the idiosyncrasies of different tastebuds. Bonus: after it made us the meal plan, it gave us the weekly grocery list.
I used AI to create a running schedule for me in my next marathon build-up where I’m attempting to break 3 hours. It included strength training exercises with kettlebells (and bodyweight for when I’m on the road).
I use a recorder and AI to translate my thoughts to content (emails, newsletters, other random thought pieces). I then use transcript.LOL to transfer the audio file to text, and filter it through ChatGPT to get me 95% of the way there.
Ways In Which AI Has Improved Our Company:
We just completed a project that will give us 972K of direct value next year. We have found a way to reduce between half a day to a day’s worth of effort off from most of our projects, and it is all in the mundane tasks that are essential but no one is excited about doing.
That same project will also save us 1,100 hours of prep time.
We have just begun to harness the power of it in the sales process. We are piloting new tools to reduce time spent on non-value-added sales tasks and to support our team with bespoke communication advice throughout the sales cycle.
It has helped me assess and ask excellent questions of proposals I’ve reviewed.
I use fireflies.ai for all of my virtual meetings now. The reflection loop it enables is incredible. Combined with ChatGPT, I can get a clear and coherent follow-up message back to our clients in record time, without much need for an assistant.
There really isn’t a process in your organization that it cannot help enable. If you only read one article on AI and the workplace, please make it this one. There are some fascinating applications (especially with how to bring low-skilled workers down the curve).
What AI Can't Do:
It can’t do good strategy… yet. But it can challenge, add to, and enable strategy.
It can’t build and maintain relationships. But it can keep you organized.
It can’t delight customers. But it can give you excellent ideas on how to do so.
AI is helping to eliminate or dramatically reduce the mundane work, mistake-proof the knowledge and service work, and to augment every part of the way you work.
The Fast Followers will have a small window of advantage but soon AI will become as ubiquitous as the computer and you won’t have a choice but to use it if you want to remain competitive.
PS - If you want to dive further into important insights and strategies for pushing through growth challenges and scaling up your organization, check out the latest Racki & Symes podcast.
