AI has been a hot topic in many different industries this year. From the education sector to healthcare, from media and communications to mining, fabrication, and everything in between, virtually all parts of Australia’s economy are figuring out how best to leverage AI and business automation tools.
But what are the benefits of AI and machine learning exactly? And how can investing in automation tools help propel your business into the digital age? We’ll answer these questions today, so keep reading to learn more about what AI and automation can do for your enterprise.
What AI & automation tools are available to you?
Before we look at how you can harness the power of automation, we must first outline what AI tools are on the market today. Let’s start with ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI. You’ve likely heard of this heavily publicised AI tool already. But what is ChatGPT exactly, and how does it work?
ChatGPT is a chatbot that’s driven by artificial intelligence, or AI. ChatGPT runs on a large language model (or ‘LLM’). LLMs are a highly popular machine learning technique that allows AI to develop proficiency with a wide range of languages by analysing language patterns. It allows ChatGPT to become increasingly naturalistic the more it’s used.
Microsoft’s investments in ChatGPT led to the development of their own Bing Chat, an additional feature of the company’s Bing search engine that’s now powered by GPT-4. And then there’s also Google Bard, Google’s answer to ChatGPT.
Other AI and automation tools you may have encountered include image generators like Midjourney and DALL-E 2, also developed by OpenAI. Grammar checkers like Grammarly and Wordtune also fall under the umbrella of AI tools. Even AI productivity and project management tools cover a wide range of tasks. If you’re looking for an AI tool to manage your email responses, help you conduct research, or even develop slide decks and presentations, you can likely find an automation solution that works for you.
What are automation tools used for?
As we mentioned, AI tools have a wide range of applications – even those that only have one function. For example, ChatGPT has largely been developed to answer user queries. But in playing around with the chatbot and experimenting with prompts, GPT users across the globe have discovered that this AI-powered tool is capable of writing lines of code, providing accurate language translations, or even summarising whole books, reports, and web pages in a matter of seconds.
Because of this, ChatGPT has been adopted in many industries, spanning from journalism and marketing to programming, healthcare, and even architecture and engineering. This is more than just a tool for copy automation.
Other AI and automation tools have a similarly broad range of uses and capabilities. For instance, Midjourney and DALL-E 2 can be used to develop video game concept art or to inspire branding and marketing campaigns for digital agencies and graphic designers.
Here are some other more common applications of AI and business automation tools.
Boosting employee output
In the media and communications industries, it can be easy to find yourself spending hours on a single idea. Finding the perfect way to frame a story or expand on a topic takes a bit of brainstorming. But what if you could have two heads on every task?
This is how the power of AI and machine learning is being used in creative industries. With tools like ChatGPT and Bing Chat ready to provide an abundance of potential talking points on any given subject, it’s becoming easier than ever for human writers to boost their output.
The same goes for image generation tools and AI-powered image and video editing software. With machine learning functions at your fingertips, creative professionals can shave literal hours off the time it may take them to complete a single editing or production task.
Automating your workflows
On a similar note, AI and automation tools can also help professionals make quick work of some of their most monotonous tasks. A good example here is being able to set up automated workflows in a project management app like Asana. Let’s say you want a task to be sent to a particular folder upon completion. By setting up an automated workflow, you can ensure that that task gets sent to that folder simply upon it being marked as ‘complete’.
This may seem like you’re saving only a few seconds or minutes at best. But when you multiply that little automated action by 100, that saved time does begin to add up. And that’s the beauty of automated workflows – the sky is the limit.
AI and analytics
One other major way that AI and automation tools can drastically streamline your business operations is by automating your data collection and analytics processes. In a world that’s powered by data, business owners can no longer afford not to make the most of all the analytical insights available to them. This means scouring the performance data collated by your digital marketing software solutions, Google Analytics, your website’s sales stats, through your social media advertising accounts, and virtually anywhere else you can feasibly collect performance data.
But now that we’re in this age of automation, business owners no longer need to analyse this data alone. Many project management solutions and other SaaS packages have begun to include automated data analytics features in their software. This allows business owners to enjoy automatically generated analytical insights that they can then use to propel their business to greater heights.
How can you invest in AI & automation for your business?
With all these benefits and applications outlined, the next question you should ask is how exactly you can experience these advantages for yourself. AI tools are abundant, and some of them can be a bit pricey if you’re looking to take out professional subscription packages. So which ones should you invest in first?
Sadly, we can’t answer this one for you. We can say that digital transformation strategising differs from business to business. It’s up to business owners to determine which AI investments they’re more likely to see a return on first. From there, make your investments and watch the gradual impact that AI and automation tools can have on the productivity of your staff and the output of your business.
