Artificial Intelligence is being talked about in the news and around the water cooler. Have you ever thought “How will I be able to use AI in my business?” At On Line Support, we are looking for ways that we can help our customers use AI to keep their technology predictable, efficient, and safe.
To understand AI, we think of it as just another utility that can be used for good or evil. AI is the next step in making computers easier to use by communicating in a natural language to shortcut access to information and to help with efficiency. It can learn from you, provide artificial reasoning, and can update itself when you give it corrections.
As with any new technology, state and federal laws affect the use of AI. Both Oregon and Washington have laws around privacy, facial recognition, data breaches, and other uses of AI. The White House released its AI Bill of rights that will start the conversation around federal laws on AI. https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/ai-bill-of-rights/ For AI to work it needs access to data, which may include your data. Like any new software you implement, it’s a good idea to read the disclosures and privacy statements before using.
Here are some of the ways that you can use AI today in your business.
Customer Interactions:
You’ve most likely used a chatbot before, the computer programs that simulate conversation with human users for chats on the internet, or sometimes in automated phone systems. In the past these interactions with chatbots were frustrating as you wove your way through the multitude of questions and prompts before you could get to an actual human to help you. With AI, chatbots have greatly improved and often give better, faster information than a human can and eliminate annoyingly long wait times. Chatbot technology has come down in price due the connections to public AI (ChatGPT-4) and are within the reach of small and medium-sized businesses.
AI in Microsoft Copilot:
Microsoft imbedded its AI, Copilot, into both Microsoft 365, the Bing web browser and Windows 11. There are many ways to use Copilot in your daily work including writing content, creating Power Point presentations, creating complex Excel formulas and note taking. There is a cost associated with Copilot as well as some Microsoft prerequisites for use, but the efficiencies you gain may be well worth the cost. Microsoft is constantly adding new features to Copilot and you can keep get updated information by reading information from the Microsoft website here https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/09/21/announcing-microsoft-copilot-your-everyday-ai-companion/
Note taking in meetings like Teams or Zoom:
We are experimenting with several AI notetakers at our office. These “note takers” join your meeting, record audio, transcribe the meeting to text so that we can search the meeting for information from the meeting. They can also give you summaries of the meeting and create a list of to dos for each person in the meeting. While these are not quite perfect, they are improving every day. I have been using fireflies.ai in my meetings and it has been very helpful.
As with so many things in business, if you ignore a trend your competitors may gain a competitive advantage over you. Specialized Artificial Intelligence services are being released every day. AI that is specific to lawyers, healthcare, banking, fraud detection, retail, agriculture, and manufacturing are some industries that have AI options tailored for their specific business.
Keeping up with AI in your industry will be critical for your ongoing success. Try your hand at AI by going to https://chat.openai.com/ and asking ChatGPT questions on how to use AI. You will be amazed by the ways AI can help your business. At On Line Support our mission is to make technology predictable, efficient, and safe. If you have questions or concerns regarding security issues related to implementing AI in your business, our dedicated Cybersecurity Team can help.
Eric Olmsted
CEO, On Line Support
