AI in a nutshell: human vs technology

01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100… this is how a computer communicates. It sends 1’s and 0’s intricately through wires and chips, translating our information or solving a problem, this is how everything began. Nowadays, these infinite rows of numbers bear the knowledge and strength to result in a vast number of applications that have never been seen before, like creating your next holiday trip, recommending what to eat based on the groceries you have left in the freezer or even helping rescuers in a natural disaster. This is the power of artificial intelligence (or A.I. for short), one of the most advanced and innovative tools we have within our reach today.

But, as a great man once said “With great power comes great responsibilities”, and, as handy and powerful as it may seem, it is important to be careful in how we use it and apply it daily. Many people have joined the AI boom aiming to avoid repeated and boring tasks, using it to generate content with just one click or some random words. But in reality, this instrument can be a game-changer when you use it correctly.

In this post, the Service Corner Team will uncover how this new tool can be applied and advise you so you can implement it in your business. Is it really “ethical” to use this type of technology and if so to what extent? Is it legal ¨to make AI work for you”? What are the drawbacks? Let us put this 21st-century Skynet to the test and not let it be the end of the world as we know it.

What is an AI?

Briefly, an AI is an interconnected series of algorithms that interact with each other to help a computer (this is why it is “artificial”) simulate how the human mind thinks, acts, or even behaves in certain scenarios as “human”[1]. This has been a huge game changer for all industries worldwide: helping companies complete rudimentary tasks in seconds, suggesting how to approach a specific problem, and even creating images and music for social media from scratch. The sky is the limit! (or at least your bandwidth is).

AI strategy and implementation for your Business

Even though AI has become quite popular in the last couple of years, leaders are still trying to wrap their heads around policies and regulations on cybersecurity and social responsibility. As of today, these important aspects of technology are for each organization to decide on, and many choose to start with what they know, which is making sure that AI is compatible with their strategy, standards and policies for data protection while they still need to rely on regular human surveillance. There are many guidance resources for this topic but not to fret, we are here to summarize the top strategies you need to prioritize now to start applying AI to your business strategy:

First, you have to standardize and decide the type of tasks the AI will do for your business. This is because you may need to delegate and re-organize the responsibilities of the team that was responsible for that task before, so they can prioritize other functions of their daily jobs. It may seem unnecessary at first, but it will be beneficial in the long run.

Secondly, you need to select an AI based on your specifications and budget (yes, using AI can become a little expensive). The quantity of queries, flexibility of prompts and even level of creativity are some things to keep in mind when selecting the ideal AI. You can start by using free alternatives such as OpenAI’s Chat GPT or Google’s Gemini free account, with the possibility of upgrading to a paid plan with more benefits.

Finally, keep records of what you expect for specific tasks, and what you are asking the AI to do for you, to evaluate the generated results later. By doing this, you can track your best results and improve your prompts over time, developing the structure of this process. With this, you will be training the AI and yourself at the same time!

Even though this tool can be a lifesaver or witchcraft for many companies, it is important to weigh the real pros and cons so you can evaluate, whether it can be beneficial to implement it or not.

Pro’s and con’s of using AI in your business

Here is our take on the pros and cons you might want to look at:

Pros

• Fast and effective generation for routine chores, such as generating documents, paraphrasing an essay or summarizing a business meeting via its transcript.

• Planning and organizing daily work tasks, generating project timelines and pipelines that can be shared between teams.

• Facilitating communication with customers through trained chatbots with frequently asked questions.

• Analyzing large volumes of data, identify patterns, and generate insights that would take humans significantly more time to uncover. This capability can be utilized for tasks such as market trend analysis, customer behavior prediction, and operational efficiency improvements, enabling businesses to make data-driven decisions quickly and accurately.

Cons

• It’s prone to mistakes! Be careful when you use any AI-generated content, as it can contain misleading information from unofficial sources. Always review the results of what you ask an AI to do for you.

• You may need to pay to access advanced AI capabilities. Depending on the task you need to use it for, you may find yourself needing to upgrade to a more developed AI provider as paid subscriptions usually come with the ability to use more information, use a more advanced algorithm to generate content, or can simply outperform any free option.

• AI cannot replace human interactions completely, although AI is smart, it should always be paired with people skills. You will need to determine in which situations AI can help you and which situations will require social skills and connections.

Ethics in AI

As good as it seems, some companies and a large portion of people are starting to think that the usage of AI shouldn’t be allowed for businesses and scholars or some claim that the generated content could pass as plagiarism. Here is when questions arise about this issue. Is it ethical for businesses to use AI? Many organizations such as the UNESCO, and even authors as James Barrat in his book "Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era" (2013), have tried to stipulate ground rules or propose international regulations, regarding the usage of AI and the risks that come with it.

Unfortunately, there is no right answer to this, as these organizations have yet to decide how to regulate a tool that is, not only spreading like wildfire to all parts of the world but, is intelligent and powerful and is becoming a necessity in today’s time. For now, they can only recommend what to do, how to use it ethically, and not use it for illicit affairs.

As we can see, AI can provide ideas for inspiration on multiple topics within a business such as service strategy, planning, marketing, promotion, research, and social media management among many other topics. Google search is no longer your one-stop for resolving a variety of questions when AI can pull the information you need and organize it in a simple way. This means that investigation just got easier and you will now focus more on harnessing the power of knowledge to advance your business with this handy tool.

Nevertheless, it is important to be always cautious when using any AI-generated material as this could backfire on you if the information you are using is inaccurate. Always bear in mind when it comes to AI: this is a machine, an algorithm, a bunch of 0’s and 1’s that are here to help you with what you need; not to do the work for you. It can sometimes seem more than what we just saw in this article, but what matters the most is the hard work and passion you put into your own work.

Now we want to hear from you. What do you think about implementing AI in your business? Would you rather use AI or stick to the traditional way of creating content? Is it really useful or will it destroy society as we know it in the near future? Let us know your opinions in the comments below and our socials! (and we mean the real you, not an AI!).