How Businesses Can Leverage AI
Since the arrival of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a constant source of both excitement and fear for many. We have to acknowledge that, just like the invention of electricity, the telephone, and the internet, artificial intelligence is causing a stir. But can we really resist the wave, or perhaps, the tsunami?
We must recognize that artificial intelligence is here to stay. It is already present in numerous aspects of our daily life. Marketing and SEO professionals around the globe are delving into the benefits of AI and how it is affecting the online search platforms that have been the main players in the past and the new search platforms that are emerging. With this in mind, our digital marketing team in Montreal wanted to start the conversation about AI. In this article, I will introduce you to some key elements about AI and how you and your business can leverage its potential.
What is AI (as per ChatGPT)?
I asked ChatGPT, a language model developed by OpenAI, to summarize what AI is. Here is the answer I was given.
“AI, or Artificial Intelligence, refers to the development of computer systems that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. It involves creating machines that can analyze data, learn from experience, make decisions, and adapt to changing circumstances. AI encompasses techniques like machine learning and deep learning, which enable systems to recognize patterns, make predictions, and process complex information. AI has applications across industries and can enhance efficiency, productivity, and problem-solving. It holds the potential to revolutionize various aspects of our lives by simulating human cognitive abilities.”
I would add this, again provided by ChatGPT in another result:
“However, it is important to consider ethical considerations and ensure that AI systems are designed and used responsibly.”
Pretty good right, but does it sound robotic to you? Maybe a little bit.
Where Can We Find AI Today?
Artificial intelligence is already part of our lives whether we realize it or not. Virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri use AI to understand and respond to our voice commands to perform searches for us, find answers, and control our connected smart devices like thermostats, audio systems, and security systems. AI can also be found in translation tools, autonomous vehicles, and recommendation lists for services like Netflix and Spotify.
From a business perspective, artificial intelligence is helping to detect fraud, make medical diagnoses, optimize supply chains and production processes and more. As you can see, robots are already helping to make our lives more efficient, convenient, and interconnected, both personally and professionally.
How Can Your Business Leverage Artificial Intelligence?
We are all looking for ways to optimize our time to increase our productivity, better respond to our customers’ demands and increase our profitability. By using artificial intelligence, you can succeed in simplifying and optimizing many aspects of your business, just by using a few mainstream tools, but also tools specific to your industry, to help you increase your efficiency.
Here is a short list of ways you can use AI.
- Automate repetitive tasks such as data entry using techniques such as optical character recognition (OCR) and natural language processing (NLP).
- Analyze large volumes of data such as customer databases to help you segment your customers for better targeting and personalization of their experience.
- Personalize your product or service offering based on your customers’ preferences, behavior, and historical data.
- Improve decision-making by using AI to make recommendations, analyze data, and make predictions to eventually make better decisions.
- Reduce costs and be more competitive by optimizing your processes and leveraging new technologies to stay ahead of your competition.
- Improve your customer service by using chatbots and virtual assistants to provide 24/7 customer support.
- Manage risk and detect fraud through AI identification of anomalies that may signify fraudulent activity, cybersecurity threats or financial irregularities.
This image has been created with the assistance MidJourney, an AI-assisted image-creation tool
Dive In: Where to Start with AI?
Not sure if AI is for you? The best way to understand AI is to dive in and start using a few simple tools dedicated to specific tasks, as well as more advanced ones that can perform various tasks.
Here are some ideas on how to use artificial intelligence.
Translation: For your translation needs, you can use tools like Deepl, which provides highly accurate results. Just make a few adjustments, and you’re good to go. You can also use Chat GPT, although, in my opinion, it is less precise.
Grammar and paraphrasing: There’s a wonderful tool called Grammarly that allows you to correct grammar mistakes in various types of documents and online written emails. It also offers a paraphrasing option that you might find useful. ChatGPT and Quillbot are also other tools you can use for similar tasks.
Brainstorming: Tools like ChatGPT, as well as JasperAI and Writesonic, can help you generate ideas or outlines for projects like presentations, articles, emails, social media posts, slogans and more. You can also use them to define advertising strategies and other purposes.
Writing: With the help of AI, you can write various texts for emails, quotes, executive summaries, meeting notes, presentations, blog articles, etc. Once again, ChatGPT, JasperAI, and Writesonic are interesting tools to consider for these types of tasks.
The examples above represent only a fraction of what is possible with AI. At WSI, we have conducted several experiments, including asking AI the reasons why my car won’t start, to verify the accuracy of the results, which leads me to talk about the art of the prompt.
The Art of the Prompt
The results provided by tools using artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT are totally dependent on the human factor. You will have to learn how to give more precise instructions to get the desired final result. You will need to ask yourself some questions to become a prompt expert.
- What am I trying to do? (Summarize a text, write an email, find ideas, generate a list, etc.)
- What are the parameters of the text? (Length of text, adding a list, sub-sections, etc.)
- What is the approach to take (Use of “I” and “you” pronouns, friendly or formal tone
- What is the context? ( who will be the author of the text)
- What sources of information to refer to (PDF, video, URL, etc.)
- Who is the audience for this text (target audience, participants, buyers, etc.)
The more you experiment with tools like ChatGPT, the more efficient you’ll become. The new concept of prompt engineers has been introduced to explain the optimization and refinement of instructions given to artificial intelligence to achieve increasingly accurate results.
Our Montreal digital agency, which is part of the WSI Digital Marketing Agency network, has produced a new guide to help you better understand ChatGPT and master the art of the prompt. This eBook, called: Unlocking the Potential of ChatGPT: A Guide to Embracing AI in Your Business and Life contains over 60 pages of valuable expert advice and practical use cases. We invite you to download your copy of this useful eBook.
Download a FREE copy of our eBook now
Limitations and Disadvantages of AI
Although artificial intelligence brings many advantages, it also has its share of disadvantages and limitations.
Firstly, AI is trained to generate results based on specific data. Some versions of ChatGPT generate results based on data found on the Internet prior to September 2021, whereas Bing Chat uses its search engine to find current information. It’s therefore important to check the accuracy of the information found according to your sector of activity before publishing it. In the same way, AI can’t predict the future, so the answers given will always be based on past data.
On the writing side, it goes without saying that a robot will never be able to reach the level of thought, personalization and emotional intelligence of a human. Often the texts generated by AI will be repetitive, robotic and too wordy; it will therefore be necessary to edit the text to personalize it. In addition, AI cannot offer insights and is unable to reason.
Lack of originality and creativity is another disadvantage of AI. Imagine that you ask AI to write an article for your blog on topic X. Your competitor, who also wants to increase traffic on his website, asks AI to write the same article. What will be your differentiating factor? Who will be able to stand out in the search results? Well, neither one nor the other, since it will be the one who will have succeeded in differentiating himself by offering similar content, but supplemented with information and different perspectives based on the expertise of the author.
Finally, the use of AI raises various issues ranging from copyright and privacy protection to the risk of search engines detecting and possibly penalizing texts written with AI. One thing we can be sure of, however, is that as the use of AI spreads and evolves, new rules and measures will be put in place to better supervise its use.
In Conclusion
Artificial intelligence is a technology that can really help companies boost their creativity and increase their productivity and improve their SEO capabilities. Think of all those repetitive or uninteresting tasks that can be easily taken care of by AI. When it comes to your digital marketing, AI can definitely help you in various aspects like brainstorming, and writing emails and posts for your social media. However, for fear of having a negative impact on your website’s SEO and credibility, the impact of AI-generated content on search engine positioning is still uncertain. One thing remains clear, however, and that’s the importance of creating high-quality, unique and relevant content.
What does the future hold?
With the advent of AI, the way we search for information is changing rapidly. In the last few months alone, Microsoft has launched a new version of the Bing search engine powered by AI while Google has just announced an update of its search engine that will use generative AI to give users more information and context in their searches. This will have a significant impact on website traffic, which is why it is important to work with an SEO agency like WSI to help you surf this new wave safely. Do not hesitate to contact us for any questions regarding AI, your website and SEO.
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