Seeing Through the AI Hype: Practical Uses of AI for Your Organization

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) buzz has reached a fever pitch. The challenge lies in separating hype from practical, meaningful applications that can genuinely benefit organizations. At Insource, we aim to clear up the confusion around AI and show you how it can be used in easy-to-apply, impactful ways to streamline work, improve decision-making, and get results. Here’s how you can harness AI’s potential for your organization.

Understanding AI: Definitions and Capabilities
AI, specifically Large Language Models (LLMs), are designed to understand and generate human-like text. These models have been trained on vast amounts of data and use context to predict and generate coherent sentences. Popular examples include ChatGPT, which has brought generative AI into mainstream use. By understanding these capabilities and how to apply them, organizations can effectively harness AI’s potential.

From Technological Capability to Practical Use Case
To understand AI’s value, it’s helpful to start with principles first. This approach cuts through the jargon and fanfare to provide a framework for evaluating how new technological capabilities can create practical use cases that generate value.

Consider the example of cell phones. The technical capability of a cell phone “knowing” your location has enabled the practical use case of navigation apps like Google Maps. The value that results is that you never need to feel lost.

Overcoming Procrastination with AI
One common issue in all our lives is procrastination. This challenge is often due to not knowing where to start on a task. AI can help by generating initial drafts quickly. For instance, when faced with a daunting project, you can input a broad outline into ChatGPT to receive a draft to refine, making the task less overwhelming. This capability to produce a rapid first draft helps users overcome the initial hurdle of a blank page, helping us get things done faster.

Like how you can rely on your phone’s GPS to start your journey confidently, AI can be your starting point for complex projects. Just as you no longer need to feel the anxiety of being lost thanks to your phone’s GPS, AI can eliminate the feeling of not knowing where to start on a new project.

Broad Knowledge for Diverse Tasks

AI’s broad knowledge across various domains makes it useful for tasks outside your expertise. For example, a client with no prior experience in web development used ChatGPT to create a basic website. By providing code and guidance, the client achieved respectable results.

This demonstrates AI’s ability to enable users to undertake new tasks with reasonable proficiency, even in unfamiliar areas, making it a valuable tool for diverse applications.

Summarizing Large Volumes of Text
LLMs can read and summarize large volumes of text quickly, which is particularly beneficial for staying updated on research or summarizing complex documents. Tools like ScholarGPT and Perplexity AI help users grasp key points without extensive reading, enhancing productivity and knowledge acquisition. This capability allows you to get summaries of complicated information and get up to speed quickly on new areas, optimizing your time and effort.

Generating Reports from Unstructured Data
AI can transcribe and analyze interview recordings or other unstructured data to create detailed reports. For example, in a behavioral health organization, AI was employed to draft evaluation reports from interview transcriptions. This significantly reduced the time required for report generation from months to minutes. By handling unstructured information effectively, AI streamlines processes and improves operational efficiency, freeing up valuable time for more critical tasks.

Addressing Common AI Concerns
Privacy: Privacy is a significant concern, but it is possible to use AI with confidential data by opting for enterprise-level subscriptions that ensure robust privacy agreements. Paying for privacy and reviewing the terms of service is essential to ensure data protection.

Bias: AI models inherit biases from the internet data they are trained on. Users must monitor AI outputs for bias and use AI iteratively, refining final outputs to reduce potential biases. Leveraging AI to evaluate other AI-generated content for bias can enhance fairness and objectivity in your outputs.

Cost and Utilization: To ensure AI investments are utilized effectively, create a menu of use cases, providing clear examples of how AI can be applied. This approach helps users understand and adopt AI tools more readily. Additionally, considering pay-per-use models instead of per-seat subscriptions encourages broader use without unnecessary gatekeeping, optimizing investment and utilization.

Looking Ahead: Future AI Capabilities
The future of AI promises even more exciting developments. Enhanced vision and multimodal capabilities will allow AI models to process and understand images alongside text, making them even more versatile. Voice interaction features, already available in tools like the ChatGPT mobile app, will become more sophisticated, allowing seamless voice interactions. AI models will also become smaller and more portable, integrating into everyday devices, and making advanced AI accessible and ubiquitous.

Moreover, AI will continue to advance towards expert-level capabilities across various domains. Imagine a world where LLMs can perform at an expert level in specialized fields, transforming industries and redefining the nature of expertise. This progression will unlock unprecedented opportunities for innovation and efficiency.

Conclusion
AI offers numerous opportunities to enhance organizational efficiency and effectiveness. By understanding its practical applications and addressing common concerns, organizations can leverage AI to streamline operations, improve decision-making, and achieve better results.

At Insource, we are committed to helping you navigate the AI landscape. Whether you need assistance with AI policy implementation, tool evaluation, or custom application development, our team is here to support your AI journey.

For more information or to discuss how AI can benefit your organization, please feel free to reach out to 781-235-1490 or insource@insourceservices.com with any questions or schedule a consultation to explore how we can help you integrate AI effectively into your operations.