Being in an industry that feels threatened in the face of advancing AI technologies, I wanted to ease my anxiety about machines taking over my business by learning more about the topic. As someone said, AI won’t take your job, people who know how to use it will.
So I’ve chosen to stay one step ahead of the curve and learn how to make the most of it to deliver better services to my clients. For small businesses, AI can be an invaluable tool, particularly in content creation. It allows them to get more messaging out there, and present solutions to customer challenges with utmost clarity.
Yet, AI remains a technology in its toddler years, still with much room to grow. Our journey to comprehending and harnessing its capabilities is far from its final destination. Here are some things to know to effectively use it in your business.
1. Fact check – Can We Trust AI-Generated Content?
Content generated by AI can sometimes be inaccurate because it depends on the quality of the data. AI doesn’t verify information and can even amplify the errors based on its training data. It also might not distinguish reliable sources from unreliable ones (even humans cannot always do that). Other factual errors can result from AI struggling with understanding context and nuances. To ensure accuracy, we should always check the facts AI generates and attentively reread and edit the outputs.
2. The Missing Human Touch and the Art of Storytelling
AI, despite its capabilities, often lacks the human touch and storytelling finesse. It’s a bit like talking to a machine, and customers can feel the difference. And soon, frustration of talking to robots pretending to be humans will be more common. This phenomenon, often referred to as “AI fatigue,” highlights the importance of using AI generated content for ideas generation or as a starting point, adding your own style and experience to it. To stand out in the midst of overwhelming digital content, businesses should aim for creating a genuine connection with their audience.
3. Garbage in – garbage out
The quality of an AI output depends for the most part on the prompt quality. The more descriptive and specific you are the better the end result you get. The wonderful thing is that you can use references – for example you can ask to write an article in New York Times style. As an experiment, I asked to rewrite this article in the style of Yuval Harrari, who is one of my favorite non-fiction authors. And while I’m not quite sure Yuval would be satisfied with the text, Chat GPT definitely added a bunch of complex sentences.
4. Copyright and legal issues in using AI for small business
According to U.S. and European law, AI-created images, sounds, videos, and other media cannot be copyrighted at this time (Fall of 2023). Since AI-generated images lack human creativity, they generally do not qualify for copyright protection. This distinction is crucial because it means that anyone can use, modify, or distribute these AI-generated images without infringing on copyright. For example if you use AI-generated slides in your course, they are not protected by any copyright laws and can be shared publicly.
5. The Feedback Loop
AI systems, much like a talented sous-chef in a kitchen, have the potential to learn and adapt based on the feedback they receive. By providing feedback and actively guiding AI, we can refine the content it generates, aligning it more closely with our brand’s identity and our audience’s preferences.
For instance, you can ask Chat GPT to simplify its initial output or add an analogy or example. You can also ask Chat GPT to create a video script and Linkedin post based on the article it created.
6. The AI Content Repository: A Valuable Asset
As creating an accurate request is a big part of getting a decent result, you can streamline your process by creating a depository of prompt templates that you can use regularly. I realized that saving my blog post prompts saves me a few minutes of thinking every time I sit to write a post.
To recap
In conclusion, just as the internet reshaped the world in the 90s when it became widely accessible, AI is now following in its transformative footsteps. Whether you embrace or resist it, AI is here to stay.
Despite the controversies surrounding AI technologies, they are valuable tools that can benefit both our clients and ourselves. It’s an undeniable reality that AI is becoming an integral part of our lives, and business. So, let me know your thoughts on this ongoing AI revolution!
P. S. this blog post was written with the help of the AI 🙂