In the first of our Director blogs, FEP chair Neill Ricketts shares his thoughts on one of the biggest tech developments of the 21st Century - Artificial Intelligence.
Not a day goes by without Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) news hitting the headlines, and anyone who grew up in the 80’s and 90’s will all remember such blockbusters as The Terminator and Robocop, which now look more and more possible. But how will this impact business and how can we benefit?
As we enter a new year it is time for new challenges. I have for the last few months been teaching myself how to use some of the commonly available tools to help me get through my daily tasks, the thought of having William Shakespeare in my pocket, is quite literally a dream come true for a engineer who is more comfortable with numbers and now entirely possible using Chatgpt (https://openai.com/). Chatgpt has effectively become my friendly assistant, able to help with everything from sales forecasting, building complicated spreadsheets to creating scripts for videos. There is no doubt that OpenAi, the creators of Chatgpt have forced the rate of progress to exponentially grow by forcing the larger corporations like Microsoft, Google and Apple to accelerate their own programs. I did actually think about getting Chatgpt to write this article!
Text and tasks are just one aspect of AI that is growing at a phenomenal pace, the ability to create video content is another area that can really benefit small businesses that need to think creatively. I have been using an application called PictoryAI to generate videos including one for FEP (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WjuaziGBPg). It is possible to create good quality videos in a morning using either your own footage or stock footage that is provided by the system.
No video would be complete without good graphics, and for this I have been using a suite called Canva which again has elements of AI to help with the creation of logos and presentations. Once the gift of only the very cleverest of Adobe creators, most functions are now within the grasp of mere mortals. (canva.com). Again AI will enable you to create professional pitch decks and sales presentations in a flash.
At the moment we are really at the start of the AI journey, the next few years will bring more and more products to the market to assist people to simplify and automate tasks, this does mean that we will have to adapt. I predict that almost every aspect of small business will be impacted whether we want it or not, the recent move towards things like online only tax returns means that even accounting functions are likely to be automated in the future and AI will become your accounting assistant. There is no doubt that AI poses some challenges for current providers and there is no substitute for experience, but in my opinion it is well worth having a play and seeing what you can do with your new friend?