As the use of AI continues to grow in the business world, it may be important for you to choose which AI platform might be best suited for your business. Although AI is not necessary, it can be a helpful tool when it comes to ensuring efficiency and problem solving. Even if you are not super keen on the idea of integrating AI into your business operations, chances are your employees have already begun to use it to assist them with their daily activities, which is why it might be important for you to establish some guidelines regarding the use of AI in company operations. With the quick explosion of new players in this area, there are many different AI platforms out there to choose from now, some of which may be better suited for you or more trustworthy than others.
Firstly, you should ensure that your employees are not using free AI tools to assist with any type of professional products that may contain private or sensitive information. As with most all solutions that are offered for ‘free’, in actuality, you and your data are the real product that company is using or offering. The same rule applies here — free AI platforms often have it written into their user terms and conditions that they are allowed to use any information put into their program for additional ‘learning’ to benefit their artificial intelligence. If you want to keep your private information private, you should prohibit the use of free AI programs by your employees. That way, your sensitive information does not fall into the wrong hands.
Before choosing which AI platform is best for you, you should start by determining what role you want AI to play in your company. Do you want AI to play a large role in business operations, or would you prefer that it stay on a smaller scale? What goals do you have for your company that AI might be able to assist in achieving? How much money would you like to spend on AI and how much would you like to save for other business-related endeavors? Do you want to offer AI as a tool for employees, customers, or both? There are many things to consider before beginning your AI journey.
Next, it is important to understand what an AI platform is. An AI platform facilitates the creation, training, deployment, and management of AI applications. Depending on your budget, you can decide between buying a pre-configured AI platform or building a custom in-house AI. It would probably be best to hire a trusted professional to build and train a custom AI platform for your company. This individual will be able to build an AI platform that makes the most sense for your company and optimize it to reach its highest potential.
Additionally, it is important to understand the pros and cons of using AI. AI platforms have some major pros when it comes to the workplace- AI could be used to perform repetitive, boring tasks like data entry, internet scraping, or scheduling, freeing up time and energy for employees to use elsewhere. It also can aid with troubleshooting and problem solving faster than other tools like Google or instruction manuals. If you want your AI to be available to your customers, you could even have it assist with customer service. Or, if you need informed advice, you can provide some information and ask your AI platform questions which it can answer using information gathered from reputable sources. But, AI also comes with some cons. For example, answers generated by AI are not always correct. The old computer adage ‘garbage in, garbage out’ certainly applies to AI responses. Also, it may take specialized training for your employees to understand how to use it in an efficient and effective way. Additionally, AI is not yet environmentally friendly, since it takes lots of energy and water to run and cool the servers that host these programs.
If you do choose to incorporate AI into your business, there are several things you should look out for. Ease-of-use is an important factor in an AI program, since you wouldn’t want your employees to struggle with something that is supposed to be making their job easier. A good AI tool will be intuitive and user-friendly and should not require complex and extensive training to use. It is important to provide your employees with a good experience with AI, otherwise it will be difficult to convince people to adopt it into their workday. It is also important to consider costs. You will not only have an upfront cost, but also the costs of maintaining, updating, and supporting your AI. Some AI tools may require subscription fees, customization fees, or other fees beyond the initial price.
You should also make sure to research the reputation of the vendor of the AI. Customer reviews can be very telling and offer a reliable resource when determining the trustworthiness of certain AI platforms. Since the use of AI has exploded in the last few years, many vendors have created lackluster AI programs and marketed them with flashy promises. These AI programs would not be worth your time, and you should make an attempt to weed them out when choosing your platform. Don’t be afraid to search or ask for proof of a tools effectiveness before committing to it. And, remember to verify that the vendor has practices and policies in place to protect your data. A good AI tool will be able to integrate seamlessly with your existing business operations. Significantly altering your existing systems to accommodate a new AI tool may cause more harm than good. All of this is to say that an AI tool should be helping you, not hurting you.
If you have questions about integrating AI into your business operations, don’t hesitate to reach out to a trusted IT company like Blue Oak.
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