August Update: 6 Ways To Harness AI For Your Business
Welcome to this month's update! Here's what you'll find in this update (click a section to go directly there):
A Quick Intro to AI
For the past several years, terms like “AI,” “ChatGPT,” “Google Gemini,” “Microsoft Copilot,” and other terms have become mainstream. And what these tools are capable of strikes either fear or awe in our hearts 😃.
Although AI has been around for decades (think Microsoft Clippy, predictive text on flip phones, Apple’s Siri, etc), the recent wave of Large Language Models (LLM) AI has been making a splash in every industry.
So what does this mean for you and your business?
In this update, we look at 6 ways to harness AI and 5 tips on using it effectively.
Two Essential Disclaimers:
- We all know AI is far from perfect. Remember to ALWAYS carefully review and fact-check AI content before publishing!
- Even if the content is error-free, simply copying and pasting AI text is not always a great idea. While good prompts help, we find that content always sounds more natural with some human editing and touchpoints.
Exhibit A: I recently asked ChatGPT to do something simple as a test. It failed 😒.
6 Ways To Harness AI For Your Business
Let’s get right to it: how can you use AI to help your business?
1 - Use it to draft emails
Most of the emails you write are probably relatively short and to the point, but what about the ones requiring some thought? Maybe it’s responding to an upset customer or a vendor who missed an order.
If you need help responding, copy/paste the email thread into AI and ask it to respond.
The key here is to give the AI clear direction with prompts like “Make it clear our company policy is x without sounding upset” or “Apologize for our mistake while making it clear we will fix the issue.”
2 - Use it to create drafts of documents, processes, manuals, etc.
AI does incredibly well at taking various notes and thoughts and organizing them into a document, letters, proposals, etc.
For example, I recently had the task of creating a manual for an internal process. Here’s how I harnessed AI:
- I brainstormed the initial set of points (I wanted the main points to be unique to LifeX Marketing and not generated by AI)
- I entered all the points into ChatGPT
- I told ChatGPT to create a draft of the process and summarize my bullet points into main categories
The result?
It did surprisingly well on the first draft, and it correctly clustered my thoughts around several key points! And even though it took several revisions and editing, it saved my mental energy of needing to organize my initial brainstorm.
3 - Use it to create social media posts
If you use social media for your business (think Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc), then AI is incredibly helpful. The key is to give clear directions on your target, your products, and other prompts (more on this later).
Here are 2 examples:
General prompt: “Create a social media post on new house windows”
Specific prompt: “Create a social media post on new house windows. Make it 75-100 words. Gear it towards middle-class Americans who live in a suburban setting. Focus on energy efficiency. Use bullet points”
Remember to edit the content to bring in some human touchpoints - don't just copy and paste!
4 - Ask it to summarize data
Similar to creating drafts, AI does well at giving data summaries.
Do you need to compile feedback from several project managers? Ask them to email you their summaries, copy/paste them into AI, and ask for an overall summary.
Or, if you have industry reports or documents to review, have AI analyze them and provide summaries.
5 - Use it to proofread and edit content
If spelling and grammar are not your strong suits, and even if they are 😉, AI does a great job checking for mistakes and giving suggestions.
One of the powerful things it does is edit content to fit a certain tone. If you feel the text is too abrupt, ask the AI to make it friendlier, or vice versa.
6 - Have it brainstorm for you
Need to give a talk to your team or write an article for the local chamber of commerce? Or maybe you don’t know how to tell your children they aren’t getting a pony for Christmas. Use AI to brainstorm for you!
Your mileage will vary on this one depending on your initial request (and how much your children love horses), so ask for several revisions with different prompts.
5 Tips To Use AI Effectively
There are all kinds of tips and tricks to using AI, but here are the ones our team has found the most helpful at LifeX Marketing.
1 - Be specific in prompts
As mentioned in some of the examples before, AI is only as powerful as the prompts and direction you give it. If you ask for general information, then your content will sound as delightful as every other chatbot out there (spoiler alert, it is not delightful).
Here are examples of basic prompts to use:
- Specify word count
- Ask it to be more friendly, professional, personable, helpful, kind, etc.
- Ask it to emphasize certain talking points more
- Ask it to use more bullet points, ask more questions, or cut back on exclamation points
- Ask it to be more positive or negative
- Ask it to tell a joke (Use this one at your own risk. Here was my result: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything! 🤦♂️)
2 - Keep threads
If you use a tool like ChatGPT or an AI service that allows you to keep threads, then take advantage of it. When you have the AI trained to a certain voice tone in a thread, bookmark the thread and use it later with different data.
3 - Ask it to figure something out step by step
This is one I have just started using, but if I want to learn more about something, I’ll ask AI to analyze its response and the data step by step. And this is also how it caught its mistake about the number of “r’s” in the word “strawberry” from before.
4 - Ask it to slow down
We think machines create information in a split second, and they can. The problem is the initial quick response is often more generic and generalized. If you want it to process your request more, treat it like you do your inner child: tell it to slow down and take its time.
5 - Have it improve your prompts
As odd as it sounds, this works. If you want AI to give a better response, but you don’t know how to frame the question, then ask the AI to help you ask a better question. I know - the circular reasoning here can make heads explode 🤯!
Meet Phil - Lead Account Manager
Phil brings an invaluable astute business acumen to LifeX Marketing. It's not rare that he offers a valuable insight or says in a sentence what the rest of us have been trying to articulate for a long time.
Clients feel this too. Phil takes a look at your business and help you brainstorm, identify problem spots, and find solutions so you have a healthy company.
Outside of work, Phil loves being in the outdoors, especially if it involves camping, gardening or hiking with his family. Secretly, he enjoys finding value in things others think are worthless like dumpster diving and home renovations.
Monthly Meme
You’ve probably heard about the Microsoft and CrowdStrike IT issues in late July. Tech is hard, even on buses!
How Can We Pray For You Or Rejoice With You?
Thank you to those who provide prayer requests - our team appreciates the opportunity to bring your requests to God in prayer in our Monday morning meetings and throughout the week.
It’s part of our mission at LifeX Marketing: Multiplying wholeness in the lives of our team, clients, and communities by living like Jesus.
If you have a way we can pray with your team or rejoice with you, please leave it here.
Thoughts or Comments?
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