How to really use AI for businesses: A beginner's guide

There's extensive discussion about AI's risks, ethical considerations, and exciting advancements. Speakers and authors emphasize AI's potential to transform work and life, noting ChatGPT's rapid adoption compared to other technologies. However, many business leaders are uncertain about effectively utilizing AI. Research from Harvard Business School reveals that skilled workers using generative AI can achieve a 40% performance boost. To enhance business productivity and efficiency, let's explore tailored AI adoption strategies across various job roles.

The business development rock star

The key to achieving exceptional sales outcomes lies in activity, and generative AI can significantly streamline a salesperson's daily tasks, enhancing their effectiveness:

• Crafting compelling prospecting emails and responding adeptly to objections from prospects.
• Implementing a chatbot on the company website to swiftly address basic inquiries.
• Engaging with prospects on LinkedIn through personalized outreach.
• Conducting thorough research on potential client companies.
• Generating targeted blog articles tailored to specific vertical markets and optimizing them for SEO automatically.

By leveraging generative AI for these tasks, sales professionals can focus more on building relationships and closing deals, ultimately driving greater success.

The CEO

Leadership indeed plays a crucial role in driving AI adoption within a company. CEOs, as visionaries, can set a powerful example by actively incorporating AI into their daily routines. For instance:

• Utilizing AI as an assistant for drafting various communications like emails, reports, and commentary.
• Managing email overload by summarizing threads for quicker responses.
• Accelerating information retrieval within Microsoft 365 or other platforms.
• Leveraging AI for multilingual communication, such as sending videos in native languages.
• Speeding up the creation of proposals, presentations, and other documents.
• Implementing internal chatbots to address staff queries on processes and procedures.
• Engaging with AI-generated content like jokes or cartoons to boost morale and creativity.

By embracing AI tools personally, CEOs not only showcase its practical benefits but also inspire their teams to explore and integrate AI into their workflows.

The customer service star

Delivering exceptional customer service entails timely responses, accurate information, and effective communication—areas where AI can greatly assist:

• Employing chatbots to collect information from customers, enhancing response speed and accuracy.
• Enabling customer service representatives to consult an internal chatbot trained on company policies and procedures, reducing reliance on managerial intervention.
• Enhancing email communication with customers through AI-generated content for clearer, more effective messages.
• Utilizing AI to analyze call data for sentiment analysis, providing insights for training and improving customer interactions within phone systems.

The finance guru

The finance sector is ripe for AI integration, particularly in automating repetitive manual tasks:

• Streamlining manual reporting processes through AI automation.
• Automating the entry of payables into accounting systems by extracting data from invoices and posting them accurately.
• Leveraging AI to interpret complex Excel spreadsheets, generating graphs, analyses, and summaries for enhanced decision-making.
• Managing various aspects of staff expenses, including postings, policies, and reimbursements, with AI-driven efficiency.

The everyday developer

In the AI era, everyday code developers are empowered to shape automation and application development. Here's how AI becomes a valuable ally:

• Harnessing generative AI to convert prompts into code snippets, enabling low-code development with efficiency and brilliance.
• Acting as a bridge between stakeholders and developers by translating business requirements into technical specifications, fostering clearer communication and alignment.
• Supporting the creation of sophisticated applications and automations through natural language interfaces, simplifying complex development processes.

Getting started: Initiating your journey with AI

Here are some steps to translate these ideas into actionable strategies:

• Collaborate with your team to identify repetitive manual tasks in each department suitable for AI automation, noting the potential time savings for each task.
• Consult with your IT director or an outsourced CIO to prioritize ideas based on impact versus implementation effort.
• Begin implementing selected AI solutions and assess their effectiveness.
• Establish a regular process to integrate AI solutions into your operations, addressing manual tasks systematically each quarter.

For instance, we recently worked with an engineering firm that compiled a comprehensive list of manual tasks for automation. By prioritizing easy wins, we quickly implemented solutions, resulting in significant immediate benefits and paving the way for larger initiatives.

Embracing AI's potential can inspire enthusiasm within your organization, particularly among teams burdened by repetitive tasks. This article aims to empower you to reshape your business strategies and leverage AI effectively. Remember, not every implementation will be flawless, so persistence is key to achieving substantial gains in productivity and efficiency.