If the words AI haven't infiltrated your devices, dinner party discussions, or your work initiatives for 2024 then you've probably been living under a rock. It's the abbreviation on everyone's lips rightfully so, yet so many of us don't know what it means or where to start or how to even approach it—especially within our workdays.
So many of us have been living and doing all right without AI taking over our workload—so is it as necessary and dire as the media and software companies make it out to be?
The answer is technically no. You could live without it—you'd survive. You could manually continue to generate every product description, PowerPoint, or email to customers all on your own--or even spend that 30 extra minutes retrieving that file "you know exists" but can't remember where you saved it. You could redo the project done 6 months ago by the marketing team. However, the reality is that your peers, colleagues, and competitors most likely are not.
What has everyone excited, especially with Generative AI like ChatGPT exploding the marketplace, is that they saw a glimpse of their workday not being filled with the unnecessary, non-valuable work that we all find consuming our work hours. I mean we live in a day of Google where we can find the answer to anything in a matter of seconds—yet when it comes to the workplace we are still manually trying to retrieve information.
AI presents an opportunity for employees who are paid literally for their time and effort, where every minute counts, to spend it on higher-level productive work versus playing a game of "where is the file" to get their job done.
Imagine if you could get double the amount of work done in one day and still feel confident logging off at the end of the day. Imagine as a company how much more you could do if the sludge of the wasted time was simply drained away.
See that's where I see AI—especially generative AI being a tool where we can transform how we work. We can create happier, less frustrated employees and more efficient, capable new hires because they have the information they need to do their jobs effectively.
So, explore the available tools and see what's out there. My advice is to focus on what you truly need to start with. The biggest mistake I see companies and people make is assuming there is going to be one tool that can do it all. For example, at Lucy, we specialize in AI-powered knowledge management. If you're looking for a tool to generate PowerPoints or blog posts, we're not the right fit (though we can fuel that tool with the right knowledge!). However, if you need a tool to find the right information you need to do your job better and faster, we’re perfect for you.
Stay open-minded, avoid decision paralysis, and stick to solving the original problem you identified in your workday. There is likely a tool out there for you, or one is being developed as we speak.