Artificial intelligence is one of the hottest topics in the business world today. We are learning new ways to use programs such as ChatGPT to save us time and effort so that we can focus on the more valuable tasks at work. With it comes a lot of fear and misunderstanding.
My book, Alexa is Stealing Your Job, was released in November 2019, and while it has a scary title, the book is designed to show you all the advantages AI has for us in the workplace.
Yet people are afraid. Many are convinced that a robot will replace their role.
You’re not going to be replaced by a robot anytime soon. AI can help you with the mundane tasks you dread, such as sending follow-up emails, scheduling reminders, organizing data, or even consolidating large documents for easier understanding. I use Grammarly to help me edit everything I write, and I use Alexa to track reminders and lists easily.
You can use AI-powered software (such as Calendar.ai or Reclaim.ai) to help you schedule meetings more efficiently by analyzing calendars, suggesting optimal meeting times and locations, and sending reminders to attendees.
AI-based email management tools (such as Missive or Flowrite) can help you sort through and prioritize emails, categorize them, and even draft responses automatically. Imagine the time you would save by having emails ready to go (you just need to hit send). It differs from auto-predict, where our email systems think they know the next word; it reads and understands the email and drafts a response for you.
Virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa can help manage tasks and appointments through voice commands and natural language processing.
There are document management systems to help you manage and organize documents, search for specific content, and even automate routine tasks like filing and archiving. You can create personalized dashboards to keep track of tasks, meetings, and deadlines in real-time, which allow you to stay on top of your responsibilities. You can even give AI a document and have it create a PowerPoint presentation so your executive can deliver the information, along with a summary for all the participants.
Think of the value of speech recognition software such as Otter.ai or Vowel.com, which captures everything said in a meeting to help you create actions or even minutes. ChatGPT could take that file, create minutes or notes, and summarize what happened during the meeting. Or translation software allowing you to communicate with your colleagues halfway around the world in real-time without any language barriers.
I often give my blog to ChatGPT and ask it to create a one-minute video reel (for TikTok or Instagram) from the article, along with appropriate hashtags.
As a matter of fact (I was pretty excited), last week, I was asking what hashtags to use for my Administrative Professionals Day video I created, and the third hashtag on the list was #AdminsRock (and I never used those words in my video!).
You can use ChatGPT or Roam Around to manage your executive’s travel arrangements, such as booking flights, hotels, and rental cars. ChatGPT can also provide information about travel restrictions, weather conditions, and other factors affecting travel plans.
Most people think of AI as being able to do complex tasks, and that is true. But AI is also helpful with mundane, repetitive tasks like sending follow-up emails or organizing data. It is a massive time saver so that we can do the tasks that require more of our strategic thinking (which it cannot do).
AI is also useful for managing customer service tasks like responding to emails or monitoring social media. AI can monitor customer feedback and provide insights that would otherwise take a lot of time to uncover.
Project management is another area that AI can be used to save you a ton of time. It can help automate project planning, scheduling, and tracking, allowing you to make sure you’re meeting deadlines and staying on top of tasks.
It’s also super easy to use. The “challenge” is you have to get good at asking the right questions (and people generally aren’t good at that). And you can adjust the question until you get it right!
You don’t need to be a data scientist or programmer to use AI. Companies are now making AI tools that are accessible to anyone, so you don’t need to be a tech wizard to use them.
So don’t be afraid of AI at work. It’s becoming more user-friendly daily, and anyone with a basic understanding of technology can use it.
I didn’t use AI to write this article and never will. I will always create my own content (to me, although it could be more efficient to use AI to write my weekly articles, it is inauthentic to my brand). However, I use it for idea generation, examples, and marketing elements to help get my message out there.
My challenge to you: go online to a free AI program, Chat.OpenAI.com is ChatGPT, and play with it. Ask it some silly questions. Ask it who you are. Ask it what your company is known for. Ask how AI can help save you time and get used to playing with it.
Initially, it is faster to do things yourself (as all new things are). In the future, your executives will come to you looking to learn this new program, so be sure you know how to do it! It would be worse if they figured it out before you do, so don’t let that happen.
And have fun with it! It isn’t scary, it can be a lot of fun, but ultimately it will save you time.
