After being a futuristic concept for decades, a buzzword that would “one day” change the world, artificial intelligence is here and working right now, today, to drastically change everything.

While it is worth being cautious and careful and maybe a little skeptical, it’s time to start finding ways to incorporate AI into your business to make your whole operation more efficient, more streamlined and to avoid falling behind the competition.

First, it’s important to understand that AI is more than just chatbots.

ChatGPT took social media by storm last year, with people feeding prompts into software to test the boundaries of the program. This isn’t just about college students using technology to write papers or contrarians looking to see if they could trick the program into making inflammatory statements; AI is a powerful tool that can be used to streamline processes, analyze data, find insights that would take a person hours or days to identify and it uses the information you provide to continue learning and becoming smarter. AI isn’t just about chatbots; it’s about machine learning, faster processing, sharper analysis, and creating systems that can improve your business, all with a few specific data inputs.

Second, it’s important to understand the human responsibilities when it comes to working with AI.

Just like any organization, the AI your company decides to work with needs rules, structures, regulations, and restrictions in order to do the kind of work you want it to without running wild. A good governance framework will set the parameters within which the program will operate. It’s important for your team to establish this framework before implementing it, to ensure everyone understands the risks and benefits as well as the purposes for which AI is being used.

Third, data is like food or creating a product: garbage in will equal garbage out.

The data you provide to the program you’re utilizing will determine how successful this outcome will be. Double-check all of your inputs, be as clear and detailed as possible before setting your AI to work. Any mistakes, any errors, will be taken at face value by the program and will be interpreted as fact, leading to problems down the road if not caught and corrected early.

Fourth, get your whole team to buy into the change and get excited about it.

There will be fear and concerns about lost jobs. Understand that upfront before announcing any changes or the implementation of AI into your company’s procedures. Know how you’ll explain the shifts and be ready to reassure your team of the benefits of adopting AI: your team will have the ability to take on new projects, learn new skills, and be free of some of the mundane, monotonous tasks they dislike, thanks to this shift. Encourage them to try out some small projects on their own to gain a better understanding of how AI works and to find ways to incorporate it into their tasks. Offer training and shadowing for people on different teams to see how their colleagues are using AI in different ways, as this will encourage creative thinking and collaboration across teams.

Common challenges with incorporating AI into business practices.

There will be some big challenges that need to be kept front of mind when incorporating AI into your business practices. If your intent is to use AI as a recruitment or screening tool for new job candidates, it is of the utmost importance that the language used to program AI for this purpose be free of any conscious or unconscious bias. The keywords entered should be job- or role-specific; it should not include any language that might eliminate candidates from consideration because of any protected class to which they might belong. Before implementing this kind of use of AI, have several people on your team review the keywords and phrases to be utilized to be as sure as possible that your query will not have unintended bias or discriminatory properties included. You’ll need to conduct periodic check-ups and adjustments to make sure the program is still following your specific instructions, as AI has the ability to “learn” based on inputs provided by users and might make decisions on behalf of your company that cause ethical problems.

Are you looking for new employees in Hawaii?

With AI, keep in mind you don’t have to do everything all at once. Start small, with one application, to get a feel for how it works, what’s expected, what the outputs look like, etc. Once you and your team have a better understanding, and once the company has been trained on the program you’re utilizing, move forward with confidence and an appropriate amount of caution.

As you advance and continue learning and utilizing AI, you’ll want to make sure you have a team that’s well-versed and excited about artificial intelligence. If you need to add to your team, it’s time to contact Bishop & Company! We can help you find strong candidates with the kind of IT background you need to keep your company competitive and on the cutting edge of technology as it evolves and advances going forward. When you’re ready to learn more about how AI can help your company and find new candidates to lead the charge, it’s time to call Bishop & Company.