The AI Tsunami

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably noticed that AI dominates the news and folks’ activities (not to mention its appearance in your social feeds).

Have you begun using it?

ChatGPT, Claude, and other generative AI tools, like Midjourney, are capturing more and more of our time…to save us time. Current estimates are that it saves professionals up to four hours per week.

How are you using it?

If you gave it a try, but then went “Meh!”, here are a few reasons to try again:

1. You will be left behind in business.
2. Your competitors are already using it.
3. It will save you time and money too.

Wonder how a competitor cranks out so much social media content? How are they always posting new articles on their website? And you’re also getting newsletters from them 2-3 times a week (when you know they only have one employee who doesn’t focus on marketing)!

The answer is they’re using AI.

“I have concerns…!”

And you should! (Everyone knows the run amok AI computer Hal 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey.)

How can you possibly trust AI?

Just like anything new, there’s some fear until you dig in and learn how it works. Practice using it like any new skill you aim to acquire.

“But it’s given me wrong answers when I’ve tried it before!”

Just like any software, or line of questioning: Garbage in, garbage out. Ask the wrong question, get the wrong answer.

What to use AI for

There are already thousands of AI apps specializing in innumerable topics. My vet uses AI to summarize their pet exam notes. Beekeepers have their own AI app for strategizing beekeeping. A doctor isn’t going to ask ChatGPT for its expertise on XYZ disease because the data’s not there in ChatGPT!

First, you need to train AI to understand you and your needs. Second, you can ask AI what it does best! Let it tell you what services it offers. And then, ask for examples.

Learn to engineer the best prompts for your business.

Getting started with AI

Start with the basics:

1. Ask it to tell you all about your business based on what it finds about it online.
2. It’s a friend: get to know one another. Have a conversation.
3. Get the “wrong” answer? Rephrase like a trial attorney on TV. Figure out why it gave you the wrong answer.

The first thing you may learn is that its information about your business is incorrect. That means other searchers are receiving the wrong info about your business. Ask it to cite sources.

There are more than 2.5 billion searches on ChatGPT daily, more than double what it was handling six months ago. Folks are using Google less for searches and going to alternate AI sources for answers.

Sample AI uses

How have I been using AI for my clients?

• Building marketing campaigns.
• Developing newsletter content
• Writing content for articles, web pages
• Writing social media posts
• Creating listicles for websites and blogs
• Researching trends
• Crafting website structure
• Strategizing marketing tactics

AI can be that office assistant you always wanted to hire but didn’t have the budget for.

Just start using it!