What you need to know about AI and how it can boost your team’s work now

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the business landscape. You may have heard about tools like Chat GPT, Microsoft/GitHub Copilot, Google Bard, and Midjourney, wondering how (and if) you should be prepared to adopt them in your organization or industry.

In our experience, many companies already use some form of analytics but end up collecting too much data and need help figuring out what to do with it. This new crop of AI tooling can make it much easier to interpret large volumes of data—and put it to work for you.

We’re still learning a lot about AI and its potential for design and technology leaders. Still, we’ve seen some immediate applications that can accelerate your effectiveness in several aspects of your business. Let’s dive in.

Product development

Using AI can improve product development by optimizing customer support, accelerating feature creation, and organizing team documentation for improved efficiency and decision-making. With AI, you can:

• Streamline product development through better management of roadmaps, feature prioritization, and alignment with business goals through transcription and analysis. AI can analyze past data to predict future outcomes and identify potential risks.
• Improve customer support by effectively triaging feedback while facilitating user research through transcription, simplification, and analysis of research notes. 
• Accelerate the creation of early-stage concepts and content, generating filler material for wireframes, mockups, and prototypes.
• Assist in maintaining organized team documentation for support, design systems, and product requirements.

Leadership and team planning

Although AI’s capabilities might seem to be the stuff of science fiction, they are rapidly becoming business as usual. In particular, AI’s impact on leadership and team planning is profound, offering various benefits that can save companies substantial time and money.

• Automate strategically using AI to manage routine tasks, increasing productivity and reducing errors. However, AI tools like ChatGPT can lack context, requiring human expertise for practical use. As AI accessibility grows, it’s vital to discern which tasks to automate and balance this with human input to achieve sustainable success.
• Manage distributed teams with tools powered by AI to facilitate communication, track productivity, and monitor employee well-being. By enabling practical remote work, companies can save on office expenses and attract talent from a broader geographic pool.
• Streamline decision-making by processing vast amounts of data and providing insights that human analysis could miss. Predictive analytics, for instance, can anticipate market trends, customer behaviors, and operational issues, allowing businesses to address potential challenges proactively. By minimizing guesswork, AI can save countless hours and reduce the risk of costly mistakes.

Internal operations

By leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs), businesses can simplify data access, streamline hiring, and enhance performance reviews by providing comprehensive analysis, promoting efficiency, and supporting data-driven decision-making. AI can:

• Access historical information about your business scattered across various systems and tools, ensuring that vital data is readily available in real time.
• Assist in hiring by efficiently screening and managing communication with potential candidates and supporting data-driven decision-making.
• Enhance performance reviews by mitigating recency bias and comprehensively analyzing employee strengths and growth areas.

Sales and marketing

Businesses can use generative AI to streamline content generation, brainstorming, and bespoke image creation, supporting a unique brand presence across platforms for more impactful marketing and sales efforts. With AI, you can:

• Brainstorm ideas for engaging social media content and direct outreach messaging. 
• Create bespoke stock photography and illustrations, ensuring a unique brand presence across various platforms, including social media, advertisements, and marketing pages.
• Generate first drafts for proposals, project estimates, and blog posts.

A few things to be mindful of

This new wave of AI tooling is exhilarating, but it’s essential to be mindful of a few things:

• Beware of the hype – While these new tools are exciting and powerful, they can’t do everything. Understand what they are good at and where they have weaknesses.
• Beware of people who claim to know what will happen – We are in uncharted territory. Anyone who claims to know what will happen over the next few years is only guessing. We will all be learning together.
• Keep privacy and data security in mind – Many AI tools require uploading information to their servers. Be intentional about the data you are sharing with these companies.
• Monitor employee sentiment – Employees are likely to feel excited and nervous about this new wave of AI. Be mindful of how these tools are discussed and rolled out within your company.

Utilize AI in ways that work for your team

Tools like Chat GPT, Copilot, and Midjourney can bring the power of AI to various facets of your organization. Even though we’re still learning about AI’s full capabilities and potential, business leaders can utilize it today to accelerate effectiveness and drive efficiency.