industry. But it wasn’t that long ago that it didn’t even exist. We had cars, we had riders, and we had drivers; but to work, ride-sharing needed smartphones. When they arrived, so did an enormous variety of conveniences and new experiences — some that became entire industries — that we never could have imagined.
Artificial intelligence is a similar kind of catalyst; it’s the next wave of truly transformative technology with potential we cannot yet fully envision or appreciate. It is the defining technology of our time, changing the way we live and work. In my entire career in tech, I’veand optimistic than I am now. I have a colleague at Microsoft who talks about AI like this: You’ve got to use the “new thing” to do old things better. Then, you use the new thing to … do new things.
Right now every company, no matter the size or industry, should be thinking about AI. AI is moving from its auto-pilot phase, which was all about narrow, purpose-built tools that use machine learning models to make predictions, recommendations, and automate, to its copilot phase, where there’s tremendous opportunity to revolutionize howgets done.
But where should they start? Nearly every day, I talk with business leaders who ask important questions about AI’s potential. No matter where you are in your AI journey, it’s incumbent upon every leader to embrace this unique time and take advantage of this powerful technology. If you feel unsure how to start, or how to move forward, you’re not alone. Like any business-planning exercise, think about your AI strategy in phases.
Try applying it to whatever task is in front of you and see what it’s good at and what it’s not. Use it to generate interview questions, write a memo, research and summarize a topic you want to learn more about, or get thought starters for a document. I used Bing and ChatGPT to help me get ideas for a speech.