How A Small Business Can Effectively Use AI in 2023
Five applications that provide practical usefulness and avoid the hype of artificial intelligence.
A central question for most small businesses in 2023 is how to use artificial intelligence meaningfully and effectively. The answer lies not in complicated financial or production calculations but instead in doing routine tasks faster. This article outlines five practical AI applications for small businesses.
AI in a Nutshell
Artificial intelligence (AI) is basically all about machines trying to act like humans. They can do cool stuff like recognizing speech and faces, making decisions, and translating languages. It starts with simple AI called neural networks, and then things get more complex with deep learning, machine learning, and overarching AI.
Neural Networks
Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are like the brain of the machine. They use algorithms to do their thing. Basically, you’ve got inputs, weights, a bias or threshold, and an output. It’s like how our brain works, but with numbers and patterns.
Deep Learning
“Deep” learning means the neural network has a bunch of layers. If there are more than three layers (including inputs and outputs), it’s called deep learning. The neural network goes deep.
Machine Learning
Deep learning is just a part of machine learning. They’re similar but with some differences. Deep learning is great because it can do a lot of the work by itself, like finding important features in the data. It’s like the machine doesn’t need us as much. Plus, it can handle huge amounts of data.
Classic machine learning, on the other hand, needs more human help. Experts have to figure out how to organize the features in the data to understand what’s going on. It works better with structured data. Most of the data that organizations have is messy and unstructured.
Artificial Intelligence
AI can be classified into three main types: Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), and Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI). ANI is like the “weak” AI. It’s good at doing specific tasks, like those phone assistants such as Siri.
AGI and ASI are the “strong” AI. They can do more human-like things, like understanding emotions and tones. It’s like they’re trying to act just like us. The trouble is, commercially available AI in 2023, including Chat GPT, cannot do AGI and ASI.
Five Ways My Businesses Use AI
Most of our AI uses are related to narrative or qualitative activities. Yes, we do a lot of quantitative analysis using measured data to decimal places. Still, so far, we are not comfortable with the black-box analysis coming from the AI tools available to us in 2022 and early 2023.
1. Quick and Confirmatory Research
Do not give up on Wikipedia, Google searches, great websites like SEBoK or KSC Reliability, or even the Merriman-Webster dictionary. In mid-2023, we still rely on these sources and primary references. We use ChatGPT as a secondary source but are slowly creeping into using it as the first place we obtain information. There is no doubt that ChatGPT is extremely fast and reasonably accurate when you learn how to prompt it effectively.
ChatGPT is a natural language processing (NLP) system that uses machine learning algorithms to generate human-like responses to text-based input. ChatGPT is a form of weak AI.
2. Unique Pictures
Unsplash, Pexels, and Canva can be redundant (and too canned) if you need unique visuals for reports or presentations. For small businesses that often do not have graphic artists in-house, Midjourney fills the gap.
Midjourney is officially a generative artificial intelligence program that uses machine learning algorithms to generate images from natural language descriptions. It is a form of weak AI.
3. Document Summaries
Our small businesses review many documents and collaborate with other consultants to produce value for our clients. Wordtune Read simplifies complex documents, articles, and blogs into bite-sized summaries to help focus on the most critical information. Wordtune Read is a good supplement to experience and some of the other primary editing and grammar tools we use. We use it sporadically when collaborating with co-authors (or consultants) or needing reinforcement in a debate.
For shorter documents on the order of 1000 words, Wordtune Read will provide three to five summary points. The tool will provide 3 to 5 summary points per page for longer documents, reports, and papers. Because the tool pulls the actual key points for the text on the page (and highlights them), it is always interesting to see what the application indicates what the key sentences and words are.
Wordtune Read uses natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to analyze and understand the content of a given text and then generates a summary that captures the most vital information. It is a weak form of AI.
4. Document Balance
Google’s Natural Language API allows users to apply natural language understanding (NLU). The tool includes entity analysis, sentiment analysis, syntax analysis, and content classification.
I personally like using this tool using the entities and categories features. Entities classify keywords in items like people, organizations, numbers, locations, and consumer products, making it easy to get an overall count and balance indication. Categories give an overall assessment of how the trained program classified the text among hundreds of possibilities (this article has a 67% chance of being about Business & Industrial/Business Operations).
I am good at the old-school word searches at this point in my career. A Natural Language API occasionally provides a few surprises and is a good reinforcement tool when our team needs one in an editing debate.
Natural Language API is a powerful tool that uses machine learning algorithms to analyze and understand human language. While it may not be as advanced as some other forms of AI, it is still a form of AI and is capable of performing complex tasks.
5. Assistive Devices
We do a lot of group facilitation. We know that between 8 and 25 percent of every business audience has some form of trouble either hearing or seeing.
For 2023, Google’s Live Transcribe is the best speech-recognition app in the market. Overall accuracy, accuracy at 40 feet from the speaker, and the ability to not be impacted by moderate room noise are simply great. Live Transcribe also works in 60 languages. Its screen-ready text size, which requires no user modification in live sessions, and its accuracy make it a slick tool for supporting any business presentation.
Applying AI in 2023
A central question for most small businesses in 2023 is how to use artificial intelligence meaningfully and effectively. The answer lies not in complicated financial or production calculations but instead in doing routine tasks faster. This article outlines five practical AI applications for small businesses.
JD Solomon Inc provides solutions for facilitation, asset management, and program development at the nexus of facilities, infrastructure, and the environment. Founded by JD Solomon, Communicating with FINESSE is the community of technical professionals dedicated to being highly effective communicators and facilitators. Learn more about our publications, webinars, and workshops. Join the community for free.
