You knew it was coming – the AI stories would burst through.
According to a GoDaddy survey, while most small businesses recognize the potential of generative AI, many are hesitant to adopt it without support. However, some early adopters use it to simplify tasks and focus on their business. 38% have tried generative AI, with 27% for fun and 11% for their business. More than half of respondents (57%) said they were eager to learn how to use generative AI to improve their business.
The top 5 challenges small businesses face are growing the business/increasing revenue, attracting new customers, maintaining work-life balance, knowing where and how to market the business, and creating marketing content.
And the runaway tool of choice for that 11% — ChatGPT, at 70%. Number two, Bard is at 29%.
A new McKinsey report states that banks and retail are the business sectors first in line for the biggest boost from generative AI. 75% of the productivity gains from generative AI will come from just four business functions: customer operations, marketing and sales, software engineering, and R&D.
An Equinix survey published last Wednesday found that IT leaders are uncertain about their organization’s ability to support AI’s growing use and demands. Upwards of 2 in 5 IT, professionals are not very comfortable with their organization’s ability to accommodate the growing use of AI. They are concerned about the capacity of their infrastructure and team.
According to a Rackspace survey published last Thursday, four in 5 executives say that modernizing legacy apps and data stands in the way of potential AI benefits.
Then again, it could be those executives that are the problem. In a new Ernst & Young survey, 89% of the workers polled disclosed that they believed adopting emerging technologies would benefit their company. However, 59% of them said their senior leadership was slow to embrace these technologies, according to the survey. And 52% of the polled employees say that the technologies are outdated when the respondents’ companies decide to implement them.
A rapid fire of new features and launches.
- Microsoft is bringing CoPilot AI to Dynamics 365 ERP. The new services include Copilot across Dynamics 365 Finance, Project Operations, and Supply Chain Management.
- Vimeo has added OpenAI’s tech for AI script generation and a teleprompter and text-based editor to help tighten up filler words, long pauses, and awkward moments.
- OpenAI has added new versions of its models, including one with four times the context length and reduced pricing. The company is also planning an app store for AI software.
- Otter.ai is launching a new chatbot to attend online meetings to help users summarize information and recall details they may have missed. Users can talk to a chatbot to answer questions about the calls.
- Dropbox is adding two different AI services – first, a tool for summarizing and querying documents. The second is a universal search engine that accesses files in Dropbox and across the entire web. Called Dash, it is designed to move beyond strictly files and folders.
Why do we care?
Story time. SMB Businesses are intrigued by the buzz they here about generative AI, and while some tried ChatGPT (and it’s always ChatGPT), they are looking for help on how to use the tools. Banks and Retail are primed to use it, and broadly you’re looking for customer operations, marketing and sales, and R&D to implement it.
There’s a lot of nervousness – IT isn’t sure how to do it, leaders think their systems aren’t ready, and employees think leadership isn’t prepared.
This is an advisor’s dream. Identify the stakeholders, bring them together, and find solutions.. this is everything you’re looking for in customer needs.
And the options are coming fast and furious. I’m a Dropbox user, and I’ve been pondering their announcement as it compares with CoPilot for Microsoft 365. This idea of a personal AI is emerging more and more, and while I don’t have a fully formed set of advice yet, know that will be an area of impact. What happens when the personal AI meets the work one?
