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Using AI to save your time by 50 per cent in your business operations

Prompt: Create an image that blends the innovative use of AI in business with a vibrant, Gen Z-inspired aesthetic. Picture a dynamic, colourful workspace filled with young professionals engaged in creative brainstorming, surrounded by holographic displays of AI interfaces, emoji-filled chat bubbles, and playful data visualisations. Add elements like quirky desk decorations, trendy tech gadgets, and a backdrop of digital art, all under a neon glow. The scene should buzz with energy and a sense of fun, reflecting a workspace where work and play merge seamlessly, embodying the spirit of Gen Z’s approach to productivity and innovation.

I remember this time last year, I was fascinated with the new world of AI. Like many of us, I learned how to use ChatGPT, and I was already super excited with the answer it gave me by what was then ChatGPT 3.5. Fast forward a year later, and we’ve seen so many AI tools in the market and so many new innovations. But how do we know which AI tools to use and which will be useful for our business?

The right questions to ask as a leader: What are the immediate AI use cases to unlock creativity and free up resources? How can I use AI to focus on my genius zone and delegate dreadful parts of my tasks? How can I use AI to be a better leader?

As a Partner and CMO of Remote Skills Academy, I run this non-profit organisation that focuses on empowering individuals with digital skills to allow them to work remotely and live life on their own terms. I’m not only overseeing marketing but also managing the organisation’s day-to-day operations, including building the team. We’re a lean team of five people, and half of them are not full-time. We will need all the extra help to do our work in an effective and efficient way.

Also Read: The rise of generative AI in digital mental health solution

Prompting principles

Understanding how to prompt is crucial in using generative AI. The quality of your output is as good as the quality of your input. Some of the things I make sure are there while prompting with ChatGPT or other generative AI tools:

  • Context: Give ChatGPT context by providing details about yourself or your business. This can be your business goals, target audience, etc., condensed into paragraphs.
  • Roleplay: You can ask ChatGPT to act as a subject expert to give you more precise results
  • Iteration: Working with ChatGPT is all about iteration. If ChatGPT give answers you’re not satisfied with, ask it to:
    • Add more explanations
    • Provide feedback on what you like
    • Tell it what you didn’t like about the results
    • And what do you want to see instead
  • Training: LLMs (Large Language Models) such as ChatGPT are powerful because they can provide responses without needing specific examples (zero-shot prompt), but you can also give examples of similar content that you love so they can use the reference (one-shot prompt), or you can provide multiple examples (multiple shots prompt). This is the game-changing part.

Use cases

After understanding the prompting principles, we’re already halfway there to reach our goal. I’ll show you the ways I use AI tools in my daily operations.

Ask AI to write like me

In my job, I write a lot, especially to build thought leadership and attract inbound leads through content creation on LinkedIn. To save time, I train ChatGPT to understand my writing style. I gave some examples of my writing and asked them to remember my writing in Lia Sadia’s style. Then I will ask it to write a post for me. Usually, it will be a great foundation that I can edit, work on, and add stories and a human touch to it.

Content editing and repurposing

In the world of digital marketing, content is king, but it’s not just about creating new content—it’s about making the most of what you already have. That’s where content repurposing comes in, and AI plays an important role in speeding up this process.

By leveraging AI tools, I’ve been able to take our existing content and transform it into various formats suitable for different platforms and audiences. For instance, an audio/video interview with a media can be turned into a detailed blog post, a series of social media posts, or even a short TikTok video. You can even ask AI to suggest hooks you can use to capture your audience’s attention in five seconds.

Some of the tools I use for this are Capsule and Otter.

Create stock photos for social media

Finding the right visuals for social media can be a daunting task, especially when you’re looking for something very specific, like stock photos with Indonesian faces and certain hand gestures. This is where AI tools like Midjourney help.

Also Read: How AI and blockchain collaborate for a transparent Web3 future

By inputting detailed descriptions, I can generate custom stock photos that meet our exact needs, all within a minute. This capability not only saves time but also enhances the authenticity and relatability of our social media content, making it resonate more with our target audience.

Chat with your emails and your documents

With Bard, you can now connect it to your Gmail and Google Drive. You can chat and ask questions about your email and documents, summarise email threads, and draft responses. This not only streamlines our workflow but also ensures that we can focus more on strategic tasks rather than getting bogged down by administrative duties.

Create presentation visuals in minutes

Creating compelling visuals for presentations is crucial for engaging our audience, whether it’s for internal team meetings or external stakeholder engagements. With AI-powered presentation tools, like Gamma.app, we can generate stunning presentations in a matter of minutes, tailored to the theme and content of our presentation. These tools understand the context and suggest designs that enhance our message, making our presentations more impactful and memorable.

Give insights from your data

Data is at the heart of informed decision-making, but analysing vast amounts of data is not easy, especially if we’re not familiar with the process. AI tools excel in sifting through data to provide actionable insights, whether it’s identifying trends in our marketing campaigns or uncovering efficiency gaps in our operations. We can make data-driven decisions quickly, ensuring that our strategies are aligned with our goals and the market’s demands.

Be careful not to give too much context on your data when you’re asking for insights because most of the existing AI tools are designed for personal use. Research more to get a corporate package of the tools, which will give you a feature to protect your data.

Help automate your process

Efficiency is key in running a lean team, and process automation is a game-changer. AI tools can automate repetitive tasks, in our case, from events management to the student enrolment process. We use the Zapier plugin at ChatGPT, which can give ideas on how to set up the automation and then actually create automation for us.

Fast learning with YouTube summary

The wealth of knowledge available on YouTube is incredible, but sitting through long videos to find relevant information can be time-consuming. AI tools have revolutionised the way we learn by providing concise summaries of lengthy YouTube videos.

I used Glasp YouTube Summary to capture the transcription and asked ChatGPT to provide the summaries. I can also immediately share this information with our team, who can quickly grasp the key points of a video, which is particularly useful for staying up-to-date with the latest trends and skills in digital marketing and remote work. This accelerated learning process ensures that we remain agile and informed, ready to adapt to new challenges and opportunities.

Also Read: Rewriting the creation process of ad creatives using generative AI

Strategic business partner

Beyond just a tool for operational tasks, AI has become a strategic business partner. I will have self-reflection conversations with ChatGPT, solving problems and challenges within the organisation and giving me ideas to better recognise the needs of my team and fulfil them. AI helps me to dream and broaden my vision.

What are we going to do with our free time?

These AI automation have freed up our team’s time, allowing us to focus on creative and strategic tasks that require a human touch. By integrating AI into our processes, we’ve not only increased our productivity but also improved our job satisfaction, as we’re able to dedicate more time to more impactful work. We also have time to not only do deep work but also deep learning. Deciding a topic that we wanted to dive into, and become the best at it to serve the organisation and community.

I can feel it has already enhanced the quality of life at work and made our time more fulfilling. Now, it’s your turn. How have you been using AI tools in your business operations?

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