Read Time: 4 minutes

July 01, 2023

For a majority of people, AI tools, like ChatGPT, are more of a toy than a tool. Something to ask silly questions and answer simple prompts like, “Act like a trainer/nutritionist/copywriter…” or “Write a paper on {insert topic}”

Not something that you can practically start using to speed up your workflow.

But, today I’m going to explain just that: how to start using AI practically.

AI is rapidly improving by the week and companies everywhere are scrambling to get a grasp on this new tech. Why should you take the time to learn how to use it?

As an employee, you want your company coming to you for its AI needs.

As a business owner, you don’t want to stay one of the ones stuck scrambling.

The outcomes you can expect:

• Improved workflow

• Lower production costs

• Staying at the forefront of tech

• Advancement/promotion within your company

Unfortunately... far too many people will never experience any of these benefits because they are focusing on all the wrong things.

You aren’t taking a focused approach to learning AI.

In addition to this, you are:

• Relying on AI to produce an end-to-end solution

• Letting your fear of falling behind motivate your learning

• Taking advice produced by AI at face value without checking it first

• Trying out new “tools” each week that have nothing to do with your job/business

I’m going to help you avoid all these common pitfalls by breaking down the 3 most important things you need to focus on.

Let’s jump right on in:

1. Understand what things get you promoted.

If you don’t understand what actions help lead to promotion, then you won’t ever know what to focus your AI learning on.

My friend Aakash Gupta breaks this down really well in this tweet thread. It’s not just the exciting projects, big impacts, and big teams that get you promoted, it’s the buildup of little actions.

And, it’s in those little actions that you can figure out where to focus your AI education.

3 Questions to ask yourself:

• How can I use AI to make my team shine?

• What current processes does my company have that I could improve with AI?

• How am I helping my team up level with my use of AI?

First, identify what your team/organization needs to succeed. Then, off of that list of needs, identify areas where AI could make a difference.

2. Change how you see the potential of AI.

A majority of avid AI users see AI as an end-to-end solution.

I remember when ChatGPT first caught wide popularity, people were saying that learning and education were dead.

A slight exaggeration to say the least… but, on top of that, it’s also a huge misunderstanding of how AI works best.

AI applications are: (1) still very early in what they are capable of, and (2) still produce inaccurate results on their own.

Instead of thinking of AI as a “plug-and-chug” solution, think of it as a “second brain”:

• It can help coders produce full-fledged code and save time, not produce 100% flawless, ready-to-go code.

• It can help highlight potential customer pain points, not craft an entire product around those pain points.

• It can help brainstorm ways to solve project issues, not implement end-to-end solutions for those problems.

3. Use a mixture of different forms of AI.

The last piece of the puzzle is not sticking to only one form of AI. Why?

Because, as I said before, AI is constantly evolving and what we know as possible is changing by the day.

5 broad areas AI (currently) thrives:

• Writing essays, speeches, cover letters, music, employee evaluations, and any other standard form of writing.

• Analyzing vast amounts of data and highlighting trends, interpretations, and statistical analysis.

• Scheduling and planning tasks, adjusting daily workload, and simple time management.

• Acting as a second specialized option for business/career decisions, supporting customers, and managing others.

• Acting as a coding assistant by being able to generate specific lines of code.

There are thousands of tweets, YouTube videos, and LinkedIn posts suggesting specific AI tools, prompts, and Chrome extensions you should be using depending on what industry and field you’re in.

But, as I said before if a tool doesn’t lead to business growth or promotion it’s not a tool, it’s a toy.

Conclusion

AI isn’t a fad, nor is it going anywhere any time soon. So, it makes sense to learn how to use it practically. That start by remembering the difference between a “tool” and a “toy”.

A tool: “Something that adds value to your daily workflow and makes your essential tasks easier or higher quality.”

A toy: “Has great functionality, but does not add any value towards improving your business/stepping closer to a promotion.”

Keep these two definitions in mind as you are narrowing your focus and begin using different AI tools. And please, be relentless with dropping AI tools that aren’t contributing to your success.

Good luck with your learning!

That’s it for this week.

See you next week.