What is Artificial Intelligence?
The term Artificial Intelligence is used to broadly refer to the simulation of human intelligence by machines, computer systems in particular. An essential aspect of AI, and one that makes it incredibly useful to businesses and members of academia, is in its core function of receiving large amounts of data, analysing the data for correlations and patterns, and then making predictions about future outcomes.
This is how tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E are able to generate realistic text and image responses to simple inputs from human beings. The systems are essentially fed huge volumes of data which inform them on how to respond creatively to human commands. This is termed Machine Learning in the presently expanding field of computer science and artificial intelligence.
The applications of AI range from simply providing a challenging opponent in a chess game to enabling the emergence of a super-intelligence which is able to make calculations and predictions far superior to anything a human is capable of. While these are interesting and intriguing in their own right, it is the more rudimentary applications of AI relating to daily task automation that holds the greatest interest to members in the business community today.
In the healthcare industry, for instance, AI can be used to diagnose patient’s conditions with an incredibly high degree of accuracy. It does this by receiving chunks of data pertaining to the patient’s medical history which are fed to it by attending doctors. Chatbots are another important AI based tool that is changing the way businesses respond to potential customers and clients. Here, the AI Chatbots are able to instantaneously respond to queries from customers in human-like ways, enabling seamless responses and the ability to attend to a virtually limitless number of customers at once.
AI technology is also being considered for the potential it could offer to consultancy organisations. AI tools which improve research analytics, support operational tasks and allow consultancy firms to assist clients in adopting AI powered tools which improve their business practices are some of the ways that AI could potentially change the consultancy landscape in the years to come. We’ll consider some of these potentials in this article and sift through the evolving role that AI will be playing in the business sector in the years to come.
The current wave of AI technologies and tools
27Group said with the recent growing trend of Artificial Intelligence tools such as ChatGPT and DALL-E becoming more prominent, companies have been putting out AI tools of all shapes and forms to support various tasks across industries. Many of these tools essentially employ the functions of machine learning mentioned above, in which they receive inputs and are able to generate useful content or support daily operational task in useful and novel ways.
It’s worthwhile for us to take a look at some of the tools that have been developed which have important implications for businesses and industries today.
Chat GPT
Chat GPT is a natural language processing tool driven by AI technology that allows users to converse with a chatbot and ask it questions. The tool allows you to ask any question and receive a response in language closely resembling what you would expect from a human being. The system is able to provide responses to questions by drawing from a massive range of information fields, much like a search engine, and can support users in composing emails, essays and even programming code. Chat GPT offers numerous potentials to business users, not least of which include supporting research and writing tasks through the generation of creative text-based content.
DALL-E-2
Dall-E 2 is a text to image generator which essentially allows users to generate visual content by keying in textual commands into the system. The system is useful as it allows lay users to generate attractive visual content without the need for pre-existing design skills. This is another tool that business owners are highly interested in, as it holds the potential of creating visual content which would previously have required the skills of a hired professional designer.
Firelflies
This AI tool is a plugin that connects to your web conferencing software such as Zoom and Teams. In addition to automating the process of taking notes and creating transcriptions from conversations that take place within these web conferencing platforms, Fireflies also analyses the conversations themselves and provides insights into the dynamics and decision making that takes place therein.
Lumen-5
An AI powered video creation tool that allows users to create educational, marketing or business video content using a simple drag and drop interface. Lumen-5 enables the generation of professional quality video content and, much like the benefits offered by Dall-E, allows users to create visual content without the need for hiring a professional videographer.
Tableau
Tableau is an AI powered data visualisation tool that allows user to interact with their data. The software allows users to create reports and share them across desktop and mobile platforms. It also contains a data analytics tool that allows users to visualise and analyse data through a drag-and-drop dashboard which can be run on the cloud or on premise.
What this means for the business sector
The abovementioned AI tools are significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, they allow businesses to provide services to their clients without the need for hiring an expert in the field to do so. Chat GPT, for instance, can support the generation of articles, reports and press releases, without the need for hiring a professional copywriter. Similarly, Lumen-5 allows users to generate professional quality video content without the need for hiring a professional videographer. This essentially allows a company to save costs and ultimately reduce their overall expenses.
Another benefit that AI tools such as these provide companies is that they simplify daily processes. For instance, the Fireflies AI tools mentioned above allows business users to take notes during conference calls, reducing the dependency on in-meeting note taking. This essentially speeds up the process of analysing and recording the content of meetings after the fact, allowing business administrators to generate reports on business meetings more expediently. Essentially, this is a time saving mechanism which can improve daily operational efficiency and overall performance.
Additionally, AI can also support decision making. AI tools such as Tableau allow users to generate reports quickly and easily, and analyse them using built-in tools. The software allows report generation to take place more fluidly, providing key insights which can be highlighted and shared across platforms and teams. Business executives can easily view these reports and insights, allowing them to make decisions quickly and effectively, through easy to read and access reports and data visualisations.
Data analytics tools like Tableau are highly useful as they allow business users to sift through large swaths of their company’s information and make decisions that have a high level of impact. Again, the benefits here include greater expediency in business processes, decision making and overall performance.
How AI can support consultancy
With respect to business consultancy, AI tools provide a number of key benefits that can support consultancy firms in delivering their services to clients.
One of the ways that consultants can do this is through task automation. As mentioned above, a number of AI tools provide users with the ability to simplify daily tasks such as report generation and visual content generation. Consultants can use these tools to automate their tasks, improving the efficiency of their in-house operations and their productivity. AI tools also improve the quality of these daily operational tasks, as they are less prone to human error and therefore of a higher quality.
Consultancy firms can also offer client’s support in adopting AI based applications into their operations. Consultants can analyse their client’s business operations and identify key areas in which operational task can be improved through the integration of the relevant AI applications. This allows them to improve their client’s process flow and efficiency, another key service that consultancy firms normally offer to their clients.
Another way that consultants can make use of AI tools is through the aforementioned analytics software. AI analytics allow business users to easily manage their client’s data or any data relating to a project they might be working on. With AI analytics tools, consultants are able to sift through large amounts of data to better understand their client’s operations. They can then deliver reports and insights in a way that is clear and effective, significantly improving their client’s business operations by leveraging on high quality data that can be processed and relayed quickly and easily. AI analytics tools can therefore significantly improve the decision-making processes of clients, which is a keystone service for any consultancy firm.
AI tools also provide the potential for consultants to collaborate more effectively with team members. AI tools in the form of virtual assistants and chatbots are able to provide 24/7 support to team members and clients, while AI supported project management systems provide services like automatic task generation and formula building to improve how teams work together on projects.
Some reservations surrounding the use of AI technology
While AI does in fact hold the potential for delivering various benefits to the business sector in the form of more efficient process flows with a higher quality of output, there remains some hesitation within the business community with respect to the adoption of AI systems.
Among these include concerns surrounding the accuracy of the information that is delivered. As business executives are unable to fully understand how the AI programs are able to retrieve and deliver the information which is sourced, many are hesitant to leverage important business decisions based solely on the information provided by AI based applications.
In addition to this, AI systems may lack the sophistication to understand the nuances of questions and commands posed to them. This is of particular concern with regards to customer service AI systems, which may be unable to understand the nuances of a customer’s query and would be unable to deliver responses which meet their needs. This can be counterintuitive as customers may become frustrated if their requests are misunderstood or not satisfactorily met.
Another concern regarding the present wave of AI based systems and tools is that many of these systems provide information which is not properly sourced. There have been numerous reports of AI systems plagiarising information from the web, and with the introduction of new tools which are able to detect content produced by AI systems, there are well-founded concerns within the business community surrounding the ethical use and validity of AI produced content.
The future of consultancy and AI
As has been mentioned in this article, AI tools of various forms are able to support businesses in myriad ways, enabling more efficient execution of daily tasks and operations. AI tools which make complex tasks more accessible and user-friendly, as well as analytics software that allow business users to better understand data for improved decision making are some of the ways that AI is changing the business landscape.
With respect to consultancy in particular, these tools offer business consultants various ways in which they can improve their existing consultancy services. Be it though the automation of in-house tasks such as report writing and note taking, the delivery of key insights leveraged on AI powered analytics tools, or through assisting client’s in adopting the most appropriate AI tools to meet their organisation’s needs, AI has the potential to truly re-invent the consultancy field for the better.
As AI technologies become increasingly efficient and refined over time, there is every likelihood that they will becoming an essential resource for business owners across industries. All tools will certainly improve the way in which consultants conduct their operations in the years to come, and will likely support consultancy services in more sophisticated ways as the technology continues to evolve.
27 Group is a business consultancy and advisory organisation geared towards project development and socioeconomic transformation strengths. The group provides project management and master planning services for clients within multiple industries and are also keenly involved in the development of socioeconomic initiatives within the public sector. Its guiding ethos of ‘Rebuilding Humanity’ drives us to deliver transformative projects with the right amount of care and attention, meeting both stakeholder expectations and the essential needs of the wider communities that we serve.
