At the ARTS conference in New Orleans in May, one of the hottest topics discussed was how we can leverage artificial intelligence (AI) tools in our businesses. When Darin Reinert, a Warranty Manager for Baker Residential, gave his lecture about his AI journey, he shared some of the platforms he’s come across that show promise.
There’s smartQ to assist with building presentations; Flythroughs by Luma AI for video walk-throughs; and ElevenLabs, for generative voice AI. Getting started can be daunting because there are so many options out there and the learning curve can be steep. Reinert has a favorite to start with, which he says does most of what you’d want AI to do — ChatGPT from OpenAI.
“ChatGPT is the benchmark,” Reinert says. “It can help with so many aspects of a business.” There are free versions and paid versions of ChatGPT, and while Reinert feels the free version is suitable for most small businesses, he recommends the paid version to access the depth of what ChatGPT offers.
Where to start?
When beginning your journey with ChatGPT or other AI tools, patience is a virtue. There’s a trick to getting ChatGPT to give you what you want, Reinert says, and that entails having a conversation. ChatGPT responds much better to conversation and questions than it does to commands when prompting, he notes.
“The best results come from longer conversations,” Reinert says. “If you give it backstory and context, ChatGPT will talk to you, and when you talk back, you’ll get more detailed information.” When prompting ChatGPT or any AI, it’s not about giving it a lecture, he continues. “You want to have a true conversation. You’ll get 10 times better results. Most people don’t interact with it, so the first trick I teach people is to treat ChatGPT like a person.” In having that dialogue with ChatGPT, for best outcomes, Reinert says you want to provide actual emotional feedback.
“If you’re not happy with the answer, tell it,” he says. Asking ChatGPT questions in different ways, changing the tone in prompts, tweaking wording — these are all ways to get better results from interaction with ChatGPT.
“Prompting is not an easy task. The only way to get better at it is to keep working at it. It’s all about trial and error,” he shares. One reason to keep playing with AI and give it more detail is that AI is still in its infancy and it’s learning, so it’s not always correct.
“AI hallucinates,” Reinert continues. “It will give you bad information or it won’t sound like you.” Having those longer conversations will help it to sound more like you and refine the information you’re getting so it’s more accurate.
Customizing ChatGPT
One of the best features of ChatGPT, according to Reinert, is the ability to create Custom Chatbots. Customizing your Chatbot — you can have more than one — will give you individualized results. “You can custom-tailor your ChatGPT to work differently than mine,” Reinert notes. “You can put in lots of small details, personal details. You’d never get the same response I would get. The custom Chatbot is going to give you the most effective outcomes.”
As AI becomes more prolific, it’s important to take the plunge and try to understand its capabilities. From ideation and brainstorming to mundane tasks such as SEO optimization, workflow organization and even inventory management, AI can be a valuable “teammate.” Be wary of new AI tools, Reinert cautions. “ChatGPT gets my personal stamp of approval for starting your journey,” he says.
