- ChatGPT, a small step for generative AI
- ChatGPT is still in the very early stage of verifying its industrial value.
- Worries about overhyping the state of AI
- Business executives should seriously be considering the use of ChatGPT
Harare - ChatGPT, a small step for generative AI, is still in the very early stage of verifying its industrial value. In the first issue of the Axis this year in the article Farewell Crypto, Hello generative AI we highlighted how Generative AI was going to be the theme this year and now that the hype has trickled down to the streets of Zimbabwe many businesses are still trying to figure out how they can implement ChatGPT into their business model.
Generative AI describes artificial intelligence algorithms that can be used to create new content, including text, image, video, audio, code, and synthetic data. The excitement around ChatGPT shows that the hype circle over generative AI is peaking, which is being sold to investors as the tech world's next big thing.
Over the past couple of years, the tech world has witnessed several rounds of hype over quite a few things, including the metaverse, NFTs (non-fungible tokens), blockchain, and cryptocurrencies. And just as Silicon Valley is seeing a slowdown that has led to massive layoffs by tech giants such as Microsoft and Google, the buzz around ChatGPT quickly grabbed global attention. ChatGPT's global popularity gave tech giants a new bright spot to grab public attention.
ChatGPT’s viral adoption and rockstar-like success was so extraordinary that it even surprised its creators at OpenAI, which received billions in new financing from Microsoft. ChatGPT may seem like a sudden revolution that came out of nowhere but this technology has been developing gradually over many years, with swift progress in the last few years.
However, businesses should be vigilant as there is a worry about overhyping the state of AI. Progress has been made, but "general intelligence" is still not on the horizon. Over the past few decades, we've continually revised our notions of what it means to be "intelligent" every time we progress, we think, "This is it!" But after a while, the hype dies, and we see the problems and identify a new need.
Currently one of the biggest problems posed by ChatGPT is it's easy for ChatGPT to make stuff up. If you ask ChatGPT something niche it hasn't seen before, it will hallucinate facts in a fluent and argumentative manner. If you ask ChatGPT how many World Cups Zimbabwe has won?" It will make up an answer for you, even though Zimbabwe has never won any world cup. The chatbot will bring up an answer like Zimbabwe wanted to win its first-word cup tournament as many outlets reported but it didn’t. In this instance, the model is confusing the two notions of "wanted to win" vs. "won."
The problem is that it does this so fluently. It can give you garbage, but in such fluent, coherent language that hence if you aren't an expert in that domain you might believe what it is saying is true. That at this stage is a problem, and as humans, we are gullible in the face of seemingly well-articulated outputs.
Although many people were intrigued by the capabilities of ChatGPT, others were concerned by the disruptive effect of ChatGPT. The perceived risk was so high among public and policymakers that OpenAI introduced a tool for detecting text generated by artificial intelligence. They believe this tool would mitigate the risks that students and employees could rely on artificial intelligence to do their work.
In the short space of time since its release in late November last year, ChatGPT has been tested to the limit and proved itself a decent writer, test taker, study tool, contract scrutiniser, and much more. ChatGPT had some remarkable achievements, passing some of the most intense exams, such as university law and multi-state bar exams, business management and final MBA exams, English language, coding and a major medical licensing exam, and many more.
It is, therefore, no wonder that many business executives in the country are seriously considering the use of ChatGPT in business. This is understandable, since customer satisfaction may grow by 25% in organisations that use AI. Many leading businesses are therefore investing in AI due to its ability to automate tasks and also because of its analytical capabilities that provide valuable insights.
The powerful capabilities of ChatGPT make it very useful in a wide variety of business applications when used as part of a company’s digital transformation. ChatGPT can be used in virtually any industry and a business of any size. It could be particularly useful in the automating of interactions with customers to improve customer service quality, as well as for content marketing and personalisation.
A major challenge for content marketers is to constantly find ideas for new and engaging content that speaks to their target audience and can generate leads. ChatGPT can easily generate compelling marketing content such as articles, product reports, newsletters, blog posts, and social media posts using specific parameters according to the needs of the company. It can even generate new content concepts and formulate a list of ideas for podcasts or videos, as well as prepare the entire script for these ideas.
ChatGPT can easily rewrite a marketing piece in a specific tone, make it more detailed or complex, or simplify it. It can also edit pre-written content to ensure it is error-free and adhere to the prescribed tones and guidelines. By automating the writing and editing processes, marketers can produce high-quality content in a fraction of the normal writing time.
Since it has machine learning capability it can learn the particular style and tone of a business’s marketing materials to generate new content that is consistent with the business’s brand and voice. ChatGPT also can personalise the content and recommendations based on user data and past behaviour of the specific customer.
However, ChatGPT can overuse certain phrases and provide the same response to multiple users, lacking creativity and a clear brand voice and tone. It therefore could lack personalisation, making it important to ask good questions and to carefully review created text.
In addition to AI and automation, human strategic and creative thinking remains necessary. But without a doubt, ChatGPT can revolutionise the digital marketing industry in Zimbabwe. It makes the streamlining and scaling of marketing operations possible.
More recent advancements in AI have created many new opportunities for businesses to improve their customer experience. Since ChatGPT can understand and respond to customer requests in a normal conversational manner – almost as well as a human – it can be incorporated into chatbots to enhance the online shopping experience and assist consumers with their questions, thus enhancing their website experience. The improved customer experience could eventually translate into increased customer loyalty.
The wonderful thing is that ChatGPT can handle large volumes of customer requests simultaneously, ensuring reduced response times without additional staff costs. It can also assist with automated aftercare assistance to customers after they have bought a product.
ChatGPT can further gather and analyse customer data to enable the company to improve its products, customer service, and overall customer experience. An improved customer experience could increase customer engagement and loyalty, leading to increased business success.
Through the analysis of data, ChatGPT can provide valuable insights that would not normally be uncovered through tedious manual methods of data analysis. The logical processing power of ChatGPT, combined with experienced data analysis, would enhance the decision-making of organisations and eventually drive growth and increase the bottom line. It would also free up time to enable data scientists to drill deeper into the insights from the data and thus improve the performance of the company.
ChatGPT is excellent with the automation of repetitive tasks in the sales process, such as sending follow-up emails or scheduling meetings. The sales team can use it to generate personalised emails in a fraction of the time of the usual manual process.
ChatGPT is a game-changer in the world of business and can improve almost all aspects of a business, including improving customer service, generating leads, creating marketing content, accelerating appointments, and increasing productivity. What makes it even more valuable in business is its ability to learn from its interactions and adapt in its endeavours to enhance user experience, increase productivity and eventually promote competitiveness.
It is quite possible that the release of ChatGPT by the Californian Company, OpenAI, will be remembered as a turning point in introducing a new wave of artificial intelligence to grow businesses and increase their efficiency. So even at its early stage businesses in the country should start considering implementing ChatGPT into their business model while remaining vigilant to the downside of generative AI at its early stages.
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