Smart Approaches to Using AI

• By: admin
• On: 08/15/2024 15:58:23
• In: General Interest

Artificial Intelligence can be a helpful tool that saves you time on various tasks—whether you want to create content, conduct research, or get a critique on an auction. However, to get the most out of the technology, you must use it smartly. Some approaches will serve you well, and others may not be as effective. The following are some do's and don'ts to help you use AI to work smarter, not harder.

Do experiment with AI. The more time you spend experimenting with AI, the more it will benefit you. Whether you need to understand how to write prompts effectively or generate images, investing time in AI is key to being smart with it.

“Spend time in AI to learn how it can work for you. Invest time in your prompts and use different AIs,” said Mike Fisher, CAI, AARE, AMM, GPPA, CES, BAS, of Redfield Group Auctions. “Some of them are stronger than other ones. Some of them are better at certain things than other ones are. Use two or three different ones to find out which work best for you, and invest time in your prompts.”

Don't give AI your blind trust. AI tools can do a lot for you, but you shouldn't put too much faith in them. Since artificial intelligence may make up information, it's wise to be vigilant about the content it's giving you so you're not led astray based on an AI hallucination.

“Blindly trusting AI is a big mistake. If you literally copy, paste, and send, it'll probably work some of the time, but some of the time, it's going to do things that you're like, ‘Oh, boy, if I would've taken the time to read that, I would've not said that,'” explained John Schultz, AMM, of Grafe Auction Company. “Use your brain. You were given something between your two ears for a reason, and we have intuition. Don't just throw that out because there's this new fun technology.”

Do train AI to understand your business. Charissa Bires, Director of Marketing at Grafe Auction Company, says that one of the mistakes she made when she first began using AI was not giving it enough information about the business—and as a result, she was not getting the content she wanted. Instead, a more innovative approach would be to train AI tools on the specifics of your organization so they will create content catered to it.

“I think that's where people can make mistakes if they use AI for content creation because things are going to end up being super generic if you don't have the tone of voice and your style written in there. So, what's the point of posting? It's not going to be exciting; it's just going to sound like it's been made by AI,” she said. “I think in the beginning, my mistake was not knowing how to create a style guide for AI and not knowing how to feed that into it first. I think that's what you should look out for to make sure you're not posting generic content. Make sure it fits your brand and fits your style.”

Don't forget to plan. If you're excited about using AI, that's great, but don't get too far ahead of yourself. As with any tools you incorporate into your business operations, it's smart to have a plan for the best ways you can use artificial intelligence to get work done. For example, if you think this type of planning is unnecessary for creating AI-generated content, Sara Rose Bytnar, CAI, AARE, AMM, BAS, of Beth Rose Real Estate and Auctions suggests you think again.

“We've always known how important organic content is, but now there's this amazing AI that's going to do it for us, and we can just plug in a few sentences and then start putting content out there. I think that was kind of everybody's initial reaction,” she said. “And then you think, ‘Wait a second, we do everything else in our business with strategy. What type of strategy should be used in order to use AI in a way that's going to help our business?' If you don't use it correctly, it could end up hurting you.”

Do keep up with the trends. Just as Bires needs to keep up with trends as a marketing professional, she also says that any intelligent AI user will keep up with the changing technology. Since new tools are being created constantly, and existing ones are regularly being updated, it makes sense to continue learning about AI—as you would with any area of the auction field.

“I think you need to keep learning continually about AI, doing research to see what's coming out, and using more than one platform. I use ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and they're always fighting against each other and adapting. I think a mistake would be to keep doing the exact same thing with it because it's changed so much in the past year— and it's going to continue to do that.”

Don't wait to get on board. If you're not using AI tools yet, you shouldn't wait to start. Like any other technology, generative AI is moving fast—and if you don't move soon, you may miss out. This means the most thoughtful way to think about AI is to acknowledge that it's here, it's not going anywhere, and chances are, it will have some impact on your work.

“I don't know if there's a skill set that's not going to be impacted by artificial intelligence. Those who choose to ignore it or be afraid of it, I think, are going to be in trouble in the next five to ten years. I don't believe people's jobs will be replaced, but I do believe skill sets will be replaced—which will especially impact people who aren't using it at all,” said Schultz. “I'm one of many who are using AI every day in our jobs, and so we'll have two, maybe even three, years on people who aren't using this technology. I think that to catch up is going to be hard, and that's unfortunate for those who think, ‘No, I'm not going to.'”