AI Acceptance
Telling yourself that you are not interested in learning how to use AI is like me saying thirty years ago, “I am never going to use ATMs, I will always make my deposits and withdrawals with a human bank teller.” That plan worked out well…
AI has its pitfalls and promises, as you can read about in my last post. But like ATMs, PCs, Smartphones, and the Internet, it is not going away, and your ability to know and use its power will help you become more employable and relevant, now and into the future.
Developing AI fluency can be easier than you think. (And AI will help you!)
Strategy One: First, answer the question, What’s my AI why?
Find one simple personal goal and one simple professional goal related to how the tools will help you. And if and when you get frustrated with the process of mastering the tools, go back to these to find the motivation to keep going. Here are a few examples:
Personal
- I love to travel, and want to cut down on the time I spend planning trips.
- I want to have more fun with my dinner preparations.
- I love great design, but I do not have the skills to create my own interiors, so I can use AI apps to help arrange my furniture and choose the right soft goods.
- I need to understand AI so I can help my kids use it in a healthy way, rather than being too reliant on it for school or companionship.
- I want to use AI to manage my healthcare needs
Professional
- I have to put out two Forbes Posts a month, and it can help me source current research for my posts.
- I want to create more teamwork and communication with an AI tool
- It can help us stay up-to-date on the best current practices for leveraging social media, as algorithms change frequently.
- It can reduce the hours I spend on administrative tasks so I can spend more time developing and encouraging my direct reports.
- I want to use AI to support tech development in my company
Strategy Two: Using AI, identify one AI App that can be useful at home, and begin mastering it.
Here is what AI mode in Google offered me today when I asked it for the best free app to use for adding fun and reducing waste for dinner preparation.
“SuperCook is an excellent and creative app for minimizing food waste and saving money.
- How it works: You enter the ingredients you have on hand, and the app generates recipes you can make with them. You can add ingredients by selecting them from a list or by using your voice.
- Best features: It has over 11 million recipes and lets you filter results by categories like salads, entrees, and desserts. As you use up an ingredient, you can remove it from your “pantry” and the recipes will adjust.”
The app tells me that the only ingredients they assume I have are salt, pepper, and water. According to the ingredients I added from my unstocked fridge, I am having smoked salmon and eggs for dinner. (I love breakfast, so that part was my choice.)
Strategy Three: Utilize AI to identify five AI Apps that can be beneficial at work, and begin mastering them one app at a time.
Earlier this year, LinkedIn named AI Fluency the most sought-after skill, as reported in Forbes. The best way to develop this proficiency is by prioritizing the platforms you want to use, then choosing one at a time to master through the lens of your AI Why.
Choosing the right platforms for your list can be developed using AI. You can offer prompts that include the industry you are in, the type of work you do, the areas you need help with, and the number you want on your list. I just had a chat with ChatGPT about the tools I need to use for home and work, and after some back and forth, we landed on five.
This exercise is very helpful, as I am already very familiar with two tools (Grammarly and ChatGPT). I am familiar with two more, but was not leveraging their built-in AI capabilities (Zapier and Canva), and one more is completely new to me (Notion AI), which I am currently trying out. And it should be noted that it offered itself at the top of the list. AI does have bias, and it can be a bit salesy in its tone.
Here is what ChatGPT offered me in this experiment, five categories of work support:
“1. General-purpose AI chatbot: A Large Language Model (LLM)
A general-purpose chatbot, or LLM, is the most fundamental tool for learning how to collaborate with AI. Mastering one of these platforms teaches you the foundational skill of “prompt engineering”—how to give AI effective instructions for a vast range of tasks.
- Top pick: ChatGPT (by OpenAI) is an industry leader and the most popular platform, making it a reliable and versatile choice.
2. AI-powered productivity workspace: A central workspace
By integrating an LLM into an all-in-one workspace, you can apply AI’s capabilities to your projects, notes, and documents in a structured way. This trains you to integrate AI as a core part of your daily workflow rather than just a separate tool.
- Top pick: Notion AI (by Notion) combines AI with a powerful note-taking and project-management app, helping you organize knowledge and brainstorm ideas directly within your workspace.
3. AI-driven automation: A no-code workflow tool
This category goes beyond simple AI tasks and teaches you how to build entire AI-powered workflows. Mastering a no-code automation platform empowers you to connect your existing apps and automate repetitive, multi-step processes.
- Top pick: Zapier AI (by Zapier) enables you to create automated workflows, known as “Zaps,” using natural language prompts. You can describe the workflow you want, and Zapier’s AI will help build and test it.
4. AI writing assistant: A seamless communication aid
While other tools can generate content, Grammarly stands out by integrating directly into your existing applications to provide immediate, context-aware writing assistance. This makes it a powerful and accessible tool for improving daily communication, which is a foundational skill in any career.
- Top pick: Grammarly offers real-time suggestions for grammar, spelling, and style, as well as AI-powered features for generating content, rewriting text, and adjusting tone.
5. AI visual content generator: A platform for fast creative assets
For professionals who need to produce creative assets for marketing, social media, or presentations, an AI-powered visual generator is a game-changer. These tools can create high-quality images and designs from simple text prompts, accelerating the creative process.
- Top Pick: Canva AI is an ideal tool for both beginners and experienced designers, offering intuitive AI-powered features seamlessly integrated into a popular, easy-to-use design platform.”
To continue your AI development process, repeat these strategies every month or every quarter, read or take courses about developments in this fascinating field, and soon you won’t remember a time when you weren’t AI savvy!