Are robots coming to take our jobs? Will humans be replaced by machines?
The questions surrounding the capabilities and potential threats AI poses have been swirling ever since OpenAI launched ChatGPT at the end of 2022 and mass adoption has seen over 100 million people use the chatbot to answer a range of requests.
And while hesitation and apprehension are understandable, particularly when people like Dr Geoffrey Hinton aka “the godfather of AI” warn against the danger AI poses, particularly the “scary chatbots” he helped to create, artificial intelligence can also be used in many positive ways.
So instead of looking at AI as the enemy, adopting it as a co-worker can be incredibly beneficial in a myriad of ways, as detailed below.
Are you struggling to keep on top of your overflowing inbox or feel like your day is taken up attending endless meetings? This phenomenon known as digital debt is leaving many workers unable to tackle their actual work, and according to Microsoft’s Work Trend Index Annual Report, 68 per cent shared that they don’t have enough uninterrupted focus time during the workday.
AI can be used to alleviate this burden by streamlining meetings (for example take minutes and summarise what has been spoken about) and speed up email responses by providing templates and frameworks.
Aside from ChatGPT, try Wordtune Read to summarise text in seconds, Sembly to transform meeting discussions into actionable insights, Fireflies to take notes (you can connect it to Zoom and Google Meet calls) or Grammarly to catch mistakes in your writing.
When work from home orders were issued in 2020, workers around the globe were forced to resort to virtual meetings and applications like Slack to communicate with each other. Three years on and remote working is here to stay.
According to data from RingCentral, 60 per cent of workers would rather add three more years to their career in order to work remotely or in a hybrid environment rather than return to the office full-time for the rest of their career.
AI-driven applications are helping remote workers feel more connected to the workplace by facilitating better virtual meetings and engaging in learning and mentoring to boost connection to the workplace.
Even if you’re a whizz with Google Sheets or Excel, AI can elevate your spreadsheet analysis and visualise data faster. It can also be utilised to minimise mistakes—according to a study conducted by IBM, approximately 88 per cent of all spreadsheets feature at least one error due to incorrect formatting or data-entry errors.
Whether you use Canva or PowerPoint, it’s easy to get bogged down when trying to design or format a presentation or deck, even if you don’t work in a creative industry and how your slides look isn’t the main focus.
AI can help you with this in a number of ways as there are many different tools available online that can be accessed for free. SlidesAI.io works directly with Google Slides, Tome has an extensive suite of fonts and logos and allows users to create images to match the content, while GPT_PPT creates PowerPoint presentations in seconds.
Or why not let AI try its hand at creating your entire presentation for you, based on your prompts? ChatBA allows you to input the topic you would like a presentation on and does all the hard work for you.
Do you struggle to stay focussed throughout the day and does the 3pm slump often kick in well before lunchtime? Or perhaps you often find yourself doom scrolling on Instagram when you really should be getting on with work tasks.
Body doubling isn’t new (traditionally it involves people working in the same room to hold each other accountable and increase productivity) and has been found to be particularly effective for those with ADHD, but advances in AI now allow remote workers to access accountability tools at the touch of a button.
Timely is an AI-powered time tracking app that helps boost accountability and productivity by organising your tasks and setting timers. It also makes suggestions based on your behaviour, while Brain.fm generates music to improve focus and concentration.
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