Integrating AI and Automation into business operations is no longer futuristic thinking; it’s essential for today’s competitive landscape. ThinkTank has recently expanded its offerings to include “AI and Automation,” a decision not made lightly. This addition is a testament to our commitment to staying at the forefront of technological advancements and ensuring our clients do the same.
Here’s a breakdown of what we’ll cover:
Summary
- At its core, “Automation” is about enhancing efficiency, reducing errors, and freeing up human workers to engage in more complex, creative, and strategic tasks.
- In the modern sense, Automation is when you use AI, not to replace humans, but to augment human capabilities and talents with the machines’ precision and speed.
- CustomGPTs by OpenAI and tools like Zapier are leading the way for simplifying task automation for everyone.
- The key to identifying tasks for automation lay in the small daily tasks you do for your business that still require a little intelligence, care, and attention.
AI and Automation: Companions in Progress
What is “Automation”?
At its core, automation is about enhancing efficiency, reducing errors, and freeing up human workers to engage in more complex, creative, and strategic tasks. It’s not about replacing humans but augmenting human capabilities with machines’ precision and speed. In the context of business, automation can streamline operations, improve customer service, and ultimately, drive growth by allowing companies to do more with less.
From automating routine tasks like data entry and scheduling to more complex operations like customer relationship management and inventory control, automation is reshaping the way businesses operate. It’s a key component of digital transformation, making businesses more agile, responsive, and competitive in a rapidly changing landscape.
“Automation” in-and-of itself is nothing new in our economy. It’s been happening since ancient times. Whenever that first person put axel to wheel, or the Romans put all that trouble into building those aqueducts and roads, or all the way up to Henry Ford working through the assembly process. “Automation” is the whole purpose of human technology. Every time some task gets automated, minds and creative capabilities become free for new things.
Embracing AI and automation offers a unique opportunity to elevate business operations and personal productivity. This technology enables us to optimize our time and resources, freeing us to engage in more meaningful activities and strategic thinking.
AI Automation: The Next Step in Automation’s Evolution
The narrative that AI and automation will replace human beings is overly simplistic. Instead, we should view these technologies as partners that amplify an individual’s capabilities, allowing them to focus on innovation and creativity while they handle the routine tasks of the evolving digital universe. It is perhaps no so much that “AI will replace you,” but more, “someone using AI will replace you.”
So the whole key here is to be the one using AI, nay?
CustomGPT and Zapier: Keys to Automation
CustomGPT by OpenAI and Zapier represent the next leap in business tools, offering the ability to tailor digital experiences and automate workflows like never before. These technologies stand at the ready to streamline operations, making businesses more efficient and responsive.
Everyone knows ChatGPT, our new ultra-intelligent, yet-still-mistake-prone AI assistant. But the technology is moving so quickly that you may not be familiar with all of the in’s and outs, and perhaps you’re still just using the technology to write and summarize blog posts. CustomGPT is a new feature which allows the user to Specialize ChatGPTs actions for a given task or job set.
You may or may-not know about Zapier. Zapier creates connections between technologies and soft wares. The good people at Zapier do the heavy lifting of creating API connections with major brands, and in essence, helping to create and maintain “roads” between different types of digital services. This makes it simple for the average business person to automate without knowing how to program.
Bringing these two technologies together is modern Automation: Giving routine tasks to a CustomGPT specifically designed for your business’ needs via Zapier, then putting the results wherever their proper location may be, and updating the file in only a way an intelligence could. Perhaps the best visualization is of a busy train station—some passenger, some freight, people, animals, objects, things, all on deadlines going this way and that—zooming along at 90 miles per hour at the rate of thousands of trains per second, all being overseen by an intelligence that has a infinite amount of attention. Cool.
How to Identify Tasks to Automate with AI
The key to identifying tasks to automate isn’t in the “big” stuff, but in the small stuff. Lets use Henry Ford, of Ford Motor Company, and the Assembly Line for an example. Back in that day, we were still using a hybrid form of human and machine labor, but the key was to dividing that labor into the smallest increment possible.
One fellow takes the pens out of the machine, another passes the bucket to the left, a third puts a cap on the pen, and a fourth puts the capped-pen into another bucket. Yeah. There are definite opportunities for automation here: The key word is “tedious.”
- What sort of regular tasks do you do on the daily in your business that are repetitive in nature?
- Can you break these repetitive tasks to their most tedious parts? (i.e. the poor guy who has to “pass the bucket to the left,” everyday all day.)
- Which parts of this task are purely digital, but still require intelligence?
- What part of your daily task use your hands (i.e. your immediate attention) but do not require them?
Behold! You have identified a task for AI to automate.
This isn’t about saving an hour every day, but saving five minutes every time you do something routine. If you can find a few of these tedious, but necessary, steps in your day you can change your life.
Just imagine saving 15 minutes a day, every day, knowing your chore is being done by a reliable assistant, freeing you to go do something that only you can do. That’s 5 hours a month. That’s basically an entire work day added to month. Golly.
Conclusion
AI and automation are here to redefine how we work and live, offering unparalleled opportunities for growth and efficiency. At ThinkTank, we’re not just adapting to this change; we’re leading it, providing our clients with the knowledge and tools to thrive in this new era. You’ll want to stay on the forefront of the change by making the best use of the new technology by keeping an open mind, and identifying parts of your day where you could save time.
