How to make it behave, perform, and make your life easier
What AI Can – and Can’t – Do For You
When new technologies are introduced, their uses often are not immediately obvious. Electricity initially was used for lighting and for sending telegraphs, but no one thought to use it for powering TVs or air conditioners because those didn’t exist yet. They were enabled by electricity. Artificial intelligence, or AI, can present a similar mystery: we’ve all heard of it, but what can it do? And is it really intelligent, or is it just a souped-up computer program?
How is AI different from human intelligence?
Artificial intelligence is simply a computer program that performs functions that typically require human intelligence, things like analyzing information in creative ways and writing answers that sound natural and are easy to understand. It generates answers based on very large sets of data and in many cases continuously learns from users’ queries.
For example, a traditional computer program for a retail interior design website might have fixed rules like “If the customer buys flat gray wall paint, always suggest darker gray paint for trim,” but an AI-guided program that has access to millions of customer transactions might recognize that fewer people are buying gray paint and suggest the cream paint that is just beginning to trend. It might also have access to actual design websites that discuss emerging color palettes and draw from those. In this scenario, a human programmer didn’t tell the AI what to suggest; rather, it learned it based on thousands or even millions of transactions and other data.
Two types of AI that you might encounter Broadly speaking, AI products fit into two categories: AI assistants, and AI that’s embedded into business platforms or websites. Each has a function that can be useful.
AI assistants
You’ve probably heard of the major AI assistants: voice-activated helpers like Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, and Amazon’s Alexa and chatbot assistants such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini and Perplexity AI’s Perplexity.
These products can make research, brainstorming and learning a lot easier by quickly finding information that’s hidden in the far recesses of the internet and delivering it in user-friendly ways. Some assistants also can help with writing tasks and can incorporate documents and images that you provide into reports, stories and presentations. AI that’s embedded in business applications
AI’s use in business platforms and websites has advanced beyond the chatbot that can refill your prescription, track your package or initiate a refund. AI-enabled business products now can address more sophisticated challenges such as automating workflows, monitoring supply chains, detecting fraud and facilitating the resolution of disputes. Behind the scenes, the AI in some business applications might be synthesizing information from several sources—the location of your package, the driver and the opening hours of your business from your company’s website—to deliver the good news that the replacement part for your 3-D printer will arrive just before your firm closes for the day. In other scenarios, it’s important that AI use only a specific set of information so that it can provide accurate results. For instance, in DRai’s dispute resolution platform, the AI analyzes only a closed database of case law to provide information about how cases that are factually similar to the user’s dispute were settled. It also checks for errors called hallucinations before presenting answers to the user.
When AI fails
AI can perform badly when it doesn’t have a large enough set of data to learn from or “train on.” When there aren’t enough dots to connect, AI can begin to guess at answers, sometimes making up wildly wrong responses called hallucinations. Especially when using consumer-facing AI assistants that look up information from the entire internet, it can be good to ask for and check sources. Business applications, especially those trained on closed (limited) datasets, are far less likely to make up answers.
It’s also important to know what particular AI products are good at doing. For example, here’s a sketch done by an AI assistant that was given clear instructions about how to draw a realistic Zoom call being done in a home office. This assistant is great at research but is not great at drawing!
How to get the best results from AI
Fortunately, getting reliable results from AI assistants and business applications that use AI relies on simple guidelines: Ask good questions
Whether you’re using an AI assistant or a business product, providing the AI specific details rather than generalities is crucial. The old reporter’s maxim Who, What, Where, When, Why and How will go a long way.
For example, it’s better to ask “What’s the best wood varnish for restoring the dashboard of a 1920 Packard Twin Six?” than to ask, “What’s the best varnish to use on cars?”
Pick the right AI product
As you saw from the botched drawing of a Zoom call, not all AI assistants are suited for every task. Here’s a list to keep handy for everyday tasks:
- ChatGPT: writing, computer coding, answering questions, and brainstorming
- Claude: researching, analyzing visual information, and writing
- Gemini: answering questions, generating and describing images, and brainstorming
- Perplexity: research about any topic, with citations included to enable users to double-check (and cite) sources
Futurecast: Better AI, more room for real intelligence
As AI products get trained on ever larger datasets—and as they get real-world feedback from users—they will become more robust and accurate. They’ll avoid both minor errors and chaotic hallucinations and will better understand the context in which humans live and operate, making their responses more realistic. And business applications will save people from performing a lot of the repetitive tasks that gobble up their days, leaving them free to use their intelligence and creativity on things that only they can do.
David Lazzara, CEO [email protected] DRai Solutions
The DRai Solutions platform allows landlords and property managers to quickly resolve tenant and vendor disputes in a cost-effective, secure portal that reduces friction to preserve business relationships. Through AI-powered case law references, documented digital records, and a convenient negotiating portal, DRai offers alternative dispute resolution directly to property managers without the high upfront costs associated with formal mediation or arbitration.
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