AI is everywhere these days. Every major tech company, like Apple, Google, and Microsoft, is racing to get AI capabilities into all your devices and services. I’m sure you will be flooded with AI features by the end of the year, if not sooner. Just this week, Apple announced its Apple Intelligence AI. If you use an Apple device, let me tell you that it will be integrated into your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. There is no escaping it.
We are accelerating towards mass adoption of AI, and if you want to stay in the game, you will need to understand what it is and how it can benefit you.
So, What Exactly is AI?
AI stands for Artificial Intelligence, and to simplify this, let’s imagine AI as a set of tools. These tools are created to perform tasks that usually require human intelligence, like understanding language, recognizing images, solving problems, and making decisions.
You have been using AI tools for years. It has been slowly blending into our lives. I bet that you have used at least one of these AI tools:
- Smart assistants: Have you ever asked Siri to set a timer or had Alexa play your favorite playlist? That’s AI in action.
- Movie recommendations: When Netflix suggests a movie you might like, an AI algorithm analyzes your viewing habits to provide personalized recommendations.
- Email spam filtering: That magical forcefield protecting our inboxes from never-ending spam or Jeff Bezos offering you two million dollars (a scammer impersonating Jeff) is built with AI.
- Self-driving cars: You might have encountered these driverless cars in some regions. AI powers them, and even simpler features, like parking assistants, are driven by AI.
The important thing to remember is that AI is not just one thing. It is a series of tools that help us solve complex problems. It is much more than just ChatGPT.
There Are Two Types of AI:
Segmenting these tools into two categories can help us understand them better.
1. Narrow AI (or Weak AI): this is the AI we use today. It is designed and trained for specific tasks like identifying objects in a picture, translating languages, or even generating languages. All tools you use today (even ChatGPT) are based on Narrow AI.
2. General AI (or Strong AI): is the most advanced form of AI. It can learn and reason like a human. It hasn’t been created yet, but it is the long-term goal for AI researchers.
It is important to understand this distinction because all of the AI tools you use today are powered by Narrow AI and are created for specific purposes. You must understand why and how it was made to get the most out of the tool.
How Does AI Learn?
The secret here is a process called machine learning. Instead of programming the tool, we give the AI system a ton of data and tell it to find patterns. The more data we provide, the better they spot those patterns and make predictions.
Think of it this way: Imagine that you have a cat and a dog, and someone asks you to show them a picture of them. You go into the Photos app and scroll, searching through the 15,000 photos you have saved. Or you could use the search function in the Photos app and type cat or dog – and cut the search time in half. Have you ever wondered how that works?
This AI tool has been on your phone for years, and developers created it to detect patterns within your pictures. Focusing on the cats and dogs example, a simplified view of the process is:
- Developers show the AI tool thousands of images of cats and dogs.
- It then analyzes each picture’s pixels, shapes, and colors.
- Over time, it starts recognizing the subtle differences between cats and dogs.
- Eventually, from those patterns, it can identify whether a new picture is a cat or dog, even if it has never seen that picture before.
Everything is about patterns. The more information the AI tool uses to learn, the better and more accurate it will be to predict the answer you seek.
The AI Revolution: How Generative AI Is Taking Over the World (or Your Phone, Laptop, Tablet, and Possibly Smart Speakers Too)
Back in late 2022, OpenAI changed the world by introducing ChatGPT. It has been the buzz in the tech world since then, forcing many companies to adapt. You may have seen the news, but Microsoft has since introduced Copilot, their version of ChatGPT (powered by ChatGPT), into almost every product and service they offer. Google had to scramble to create Gemini and the new AI-powered search (this is why you may also have heard the news about Google telling you to put glue in your pizza so your cheese doesn’t slide off). The latest move was Apple announcing that it would release its Apple Intelligence later this year.
This technology will be everywhere by the end of the year, and we must understand it and learn how to use it to get the most out of it.
What’s Generative AI?
Generative AI is a set of tools that focus on creating new content, such as text, images, music, or even videos. These systems are still Narrow AI systems, so they are mostly focused on very specific tasks.
These tools have been trained on massive amounts of data, such as online articles, books, image galleries, endless hours of music, and much more. Their goal is to understand human creativity patterns, styles, and structures.
Going to any Generative AI tool like ChatGPT and asking it a question will trigger a process in which the tool interprets what you want and creates something new by following the patterns it has learned by analyzing the data.
Learning how to ask the AI tool questions properly is critical. These questions are what we call “Prompts.”
How to Use Generative AI Tools
A prompt is the instruction you give the AI tool. These instructions can be text, documents, images, sound, or videos for text-generating tools. Sometimes, you can combine multiple sources of information in a prompt.
So, how can we ensure we get the most out of these tools? When writing a prompt, your instructions must be clear and specific. I use simple language and provide enough details (or context) to guide the AI. I even break down complex problems into smaller steps to ensure the AI follows the desired process correctly.
If the answers you get are different from what you are looking for, you can continually refine and fine-tune the AI tool. You can edit the last prompt with more details or even prompt again, trying to change the direction. You can even use outputs from different AI tools to create something unique. It’s a circular process where you prompt, read, and refine.
How I’m Using AI in My Product Development Process
I’ve developed a framework called CRISP — Clarify, Research, Innovate, Strategize, Pursue. In this framework, I break down a very complex product development process into manageable steps that anyone can follow and develop. Whether you’re a product manager, business owner, aspiring entrepreneur, or someone who has always considered starting a side hustle, you can use these steps to get ahead.
These templates have been developed with AI in mind. They will provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to efficiently prompt AI tools to get results that will provide you with potential business, product, and customer outcomes, customer segments and user personas, market and competitive research, value propositions, concepts and experiences, and so much more.
And remember, the AI revolution is happening now. Don’t get left behind! Grab my CRISP templates and learn to use AI tools to navigate this exciting new landscape.
