TLDR;
- If you’re unfamiliar with AI but want to grow your business, either avail resources to learn it on your own time, or hire an AI specialist.
If you’re a 65-year-old business owner who has always struggled to adapt to what the internet now has in store, the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) bots such as ChatGPT has probably made you want to pull your hair out the most when trying to familiarize yourself with the internet to maximize the potential of what your business has to offer. But you mustn’t fret any longer, for here are the 10 best ways to quickly familiarize yourself with AI and see substantial improvements in all aspects of your business.
1. Online Beginner AI Courses
Enrolling in beginner-level AI courses can be the ideal starting point to get a good grasp on AI and begin to have a thorough understanding of its potential in business and how it can serve as a complement to your business. Such courses provide a foundational understanding of AI usage that is easy to build upon yourself and help make AI accessible to those with limited technical knowledge. You can find such courses on platforms such as Coursera, Khan Academy, and edX. An excellent course on Coursera is Andrew Ng’s “AI for Everyone,” specifically designed for non-technical individuals. It covers the fundamentals of AI, its applications, and how it impacts businesses.
2. Hire an AI Consultant
If you’re looking to implement AI-based strategies into your business, hiring an AI consultant may prove to be quite effective. AI Consultants possess the capability to evaluate a business’ unique needs and recommend situations tailor-fit to the constraints of your business. They’d be able to help identify opportunities for automation, process optimization, and cost reduction, and also assist in helping you select the right AI tools, technologies and vendors for your business.
3. Reading AI-Related Books
There are several books available on artificial intelligence for non-technical individuals as well, with a couple of examples being “Artificial Intelligence Basics” by Tom Taulli and “AI Superpowers” by Kai-Fu Lee. All these books provide insight into the current state of AI and what is in store for its future, making it a seamless process to understand AI and integrate it in your business.
4. AI-Powered Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
AI is also well capable of having a significant impact on customer acquisition and retention. Two excellent tools for this are Salesforce Einstein and HubSpot, which leverage machine learning to analyze customer data, predict behavior and upcoming trends, and automate personalized interactions with every customer. Such systems enable businesses to deliver targeted marketing campaigns, identify potential leads and cultivate customer relationships effectively.
5. AI-Powered Marketing Tools
AI can also be your best friend with advanced tools and capabilities for marketing, prime examples being Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Both incorporate AI to optimize ad campaigns and target the pertinent demographic at the right time, which can help in segmenting audiences. This capability also extends to email marketing platforms, like Mailchimp. Mailchimp helps businesses streamline their email marketing efforts with personalized email campaigns, predictive analysis, A/B Testing, automated email send times, and many more tools.
6. Attend AI-related Webinars and Seminars
To keep up with the latest trends in the world of AI, attending AI-related webinars and seminars can be an excellent way to do so. Such events often have industry experts as guest speakers who can share practical insights that can help better your understanding of AI and implement the learnings into your business.
7. Join Online Communities
If you’re really looking to expedite the process of familiarizing yourself with AI without spending a penny, then online forums and communities would probably be your best bet.
LinkedIN groups and Reddit subreddits such as r/artificalintelligence are great resources that can give you the opportunity to engage in discussion with individuals with varying levels of AI understanding, and also seek advice from members well versed in the craft.
8. Leverage AI-Powered Analytics
Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics can be leveraged to deepen your understanding of customer behavior and their preferences. These tools use machine learning algorithms to uncover patterns and trends in data for you to interpret with ease, enabling you to make data-driven decisions for your business.
9. Explore AI-Powered Chatbots
Playing around with AI-powered Chatbots such as ChatGPT is one of the best ways to get a taste of what AI brings to the table. They have natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning that helps them respond to any given prompt simultaneously as long as it is within their jurisdiction. Chatbots also have the capability to remember previous prompts in an ongoing chat that helps make it an even more seamless experience. We also have our own free resource you can utilize to learn how you can use ChatGPT to build your personal branding.
10. Collaborate with Younger Generations
Collaborating with tech-savvy younger employees and interns can be mutually beneficial from this standpoint. They often have a very strong understanding of all the latest mainstream technologies available, and AI is no exception. They can help assist you in implementing AI-based solutions, guide you in using AI-powered tools effectively, and even help you get familiar with all AI has to offer. Like many things initially, it can be difficult to understand how to use AI. But as you utilize the 10 methods we've outlined in this article, it’ll slowly but surely eventually be as easy as 1 2 3, and then you’ll be able to see for yourself just how customizable AI can be specifically for your business.