by Tyler Kelley
As a busy executive, dedicating weeks of time and resources to piloting emerging technology like generative AI may seem daunting. But getting a practical first taste of what generative AI can do for your business doesn’t have to be complex or time-consuming.
With the right focus, you can complete your first hands-on generative AI project in just one hour that showcases real capabilities and value. Let’s quickly walk through the key steps.
Pick a Promising Use Case
First, identify a promising business application where generative AI could augment your team’s efforts. Some options:
- Marketing: Generate fresh social media post ideas
- Design: Create new product sketches or logo concepts
- Content: Produce a draft of a report, document or communication
- Data: Uncover insights from databases or excel reports
- Development: Prototype code for a website feature or app functionality
The best first pilot use case is one with clear value but limited risk if the AI falls short. Focus on enhancing human work rather than replacing it.
Assemble Your Input Data
Next, gather any existing data or assets to guide the AI. For written content, provide examples and highlights. For design, supply inspirational images, demographics, or past work. For data analysis, compile databases to uncover insights. Curate targeted, quality datasets with room for AI creativity.
Run Your Pilot
Time to put generative AI to work! User-friendly tools exist like ChatGPT, Claude, and Bard that you can pilot at low or no cost. Follow their prompts to submit your data and task. Click run and watch the AI create new outputs just for you in seconds.
Evaluate and Refine
Review the results with a constructive eye. Cherry pick the best options and refine as needed before implementing in your business. Measure impact and continue training the AI.
Be prepared that not every output will be viable. The role of the human is still key for assessing quality and fit. But with further tuning of the input data and parameters, results often improve dramatically.
Where To Go From Here
Congrats! In just an hour or less, you’ve hands-on piloted generative AI. Now the possibilities are endless for where to adopt it next. At your fingertips is an exponentially scalable team member, constantly improving, to enhance human productivity and innovation across your entire organization. Start small, think big.
Your 1 hour AI pilot is the first step on an exciting journey to shaping the future of your business.
Tyler Kelley is the Co-founder and Chief Strategist of SLAM! Agency, where he helps brands unlock growth through strategic marketing and digital transformation. In this column, Tyler provides actionable insights to help businesses and leaders navigate our increasingly AI-driven world.