Hey there, fellow tech enthusiasts! Today, I want to cover a topic that’s all the rage in the tech industry. You know what it is, of course; you read the title, after all. Yes, it’s artificial intelligence (AI) again. Now, don’t roll your eyes just yet. I promise we will try to go beyond the basics that everyone else has already covered.
You see, AI development has become more than just a sci-fi fantasy or hypothetical models run by supercomputers in universities and private businesses. It’s infiltrating our everyday lives faster than we can say “Siri” or “Alexa.” From virtual assistants helping us with mundane tasks to algorithms predicting our preferences on streaming platforms, AI has already been a part of our life without most people even realizing it, and LLMs are just making that fact obvious.
But why should you care? Well, ignoring just how much AI is changing the world could have some serious consequences for your productivity. Let me explain why.
We live in a business climate that demands speed and quality. It used to be a tradeoff—either something was good, or it was done fast. That’s no longer the norm, as users and investors are becoming more demanding regarding final products. We are in a never-ending rat race developing and adapting new trends.
As any software developer worth two cents can tell you, writing code requires a lot of repetition—write a few lines, check if there is an error, rinse, and repeat. Remembering how we used to manually write divs in an HTML document still sends shivers down my spine. But fortunately, technology has always come up with shortcuts and solutions to automate some of the most tedious tasks.
Some tasks are mechanical and repetitive, but others require a certain level of flexibility and understanding that you can’t write off with an algorithm, and that’s where AI comes in. Yes, I know that AIs are algorithms, but they are trained with real-world data to solve real-world problems. It’s not some theoretical mathematical model that may or may not be an accurate reflection of reality.
Now, AI is just a technology, but the implementation is where it all matters. We have created tools designed to assist developers, engineers, salespeople, human resources, logistics, and about every other potential area imaginable. AI has become our trusty sidekick who has our back when things get tough, as long as we let them.
If AI is so powerful, won’t we get replaced? It’s not as simple as that. With the rapid growth of AI technologies, it’s true that the way we understand work will change—some jobs will become obsolete, while others will adapt to automation and take a new direction. But here is the thing: AI is not meant to replace us; it’s meant to enhance humanity.
Think of it this way: When calculators were invented, did we stop learning math? No! We simply started using these nifty devices as tools to assist us in complex calculations. Similarly, AI is just another tool in our developer toolbox—one that empowers us to focus on higher-level tasks while leaving repetitive grunt work to the machines.
The Productivity Revolution: How AI Is Transforming the Business Landscape
Ok, fine, AI is the future. I convinced you. So what comes next? What does AI mean for businesses? Let’s take a look at where we are right now and where we might go from here.
As I mentioned before, AI is not a new and revolutionary technology; it’s always been there. It’s just that it has only been in the last couple of years that companies and users alike have acknowledged their existence. Do you know when the first artificial neuron was invented? 1943. And neural networks, the models powering oh so many of the modern implementations today, have been making the rounds since the 1980s.
Customer service chatbots, analytics tools, data gathering and data mining, pattern recognition, natural language processing (NLP), and market prediction models—I could fill this whole article with the many ways in which AI has found a niche in our industry. I promise you that even the most reticent anti-AI investor has implemented an AI solution without even knowing it.
To paraphrase Thanos, What have we gained? Everything:
Automation: By automating repetitive tasks through intelligent algorithms or virtual assistants powered by NLP, companies can free up valuable time and resources that would otherwise be spent on mundane activities. This newfound efficiency allows employees to focus on more strategic initiatives that drive innovation and growth.
Data Gathering and Processing: Let’s not forget about the power of data. In today’s digital age, businesses are swimming in an ocean of information—customer preferences, market trends, operational inefficiencies—you name it. But here’s the catch: Without AI-powered analytics tools to make sense of all that data, it becomes nothing more than a jumbled mess.
Actionable Insights: AI comes to the rescue once again by transforming raw data into actionable insights. It can analyze vast amounts of information at lightning speed and uncover hidden patterns or correlations that humans might miss. This newfound knowledge allows businesses to make informed decisions based on real-time data rather than relying on gut feelings or outdated strategies.
Real-Time Data Analysis: Quick, gather all your data, clean it, process it, and create an engaging storyline that can entice your investors. What do you mean you can’t do it in 5 seconds? AI certainly can. Thanks to faster data gathering and processing, we can create fully automated workflows that deliver results in seconds.
But is faster and more powerful enough to impair your productivity? Well, not quite. Like any technology, only when we implement it responsibly and with a clear goal can we expect to see results. Just implementing for the sake of chasing trends is bound to get you into more trouble than it’s worth.
AI-Powered Efficiency: How AI Empowers Workers
Let’s start with something simple. In a recent study using customer support agents, significant evidence was found that introducing conversational agents like ChatGPT can increase productivity by up to 15%. That’s an impressive number, but what’s even more impressive is where that increase actually happened.
According to the study, the employees that got the most out of conversational agents were newcomers and low-skilled workers, while the increase in productivity for the experienced workers was marginal at best.
The authors of the report theorize that this might be due to the fact that AIs like ChatGPT aren’t trained to be experts in an area; instead, they are a sort of jack-of-all-trades, which means very little for someone who is a veteran in a field, but it’s really helpful for people with very little knowledge, as it helps them move faster down the experience curve.
Training takes time and effort—time that your worker could be using in other tasks. So the fact that a new worker can just ask an AI and get a quick and assertive answer, instead of having to wait for the colleague to provide assistance, is bound to help them resolve the issue faster and learn the basic information about the business in less time.
There are literally hundreds of examples like this video, from developers and enthusiasts alike, showing how apps like ChatGPT have helped them learn how to code in a fraction of the time without relying on expensive workshops and boot camps. Now, I’ll be the first one to admit that ChatGPT isn’t going to turn you into a senior engineer, but it has enough information to help you quickly become acquainted with a new tech stack.
As an example, I’ve never been much of a fan of JavaScript (I’m more of a Python person), but when someone in the family asked me for help with a personal project, I saw it as a good opportunity to get my feet wet with the language. The idea was to create a webpage that would serve as a teacher’s assistant in helping the students learn best practices with chatbots.
In my regular work, I would’ve done it with Django or Fastapi, but this time around, I decided to try out TypeScript, and more specifically NestJS, a wonderful full-stack framework that caught my eye because of how robust it is and because the mascot is a cat (yes, I am that easy to convince).
If you’ve ever had to deal with Angular, then you know just how overwhelming it can be for newcomers. NestJS is based on Angular’s structure, and I’ve never used Angular in my life. Yes, I’m crying while writing these words.
So here I am, going over the documentation, pulling my hair out with every error, and then I see this video of a front-end developer that decides to learn C++ with the help of ChatGPT, and I go, “Hmmm, I could do the same.” Two months later, I have a functional app, and I know my way around NestJS, thanks to OpenAI.
Now, ChatGPT isn’t a wizard. Since the cutoff point is 2021, there is a lot that the tool doesn’t know. You still have to deal with deprecated functions and other stuff that requires you to work in tandem with the documentation. I learned a lot because ChatGPT taught me how to structure my code, how a project should scaffold, how to use the CLI, and so much more.
Of course, my success story is partly because I didn’t let ChatGPT do all the work. I didn’t copy and paste a single line without clearly understanding what it was doing, but seeing a firsthand implementation written in real time helped me get familiarized with both the framework and the language.
I would argue that traditional methods are falling behind, not only because of speed and precision but also because of customizability and approachability. Working with Bard, ChatGPT, or Bing is as easy as writing a message to a friend over the phone, with the caveat that this friend never sleeps and is there for me 24/7.
Let’s delve a little deeper into the implications.
AI Drives Productivity
Historically, productivity growth has been a primary determinant of long-term welfare and prosperity. While the pace of economic growth has been generally slow in recent years, we are seeing promising signs of a productivity surge reminiscent of the digital-technology-driven growth of the 1990s, driven this time by AI and Machine Learning development advancements. The surge in productivity is propelled by progress in software, hardware, data collection, and increased investment in advanced AI models.
Emerging research points to substantial productivity gains from AI’s applications across diverse tasks and occupations. AI is not just automating mundane tasks; it’s a “machine of the mind,” enabling cognitive work. Evidence suggests that software engineers can code up to twice as fast using AI tools. Similarly, writing tasks can also be completed twice as quickly, and economists can be 10–20% more productive. Call center operators who used generative AI technology have reportedly experienced a productivity boost of 14%. The benefits of AI don’t just stop at increased productivity; customer sentiment and employee retention rates also improve.
Despite criticisms that label AI tools as “stochastic parrots,” their value in the current economic landscape is undeniable. It’s crucial to remember that their economic value isn’t determined by their flawlessness but by their productivity-enhancing capacity. And by that measure, AI models are already making a significant impact.
A recent Goldman Sachs report suggested that generative AI could potentially increase global GDP by 7%, a considerable impact for a single technology. This forecast aligns with the potential productivity and output growth stemming from two key channels: increased efficiency of output production and the acceleration of innovation.
First, generative AI can make cognitive workers more efficient, leading to an increase in output. For instance, if AI could make cognitive workers 30% more productive, and if cognitive work contributes to about 60% of all value added in the economy, this could mean an 18% increase in productivity and output over the years.
Second, AI can expedite technological progress by boosting the productivity of cognitive workers involved in innovation, thereby contributing to perpetual productivity growth. Even a small increase in the productivity growth rate can have substantial cumulative effects over the years due to compounding, leading to a significantly larger economy in the long run.
The power of AI to transform productivity and, consequently, the labor market is undeniable. As we continue to unlock AI’s potential and overcome its limitations, we move closer to a future where AI acts as a powerful tool for improving productivity, driving economic growth, and reshaping the labor market in unprecedented ways.
No Sleep, No Burnout, No Complaints
If there is a lesson to be learned from Star Trek, it is that AI is a powerful and trustworthy companion as long as you don’t install an emotion chip. All joking aside, the ever-logical and reliable Data could process hundreds of millions of inputs in milliseconds and didn’t need sleep or rest.
The same can be said for our AI models, and it raises questions on how to create an AI. You are about to launch an app and want to see what the reaction is like in real-time. Social listening is the name of the game, and an AI model is the main player. Based on past market trends, the model can tell us the emotions surrounding the launch, the most common complaints, the target audience, the adoption rate down the line, and so much more.
That’s precious time that your team can invest in gathering feedback, prioritizing key areas of improvement, and start talking about fixes in real-time. Launches are always stressful, and the first few days are critical for building a strong foundation. You want your brand to be associated with quality, and AI can provide the feedback necessary to adapt and build solutions in those critical moments.
Unprecedented Flexibility: A World of Personalized Solutions
The beauty of AI doesn’t just lie in its automation capabilities or data processing powers; it’s also about the extraordinary flexibility it offers. Every business is unique, and no one-size-fits-all solution can address every organization’s diverse needs. AI offers the flexibility to create tailored solutions that perfectly align with a company’s specific requirements and objectives.
Take, for instance, personalization in the marketing domain. With AI, marketing teams can leverage predictive analytics and consumer data to craft highly personalized customer journeys. In turn, this leads to higher engagement, better conversion rates, and improved customer loyalty.
Or consider supply chain optimization, where AI can forecast demand, optimize inventory, and improve logistics, thereby streamlining operations and saving costs. In healthcare, AI-powered tools can assist doctors in diagnosis, treatment planning, and even predicting potential health risks.
Thus, AI’s flexibility enables businesses to harness its power in the areas that matter most to them, driving productivity and growth in a targeted and strategic manner.
Beyond enhancing productivity, AI also plays a central role in the development and implementation of disruptive technologies that are set to redefine the future. Innovative applications of AI are consistently breaking the mold, proving that AI’s impact goes far beyond boosting productivity. Its power to drive groundbreaking innovation can result in entirely new products, services, and business models that can transform industries.
For instance, in the automotive industry, AI powers the technology behind autonomous vehicles, which promises to revolutionize transportation. In the financial sector, AI and blockchain are combining to create more secure and efficient methods for transactions and contracts. The potential applications are limitless, and the innovative power of AI continues to surprise us.
To summarize, AI is no longer an optional addition to your tech stack or a distant reality. It’s an integral part of our present and an indispensable ally for our future. Ignoring AI or delaying its adoption could put you behind in the productivity race and limit your innovation potential.
But remember, like any powerful tool, AI is most effective when used responsibly and strategically. Blindly implementing AI solutions without clearly understanding your business needs and goals can lead to wasted resources and missed opportunities.
So, start with a clear vision of what you want to achieve with AI. Understand its strengths and limitations. And most importantly, view AI as a partner—one that can drive your productivity, fuel your innovation, and steer you toward a prosperous future.
Embrace the AI revolution, and let it propel you forward. Let it be your ally in creating a world where productivity isn’t a hindrance but a boost, where innovation isn’t an exception but a norm, and where the future isn’t something to fear but something to anticipate with excitement. Welcome to the era of AI-powered productivity. Welcome to the future.
If you enjoyed this, be sure to check out our other AI articles.
