Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way businesses operate, and its use is expected to become even more widespread in the future.
Ken Opremke, regional manager for Ben Franklin Technology Partners in northeastern Pennsylvania, said he is seeing more and more business models that leverage AI.
Ben Franklin makes seed investments in early-stage technology companies, funds innovation for existing manufacturers, and supports clients with its in-house experts and network of technical and business resources.
“This is not just a cool technology, it's a useful tool that will drive marketing and business efficiencies,” Opremke said.
Bethany Staples, executive creative director and CEO of Market Share Consulting in Olyphant, said that while she had personally dabbled in using AI when ChatGPT was released, it wasn't until this summer that she felt comfortable using it in her marketing and consulting business.
“That's when we started to see the value of using AI for repetitive tasks and automating things that would otherwise take a huge amount of time so they can be easily done in half the time,” Staples said.
But she doesn’t like using AI for the creative aspects of her work.
“Traditionally, in the marketing world, I think people expect to use it for content creation and Photoshopping certain things and stuff. Personally, I'm not there yet,” Staples said.
The AI-generated materials clearly look like they were created by a robot, she said.
“So we're very mindful of that, especially in the marketing world, when it comes to creating content for social media, writing original content,” Staples said. “It feels less human, because it's obvious that you're talking to a robot and not a human.”
Cheating and hallucinations
These days, AI technology is perhaps best known for doing everything from writing reports and newspaper articles to creating original images based on other images, at the user's request.
Using it to cheat in school is one thing that many people are concerned about.
Kim Pavlick, an associate professor in the School of Communication and Media Studies at the University of Scranton, has been exploring the topic of AI with her students for about three semesters.
“I explain to my students that AI is like a calculator. We use calculators now to do calculations, but our parents' generation was amazed at why people would use calculators to do calculations. Now people are amazed at AI. AI is a tool. If you don't know how to use the tool and don't use it correctly, AI is useless,” Pavlic said.
She also warns students about “hallucinations,” a phenomenon in which AI large-scale language models (LLMs) create false information by perceiving patterns or objects that don't exist or are imperceptible to a human observer.
Pavlic said AI cannot replace humans who use critical thinking at work.
“AI may not take your job, but someone who knows how to leverage it may,” she said.
Versatile Uses
AI is being used in many areas of business beyond content creation, from auto repair and sales to manufacturing and medicine.
“Our AI focus is applying data science to clinical and operational practice,” David Vaudrey, Geisinger's chief data and information officer, said in an email.
Vaudrey said Geisinger is exploring generative AI capabilities, but that the risks and limitations associated with current AI tools, including misinformation, bias and privacy concerns, mean the involvement of human experts is essential.
Like other health systems, Geisinger will soon begin evaluating “ambient clinical documentation,” using generative AI to draft doctor’s notes during consultations, with patient permission.
“Doctors will still need to review and edit drafts, but if a computer system can help ease the paperwork burden, they'll be able to devote more time and attention to patients,” Vaudrey said.
Blue collar bot?
David Centak, general manager of Subaru of Wyoming Valley in Plains County, said car dealerships can use AI chatbots to answer basic customer questions about cars for sale on the company's website and generate sales leads.
It can also be used to diagnose engine and other car systems, although Subaru of Wyoming Valley isn't using AI for those purposes yet.
“But it's almost certain that it will be incorporated at some point in the future,” Sen-Tak said.
Kevin Jones, co-owner and CEO of VizVibe, a transmedia company based in the Luzerne Bank Building in downtown Wilkes-Barre, said his company is using AI to support its core business: augmented reality (AR) for industrial solutions.
VizVibe creates computer programs that, for example, allow a supervisor to hand a tablet or smartphone to an assembly line worker, who can then use the camera to see a piece of machinery on the screen, tap on the screen showing the part, and text or video instructions on how to properly use or operate that part are overlaid on the screen.
“We're using AI to do image recognition of these parts, to help with troubleshooting, service, maintenance and overlaying content that gives instructions on the machine or assembly line in manufacturing more quickly,” Jones said.
“The benefits are numerous: production lines will run faster, there will be less downtime, and product will flow better,” he added. “Meanwhile, production line workers can use AI to report trouble spots, and the AI will learn where the trouble spots are, what's broken, and preventative maintenance can be performed more quickly.”
Jones said AI can also reduce logistics production times, as employers can use it to generate reports on assembly lines.
“It can tell you if there’s a big machine in this location, or if something’s stuck in this location,” Jones said. “And then you can use that information and data from the AI along with the AR overlay to help you be more productive.”
Companions of History
Jones said AI and AR are also being used in the travel and tourism industry.
VizVibe developed a smartphone app that allows people taking Walkitecture history tours of Wilkes-Barre to take images of historic buildings, then uses AI to display information about the buildings.
The app will be further developed with the help of AI, allowing it to recognise questions about buildings and people spoken into the smartphone and show pre-recorded videos of actors or historians from the period answering the question directly.
Like Pavlick, Jones sees AI as a tool.
“In the long run, on the industry side, it's probably going to take people's jobs because manufacturing and production and things like that will become a lot more efficient,” Jones said. “But the jobs that will remain will be higher paying, more sophisticated jobs. So, I think it's a double-edged sword in that respect.” – The Citizen's Voice/Tribune News Service
