Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace

Artificial intelligence, or AI for short, is being given an ever-greater role in the modern world of work. AI can be used in many areas of work, for example in company automation, in the management of employee data or in content creation. But to what extent can software companies use artificial intelligence to make their everyday work more productive? What kinds of problems can arise when using it? These and other questions we want to answer for you in the following blog post!

Areas of use for artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is a versatile tool for making many different areas of work easier. It can be used effectively to automate company processes. For example, chatbots can support customer service, gather initial information about the customer and also answer simple customer questions directly. AI can help with sorting your emails and categorize individual emails by content, subject or language.

In HR, AI can support applicant management, for example by carrying out automatic analyses to pre-sort applicants. Employee onboarding can also be created, optimized and carried out with the help of artificial intelligence.

Accounting also benefits from the application of AI: invoices can be automatically recorded and processed using artificial intelligence. When creating invoices, it can also be helpful to be able to skip individual steps such as data entry.

Artificial intelligence is also a powerful tool for content creation. Whether texts, images or videos, there is now a suitable offering for many things. Especially when creating larger volumes, the assistance of an AI can save time by providing initial drafts or suggestions for improvement.

Fundamentally, a sensibly used AI can tend to bring relief to the company in the areas of working time and error rates. But should you use artificial intelligence in your company and to what extent? Hopefully you will be able to answer that question for yourself by the end of this post.

Challenges and ethical questions

Alongside all the helpful possibilities that arise from the use of AI, it is also important to pay attention to the critical points. In the EU, and especially in Germany, an important point is data protection and compliance with the GDPR. Since common AIs such as ChatGPT draw their information from the internet, it is important to always check the source of the program to make sure that when using the created content you are not inadvertently using third-party ideas without permission. The question also arises of how to prevent an AI from being biased through being fed incorrect data. In times when hate speech is spreading more and more on the internet, artificial intelligences can be influenced by this. As a result, if the created content is not checked, misinformation can be passed on.

Outlook for the future

In recent years, artificial intelligence has steadily developed in all respects. The best example of this development is the language model ChatGPT. Initially, the AI behind it was still very rudimentary, made many mistakes, was stylistically poor and still had a lot to learn. By now, this particular AI has improved significantly and is used daily around the world. But here the question arises of how much further artificial intelligence can develop. Will artificial intelligence become more intelligent and more autonomous in the future? And which industries will be most influenced by the further development of AI? Only the future can answer that question!

Tools

Below you will find a list of different AI tools that you can use for your various needs.

Chatbots

• ChatGPT: Probably the most common chatbot, used by people all around the world. ChatGPT is user-friendly and draws its information from the internet as well as from entered prompts. The AI is particularly well suited to, for example, gathering initial information as part of a research exercise or stylistically enhancing texts.
• Drift: Drift is a chatbot whose use is well suited to customer contact. Drift can make initial contact with your customers on your behalf, gather initial information and also answer customers’ first questions. This way you can save time for your employees and quickly bring the customer to the desired solution with a well-functioning AI.

Intercom: Like Drift, Intercom is also a chatbot created for customer contact.

AIs for accounting

• DATEV AI: The invoicing and tax software DATEV uses some AI functions to make processes faster and smoother for its customers. For example, you can automate your invoices or your bank service.

Marketing and content

• Grammarly: This AI is specifically created to check your texts for grammatical errors. Grammarly is also trained to recognize good style in texts.
• Jasper AI: JasperAI is a broadly positioned AI solution for the marketing field. This artificial intelligence offers solutions for, for example, creating posts on social media, supporting branding or developing marketing concepts.

Will AI become your new employee?

How much you use artificial intelligence in your own company is up to you and depends entirely on what plans you are pursuing in the future. Do you simply want to support the processes of your company, further advance the automation of your company, carry out improved analyses or perhaps even reduce working hours at the request of your employees? With all the tasks in which AI can assist, it is always important to bear in mind that even an AI can make mistakes. The results of an artificial intelligence should always be checked for errors by a person. It is also important to note that an AI cannot feel human emotions. Therefore, creative elements, such as texts or images, should also always be checked and revised by a person. An AI therefore cannot act completely independently and the results should always be checked by a person. An artificial intelligence also needs instructions in order to act. These must be formulated, varied and applied, for which you also need employees.

Automation without AI

Especially in the last two years, AI has been very much hyped. The tools were attributed a savior role and the sheer abundance of possibilities seemed to grow to the sky. New breakthroughs were achieved and celebrated on a weekly basis. New business models were conceived and ” powered by AI” became a catchphrase – even for things where hardly any “real” AI was being used.

Although the influence of AI is undoubtedly great and will continue to grow, it is important to maintain a certain level of sobriety. Yes, AI helps many employees and companies to complete tasks faster and more easily – but not infrequently, the solution for greater efficiency lies in the process itself. Do I need an AI to give me clever tips for my Excel evaluations? Or isn’t there a better solution that automatically generates the evaluation for me? Is it a great help to have the AI write quotes for me? Or is it faster to work with templates and a service catalog?

In many cases you do not need to use artificial intelligence to optimize your company processes. To improve, for example, your invoicing or time tracking in the company, there is now a large selection of software available, such as projectfacts. Our ERP software for your company supports you thanks to over 25 years of experience with, for example, invoicing, project management and time tracking. Even in the modern world of work you can therefore take your company to the next level without using artificial intelligence. We are happy to support you in finding the perfect solution for you, contact us here!