How businesses can use ChatGPT

What if you could take business automation to the next level and get back days and even weeks? Well, the artificial intelligence research lab, OpenAI, says the latest version of the AI system that powers ChatGPT (GPT-4) is more creative, less likely to make up facts and less biased than its predecessor, according to The Guardian.

ChatGPT specifically has become a viral sensation and has the potential to completely flip how many of us will perform day-to-day business activities. Enterprise tech companies, like Microsoft and Coles, are taking this very seriously and adopting the technology into their products and services, as reported by the Australian Financial Review.

The Guardian also reports that OpenAI has also worked with commercial partners to offer GPT-4-powered services. Essentially, AI as a work tool is becoming ever more accessible to businesses.

What is ChatGPT?

On November 30, 2022, ChatGPT launched, providing technology that answers questions in a very conversational way. It is smart enough to remember previous parts of your conversation so a dialogue can grow, and you feel as though you are talking to another person. Pulling from books, web texts, articles, Wikipedia, and other pieces of writing on the Web, the system learned over 300 billion words.

I’ve been very interested in hearing how other people are using it, and the examples seem to be endless. Some are using it to write code, create a blog article, craft a contract, and even write a high school essay (don’t tell my nephew I shared his secret). So, I put it to the test and asked ChatGPT “how can you help businesses?”

Within six seconds, the tool generated a list of ways that it can help businesses of all sizes and industries improve their operations, serve their customers better, and save money. Let’s dive into them:

Automating customer service

Companies around the world have already started using ChatGPT’s integration with their chatbots to automate customer interactions while maintaining a personal experience. This can be done by training it on frequently asked questions (FAQs) or how to respond in other languages. It can even connect with a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to pull customer information into conversations. For companies that are growing but cannot afford to bring more people on, this can be a real game changer, especially in Australia’s inflation crisis.

Content creation

Need some help generating more content? Ask ChatGPT to write you a 500-word blog post on a relevant topic or write a LinkedIn post to promote recent news. Our content team has already been putting this into action and using ChatGPT to expedite our research process when crafting new material. While it is powerful, I will caution that it lacks the strategic intentions and personality behind strong content, so we use it as a starting point to build off.

Personalisation

Since ChatGPT can be integrated with CRM software such as ECI Solutions’ M1’s CRM features, marketing teams can use it to generate personalised messages for email campaigns, and customer service chatbots can have more impactful conversations.

M1 is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for the manufacturing industry that optimises visibility, coordination, and management across an organisation’s facility. M1’s contact management feature can assist your employees and customers by responding to FAQs relating to your products and services. Additionally, the Mail Merge feature saves time communicating with both customers and suppliers by creating standard templates to automate your communication. These features can all be enhanced by ChatGPT’s functions.

Generating summaries

Don’t have the time to read through an 11-page white paper, or want to provide a teaser to a recent industry report on your blog? The AI tool will help speed up that process for you. Just copy and paste the copy or enter the URL and ask it to summarise it for you. Within seconds, you have what you need.

Language translation

If there is an opportunity to boost your customer base in other countries, don’t let the language barriers scare you away. ChatGPT can help translate web pages, documents, emails, and chatbot conversations. The tool can be trained to understand multiple languages and is even smart enough to understand idiomatic expressions, or phrases that cannot be translated word-for-word, and convey the original meaning.

Predictive analytics

If you are having trouble understanding large amounts of unstructured data, you can use ChatGPT to help make sense of it all. It can help you predict product demands and inventory needs, when equipment will need to be repaired or replaced, and even learn from a customer’s browsing and purchase history to help determine product recommendations.

Looking to use a more integrated software tool to automate these functions even further? ECI’s M1 software can do this for you too. This cloud-based business management software minimises workflow struggles, providing businesses with invaluable insight into their entire operation. By streamlining pain points such as quoting, scheduling, inventory, shipping and invoicing cost of goods, manufacturing SMEs can keep productivity high and headcount low.

What you need to know before you get started:

• It’s not very current—ChatGPT creates its responses based on previous inputs and existing information. As it stands today, it has limited knowledge of events after 2021, so keep that in mind if you are thinking of using it for an article on current trends or a recent event that has happened.
• Don’t trust it blindly—while it’s not very common, ChatGPT can provide false answers. There are various reasons for this and a big one is that it is relying on information already out there that may not be accurate to begin with. Make sure you fact-check when necessary.
• Be cautious sharing personal information—I asked the chatbot if it stores personal information and while it said no, it did advise that users should provide the minimum amount of personal information to keep those details safe and secure.

Below is a screenshot of ChatGPT’s response to my original question. As you can tell, I did not use the copy that it originally provided to write this article, but I did use it to help get me started.

Some people may find this exciting technology to be threatening to their jobs, but those who look at it as an asset will thrive. At the end of the day, it cannot replace human thinking and natural creativity, so use AI tools like ChatGPT to help you improve, not do, your work.