Using AI to Our Advantage
#1 Tableau Pulse
Over the past year, the buzz surrounding AI has flooded into our daily conversations, social media, classrooms, and just about anywhere you can think of. Despite the amazing contributions AI can have, some companies have started to restrict their employees from using common tools like ChatGBT, Bard, etc. There are many concerns with inputting confidential company information into these models because all data is kept.
So you might ask what are ways we can use AI efficiently and safely in a business environment?
As of May 2023, Tableau, the widely used data analytics and visualization software, announced their new service, “Tableau Pulse”. This new generation of Tableau brings generative AI into the hands of analysts unleashing faster decision making and more personalized analytics.
A common issue in today's business environment is that datasets can be too large to comprehend. Tableau Pulse connects the worlds of Large Language Models and data analytics within seconds. Analysts are able to stay in their flow of work while Pulse uses its trusted plethora of data to give new insights into your data at scale.
Pulse can give solutions to real business problems, create visuals for sales teams, and monitor real-time inputs. Pulse is powered by Tableau-GBT giving it access to trained models prepared to assist you in every way it can.
This groundbreaking technology is currently exclusive to users of Salesforce Data Cloud who have requested access, but in the future how could this affect data analysis as a whole? Could this be the next step forward in data analytics as Blockchain was to finance? Keep an eye out on Pulse as it could help you create faster and more precise solutions to common problems in your career. Do you think Tableau Pulse has the potential to be a revolutionary innovation for data analysts?
#2 Synthesia
Another very interesting tool is Synthesia. Synthesia is a company that has harnessed the power of AI to create presentations with the appearance of a real person presenting it. All you need to do is choose a style of presentation and enter the script you would like it to read. Synthesia will then create a full presentation that looks almost indistinguishable from a real presentation.
You can choose from up to 150 avatars to present your script and it can be presented in over 130 different languages/accents. You are able to add gestures to your avatars as well as record your voice for the software to replicate. Another amazing feature is that you can add your PowerPoint slides in the background and the avatar will present your slides.
This is an amazing tool that can be used for content creation, marketing, and a variety of other things. This tool is used by over 50,000 companies and boasts a rating of 4.8/5. It is very intuitive to use and has great documentation.
Before this revolutionary tool, creating professional videos like those created through Synthesia would be very costly and time-consuming. You can now do it in seconds and for a fraction of the cost. The personal option is $30 a month with the ability to create up to 10 videos per month. There is also an enterprise-level option with undisclosed pricing that is suited for larger presentations with more information. One issue regarding Synthesia for enterprises is that there tend to be small errors in the dubbing of the avatar that could be seen as unprofessional. Down the road, however, this tool could become the industry standard due to its cost-saving and ease of use. Would you trade cost for a possible lack of personality in presentations/marketing?
#3 QAI
Quantum Computing and Artificial Intelligence. Two of the most talked about and transformational technologies of the decade will soon be combined. Often referenced as “QAI”, this combination will have revolutionary implications to the way we process information.
At its core, quantum computing uses qubits while classical computers use bits (1s & 0s). Qubits can represent both ones and zeros at the same time, allowing for much faster processing. In business speed can be everything, and having the ability to maneuver through massive amounts of data in milliseconds will be revolutionary.
At the moment companies like IBM are spearheading the development of quantum computers, but it is mainly in the experimental phase. When combined with artificial intelligence, the processing speed of the LLMs will increase dramatically and they will only get better. They will be able to learn more, make more correlations, solve harder problems, and many other things we couldn’t even fathom.
In my opinion, a big game changer is how this will affect unsupervised machine learning. Unsupervised machine learning is basically just a machine learning algorithm that is tasked with finding new trends without the help of human intervention. It will look for patterns and correlations based on large amounts of data. With quantum computing however, massive amounts of data can be analyzed in seconds to look for any correlations that might not even be known. We will be able to discover new connections between things just because of the speed and accuracy of quantum computers.
Another instance is the development of new substances. Quantum computers will be able to simulate molecules down to the quantum level and discover new materials that will advance industries like medicine, electronics, and probably every industry out there.
What would you like to see done with quantum computers?
#4 Otter.ai
The next amazing innovation in artificial intelligence is Otter.ai. Otter is a software that can transcribe all meetings into cleanly organized notes. This software is crucial in business environments as it allows you to focus on the conversation without having to be distracted with taking notes. The software simply records your conversations and uses artificial intelligence to decipher what is being said. Otter has an accuracy of around 75% - 90% and does best in small rooms with low echo. Otter even does a great job of picking up accents and who is speaking. You have the ability to go back and listen or read the transcriptions. You can correct, highlight, make diagrams and more within Otter.
Another amazing feature of Otter is that you can set it to join any meetings that you may not be able to attend. Otter will automatically join the meeting and transcribe the entire conversation. It picks up on action items that will be highlighted, emphasizing the importance of getting those things done. You are even able to link your Google or Microsoft Calendar and Otter will join every meeting, giving you crisp notes every time. I think this is extremely important because I’ve definitely had the experience of not having meetings overlap. It can cause anxiety when you feel like you are missing out on crucial information but with Otter this will no longer be a problem.
Otter is free unless you cross the allotted minutes (300) allowed then it becomes 16.99 per month. In my opinion the price is worth it if you have regular weekly meetings because it will allow you to be so much more involved in your meetings. Could you see yourself using Otter? What do you wish Otter added to their software?