How do you explain AI to your clients?

Sometimes to explain something, you need to start with what it is not. For example, when I explain AI in the context of digital experiences and how it can elevate and up level digital experiences for customers, partners, and employees- I like to start with clarifying that it does not exist to replace a human. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of machines to mimic human cognitive functions such as learning and problem-solving. AI is a tool that can be used to augment and assist human workers. Tasks that can be easily predicted are better suited for machines, while tasks that require critical thinking or judgment should always be left to humans.

I focus on AI really just being cool sounding math. The biggest pitfall you can get into when thinking about AI is the tendency to personify the technology. It's natural to explain a bad answer by thinking - this AI is "dumb." Reality is, it's a game of understanding the probability of the right next move - be it document translation, self-driving cars, predicting the weather or a chatbot. It helps explain learning and fine-tuning as just more background to get better odds of being correct. If you ignore the technical aspects of how its built, and instead focus on how answers are being delivered, it becomes a lot less mysterious (even if like me, you were never a math superstar in school).

Imagine a technology or an assistant that can understand your people's needs, work and help getting that done faster. For example, if your Marketing department is supposed to do a "new product announcement and has a very rough draft for it, AI can help create a fully finished content. Imagine if your sales department is about to meet prospect then AI can prepare a summary about that client and also a draft pitch for you. Imagine a technology that can read your business emails and prepare draft responses, Or helps you prepare for an important meeting by automatically reading and understanding past documents you have created/received or reading through the scribes from your past meetings, that's what is AI. It's "Human inside a Machine".

Similar to the question of what the internet is, we could highlight the idea that it is a combination of software and hardware. With the difference that it is not primarily about connecting the hardware, but about using the mass of data and integrating methods (such as association techniques and others) to get a match and a result for the formulated question. And knowing that the optimal match is probably not yet found, which in fact leads to more computation.

Explaining the intricacies of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to clients can be a tightrope walk between oversimplification and information overload. The key is to make it relatable.. Highlight real-world applications that directly impact their industry, whether it's predictive maintenance for manufacturing or customer sentiment analysis for retail. Use success stories or case studies to illustrate ROI. Avoid buzzwords like "neural networks" or "machine learning algorithms"; instead, focus on outcomes—how AI can save time, reduce costs, or increase revenue. Be transparent about limitations to manage expectations.

As an AI Leadership Coach, my choice to incorporate AI is rooted in its transformative potential. By harnessing AI-driven tools and analytics, I empower leaders to enhance their decision-making processes. For instance, we can analyze extensive datasets to identify leadership patterns, customize leadership development programs, or even use natural language processing to assess communication skills. This strategic integration of AI not only optimizes leadership effectiveness but also positions organizations for competitive advantages in the ever-evolving business landscape.

The same way people started using cars instead of horse & carriages; or a printing press instead of handwriting thousands of identical papers - it just makes things more efficient. Automate business processes, cut out boring & mundane tasks, free up your time for more quality, creative work! Think of AI as a new tool in your toolbox. It is only as good as you are. A builder with a hammer is way better than a chef using one. Therefore, it’s in our hands, to upskill ourselves to be able to use AI for a multitude of things. Not using AI in the coming decade, is equivalent to Business suicide.

AI is very handy when you have a lot of data to analyze to find patterns and continue refining the knowledge extracted from the data (patterns). It helps to enhance human expert capacity by the order of magnitude and train newbies a good deal of specialized knowledge

AI is a set of algorithms usually in a secure IT environment trained with initial data and operating with input data to produce human-like results analyzing the inputs. From human point of view it can operate reactively and provide the output only when tasked with a question or proactively providing suggestions through predefined communication channels (triggered by human activity around certain processes)

Don't sugar coat or ignore the "risk factor" when it comes to discussing AI implementation. My audience is primarily legal professionals and sometimes it "takes one to know one". I wouldn't advocate for any solution that doesn't have integrity and trust at its foundation. If I don't feel comfortable about guardrails and authoritative and valid data, I would move on. AI is complex but it's governing principles aren't rocket science. Trust but verify!

The biggest challenge is to explain how is it beneficial to an organization other than transactional chatbot mode of Q&A. The next in line is overblown expectations of magic working without much of an input.

The AI is with us for much more time than ChatGPT and MIdJourney with music written by a model mid last century and machine winning over human champion in chess. It's important to understand that right now most of us mean "generative AI" when referring to something as AI.