The Next Frontier of Service

The Next Frontier of Service

In previous articles, we’ve talked about the Engaged Team Performance (ETP) approach – its results, successes, implementation steps, and many of the underlying principles – as well as a number of other stories about organizational improvement.?

Our?last newsletter?went back to the year 1415 to see what a battle from over 600 years ago can teach us about business transformation today. As King Henry V found at the Battle of Agincourt, teams can get inspired by a tough challenge, and a win against tough odds makes for an even better story.

This time, we’ll dig into a topic that’s getting quite popular, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) engines like ChatGPT to create documents and communicate with real people. As we’ll see, the emerging technology there could drive great value, disruption, and transformation!

ChatGPT

In a recent news article about quiet quitting (the topic of a prior newsletter,?here), one of the stories there was about a person who held four jobs at once (getting paid four times too, of course), by using an artificial intelligence (AI) engine to produce his work outputs. While this could seem to some like cheating the system, there’s likely a broader lesson: a person used AI to cut his workload by 4x. If one person can do that, there’s likely a use case for companies to automate some of their communications and document work as well.

Up until a few months ago, our exposure to ChatGPT was fairly light, mostly watching the interactions that my sister was having on a popular AI-driven SnapChat application. The robot was generally very nice, declining to participate in edgy topics and mainly saying things that were couched in politically correct platitudes. It seemed pretty harmless, and its programmers had likely given it those boundaries in order to stay out of trouble. On the other hand, its answers were quite specific, well-reasoned, and articulate, and so the first impression there was that the technology had evolved pretty far and pretty fast.

Newsletters, by ChatGPT

So, we decided to try it out for real.

One of the business tasks at our company that involves communications skills is actually writing the newsletter you’re reading. We generally think of this activity as an opportunity rather than a chore, but it does take a substantial amount of time to pick a story and try to connect it with a business topic. So, we decided to give the real ChatGPT robot the task of writing a newsletter… and, WOW.?

We went to?chat.openai.com?and entered a simple prompt:

Create a newsletter article about Implementation Partners, LLC that showcases product and service offerings - focus on the perspective that transformation and modernization approaches are more beneficial.

And then the robot took about 10 seconds to write this:

Dear valued readers,

We are excited to introduce Implementation Partners, LLC, a leading provider of innovative solutions for organizations looking to transform and modernize their business operations. With a focus on delivering results that drive growth and profitability, Implementation Partners is dedicated to providing exceptional service and unparalleled expertise to clients across a range of industries.

At Implementation Partners, we believe that transformation and modernization approaches are essential for organizations to remain competitive in today's rapidly changing business environment. Our product and service offerings are designed to help companies stay ahead of the curve by streamlining processes, improving efficiency, and maximizing performance.

Our team of experienced consultants brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to each engagement, working closely with clients to identify their unique challenges and develop customized solutions that address their specific needs. Whether it's optimizing supply chain operations, improving customer experience, or leveraging advanced analytics to drive business insights, Implementation Partners has the expertise and resources to help clients achieve their goals.

One of our flagship offerings …?[deleted three paragraphs for brevity here, but this was our only edit!]

At Implementation Partners, we are committed to delivering exceptional service and unparalleled expertise to our clients. Whether you're looking to transform your business operations, modernize your IT infrastructure, or optimize your supply chain, our team of experts is here to help. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you achieve your business goals.

There are a few things that stand out in this response….

First, this is a really good description of our services, perhaps knowing us almost as well as we know ourselves. The language is a bit formulaic, and so we might adjust it a bit, but we’re considering putting some of this on our new website when we relaunch it, fairly soon.?

Second, the AI engine was able to properly find our business based only on the name and didn’t confuse us with another company. It did this without having to be oriented to our website or requiring any other identifying information.

Third, and finally, we only used the free version available at?chat.openai.com?for this trial, sometimes referred to as GPT-3.5. OpenAI also offers a paid version, called ChatGPT Plus, which is significantly more powerful, offers more capabilities, and eliminates many of the limitations imposed for the free version.

Anyway, the point is that the ChatGPT application is cheap, already very mature, and quite useful.

Customer Service, the Next Frontier

Now, take those points, pay only $20 a month for the full platform, and multiply it by a million times across almost every industry.?

Some of our clients have hundreds of people that prepare documents, answer email and chat questions, and interact in writing with their clients and partners all day, every day. Some of those companies are currently considering AI solutions for communication. Even automating some of their more rudimentary written interactions could offer a substantial reduction in cost, along with the even greater benefits of providing consistent answers to client questions and enabling greater regulatory compliance.

In the near term, they will have to do enough diligence to make sure that the AI-driven answers are legally compliant as well as being perceived to be “human” enough for their customers, and there will likely be some robot-fearing backlash if those interactions sound impersonal. Many companies seem to be working on this right now, and the day will likely come soon where you really can’t tell the difference between a personal answer and a robot-driven one. Once that happens, everything will change quickly.

In conclusion, this feels like it’s going to get really big really fast, and it may be quite disruptive to the service jobs of the past. Hopefully the world will get the best from the technology while also orienting people on creative things that they will always do better than robots, whatever those things turn out to be!

Thanks for reading. Feel free to reach out to us to continue the conversation on how our experience at Implementation Partners can help you see the big picture to grow, sustain, and/or improve your business.

All the best,

James Starbird and Dodd Starbird

About the Authors:

A certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt,?James Starbird?leads the Technology Strategy and Digital Transformation practice for?Implementation Partners LLC. He has worked in the public and private sectors in technology (SaaS), financial services, consumer products, healthcare services and distribution logistics industries. He specializes in driving process improvement efforts by combining business operations and technology strategy methodologies to develop holistic solutions. James has a BS in Business Management from the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business and an MBA from Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business.

As the Managing Partner for?Implementation Partners LLC,?Dodd Starbird?leads change efforts that consistently achieve exceptional results for clients. Implementation Partners exists to inspire and enable every leader to transform their organizations by giving every employee a chance to contribute their best work on an engaged, sustainable, winning team. Dodd is the author of two business books,?The Joy of Lean?(ASQ Quality Press, 2016) and?Building Engaged Team Performance?(McGraw-Hill, 2010).

See the?Joy of Lean?webinar from ASQ Quality Press – hit the link to connect to the Webex:?https://asq.webex.com/asq/lsr.php?RCID=96db9102823f47a3ba1eb37336764766

Dodd Starbird

Managing Partner

Implementation Partners LLC

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