Prompt engineering, AI tools for businesses and an AI that can eavesdrop on passwords

AI tools and where they are used in the enterprise

Artificial intelligence: a much-discussed buzzword in our modern working world that is associated with many hopes, but also challenges. The fact is: AI has become an integral part of many companies. And for good reason, because in some areas it can definitely make processes more efficient. In particular, AI tools, i.e. software programs that use AI, can help companies analyze and interpret data more efficiently. This allows them to make data-driven decisions not only faster, but also more accurately. Such tools are used in a variety of areas: from marketing, to sales, to product optimization. But they also offer potential for other areas that may be less obvious:

One application area which is sometimes underestimated is search engine optimization (SEO). AI has the ability to increase the online visibility of companies by improving various aspects of SEO: for example, the selection of relevant keywords, on-page optimization, or the creation of content for the website. AI tools such as Surfer or Neuroflash, for example, analyze user search behavior, suggest appropriate keywords, or analyze dwell time and traffic sources. This allows companies to better understand user needs and quickly adapt their SEO strategy to new trends and algorithms.

AI tools can also assist in organizing and conducting internal and external meetings. For example, some tools are able to search calendars, detect scheduling conflicts and automatically find suitable meeting times for all participants. During a meeting, tools such as Otter.ai or Fireflies.ai can transcribe the discussion in real time, highlight important points and create a summary.

The potential applications of AI also extend to supply chain management. Here, AI tools analyze historical sales data and relevant factors to create accurate demand forecasts. This prevents overstocking and understocking and can optimize inventory levels. For example, with tools such as Llamasoft, FourKites, or TransVoyant, companies can simulate supply chains, forecast delivery arrival times, and gain real-time insights into the global supply chain.

The potential of AI tools can therefore be harnessed in a wide range of business areas – and it may be worth embarking on a voyage of discovery in this regard.

What is certain is that now is the time for experimentation and training in the use of AI tools in companies, because many companies are just discovering the competitive advantages of AI tools and some companies are even already developing their own AI tools to become more competitive.

Prompt Engineering

The use of chatbots has long since developed beyond traditional customer support and service areas and is now finding more and more diverse areas of application in almost all industries. One way to make better use of chatbots is “prompt engineering”. But what exactly is behind this term and how can it be used in different areas?

The concept of prompt engineering

Prompt engineering goes far beyond simply formulating an instruction for an AI. Rather, it is the art of designing a clear, targeted, and effective input to get the appropriate result from the AI. A prompt represents the instruction to the AI. The precise formulation of this instruction is the key to high-quality results.

Prompt engineering to stand out from the competition

The universality of AIs makes them valuable tools for almost all industries. In marketing, applications range from content generation to market analysis. In process automation, AIs can collect and analyze data from various sources and derive instructions for action. In the automotive industry, they contribute to the development of new vehicle models. However, all areas have one thing in common: to stand out from the competition, high-quality content is required, which can be achieved through professional and targeted prompt engineering.

The art of the successful prompt

?To be able to create effective prompts, you need more than just technical know-how.? Creativity and the ability to empathize with the machine and the desired context are crucial skills for prompt engineering. In the application, the prompt for text generation, or in the area of process automation for example, must be tailor-made — i.e. provide sufficient context and background information. Image generation, on the other hand, requires short, concise sentences. For example, if you want to generate an image of the future of the digital world, in the style of a painting, you should formulate the prompt simply: A painting of the future of the digital world. If there are too many filler words or ambiguous information, the AI cannot implement the prompt according to its own ideas: A picture of the digital future with many robot people, with colors, should look like a painting with digital elements, without people.?

Prompts should be clear and precise to avoid misinterpretation, but still leave room for creative pattern recognition and generation by the AI. Experimenting with different prompts, as well as studying the documentation of different AIs, can provide valuable insights into understanding what kind of instructions are expected.

Industry-specific differences in wording

The wording of prompts varies depending on the application situation and industry. Each industry has its own terms, goals and nuances that need to be considered in the instructions given to the AI. In industrial applications, precision and expertise is critical, while in marketing, creativity and emotional appeal are paramount. Context and specific industry requirements should always be considered when formulating prompts to achieve appropriate results.

Conclusion: The power of targeted input

• Prompt engineering significantly expands the possibilities for using generative AIs.
• Depending on the industry, it requires short and precise or extensive and detailed formulations.
• Technical understanding, creativity and application skills are the keys to realizing the full potential of generative AI.

Whether in marketing, industry or other sectors, effective prompt engineering paves the way to more efficient and resource-saving work. It is therefore worthwhile to see prompt engineering as a strategic future skill and to promote it.

by Markus G?rlich, CTO i40 - the future skills company

AI-assisted Photography

A camera, a photographer, a subject and the right lighting - that's all it takes to take a picture, you might think. Artificial intelligence has already caused transformations in many areas, which can now also be seen in photography.

Programs like Midjourney and co. make it possible to generate images by entering prompts. However, to capture moments from the current perspective, one still needs a camera. Here, too, "intelligent assistants" can already be found that can simplify image capture and improve the quality of the shots. New models make it easier for the photographer to adjust lighting and focus through AI modification, and some smartphone cameras already recognize objects in the background and automatically adjust the background sharpness. Even surveillance cameras can use AI to detect whether there are people, animals or packages in the area being recorded.

With his AI camera, called Paragraphica, the Dane Bj?rn Karmann now brings together the image generation and enhancement of AI and the snapshot of a camera, because he has built a mini-computer into a 3D-printed camera housing. By inputting key data about its own location - time of day, weather, temperature and surrounding locations - and accessing GPS and a weather app, the AI generates a true-to-life image of its surroundings. The inspiration for the "camera" was the blind star-nosed mole, which perceives its surroundings via its tactile organ. Thus, the AI camera is not equipped with a lens, but rather with the tactile organ of the mole.

It is true that neither the artificial intelligence nor the animal is able to reproduce the environment one-to-one. However, the Paragraphica AI camera can be used in the future, for example at events, to capture the atmosphere without violating the privacy or image rights of the people on site.

One thing is certain: applications like Firefly, Midjourney or the Paragraphica offer new ways to work creatively.

Christoph Kull, Vice President and Managing Director Adobe Central Europe, guest in our Digikompetenz Podcast, is convinced that anyone can be creative with apps such as these: "We probably all reach the peak of our creative process at the age of five. And then we realize around the age of six to nine that there are people who can do it much better. I can't express my creativity because I don't have the ability to put it on paper. We're solving that now because everyone can quickly turn their creativity and ideas into content through prompts, through this co-pilot."

Listen to our Digikompetenz Podcast with Christoph Kull here.

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AI hears passwords in calls and online conferences

Today's technology is miles ahead of yesterday's technology. Microphones are becoming more sensitive and with the right software, it is already possible to filter out different sounds in a recorded voice call and put them on different audio tracks. This progress will not end any time soon. Three English researchers have succeeded in developing an AI that can hear passwords.

By placing an iPhone 13 next to a laptop - where employees like to put it when they are on a call - the researchers were able to record the keyboard sounds via the smartphone and had them analysed by the AI. In another experiment, the three researchers simulated a zoom conference. This time, the keyboard sounds were recorded via the zoom recording and the data was passed on to the AI. The result: with the smartphone and the zoom conference, the AI was able to guess with an accuracy of over 92% which keys were just typed. This means it can also listen to passwords.

In the future, employees in the office or at their home office must expect that their keystrokes can be intercepted during a remote call.

Here are 5 practical tips on how to protect yourself:

1. Mute your microphone during an online conference if possible.
2. The AI has difficulty recognising when you release the shift key. Therefore, use long, complex passwords with upper and lower case letters and special characters.
3. Use touch screens, as they do not make any noise. On a laptop, you can use the on-screen keyboard.
4. Use a password manager. Copy and paste cannot be heard by the AI.
5. Use multiple authentication. For example, smartphone and password.

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Corporate Chat GPT

If you want to write texts, have questions answered, set up a travel plan, or need help with gift ideas, chatbots like Chat GPT are already facilitating many private areas. Due to the easier information search and extended application possibilities, the user numbers for private users have increased significantly. But what does it look like in everyday working life in companies?

The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety commissioned a study showing that the use of weak artificial intelligence - which includes chatbots - in companies helps to increase resource efficiency.

However, working with AI also poses risks. Recently, there have been an increasing number of incidents in which employees have inadvertently disclosed sensitive company data. This creates a potential security vulnerability, as AI-powered chatbots, such as Chat GPT, can learn from the questions and answers asked, allowing them to more accurately handle future requests.

To counter the problem, companies such as Bosch and dm are now turning to in-house chatbots - whether constructed by their own IT department or in cooperation with an expert company. They function similarly to ChatGPT but are installed on the company's hardware and work exclusively with the company's own data. This allows better control over the data and minimizes the risk of data leaks.

The potential uses of these internal chatbots extend across all areas of the business - from the programming department, where coding tasks can be made easier and troubleshooting can be made more efficient without sharing confidential data, to the production department, where production data and status can be queried, and documentation of processes can be optimized.?

However, although one should ask the questions, to what extent do AIs and own chatbots change the internal communication among employees? Will employees' joy of discovery and creativity perhaps fall by the wayside if information is so easy to retrieve? Will this support direct and seamless information sharing, save costs, and increase work efficiency? Thus, the future of corporate communications undoubtedly lies in the synergy between man and machine.

Ultimately, the acquisition of an in-house chat GPT is a strategic leadership issue that must be decided based on the particular company circumstances.

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New episodes of Digikompetenz Podcast coming in September 2023

We are looking forward to the new episodes in September with:

• 115 Steffi Michailowa (At the time of recording, Team Lead Learning ABB) and Managing Director Quality Minds GmbH Vice President & Dr. Vera Baum , Managing Director Central.
• 116 Dr. Wolfgang Hildesheim , Head of Watson, Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, IBM.
• 117 Prof. Dr. Salima Douven (at the time of recording; Corporate Vice President Open Innovation and Incubation at Henkel)
• 118 Wilhelm Pfister, Managing Director and Owner of Hotel Neue Post Mayrhofen, Member of the Board and Vice Chairman of the Mayrhofen Tourism Association.
• 119 Guido Gro? , Divisional Board Member for Corporate Clients, Commerzbank.

A new episode of our Digikompetenz Podcast is released weekly on Fridays.

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?Over 110 episodes of our DIGIKOMPETENZ PODCAST are already online: - with exciting and inspiring guests, such as Richard David Precht, Ranga Yogeshwar, the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport, Daniela Kluckert, Spiegel reporter Thomas Schulz, Managing Director of Süddeutsche Zeitung Digitale Medien, Johannes Hauner,?CEO of the cult business magazine brand eins, Holger Volland, the three wonderfully creative people who completed the Beethoven Symphony with AI, Dr. Matthias R?der, Walter Werzowa, Seda R?der, CEO DB Cargo, Dr Sigrid Nikutta, Head of Dealer Development, Audi, Heiko Schmidt, Head of Future of Work Project Harvard Business School, Professor Joseph Fuller, Talent Leadership & Organization Development LEGO Johannes Lystb?k and David T?ttrup, Blockchain Specialist at RMIT Vietnam, Blockchain Specialist,? Dr. Binh Nguyen Thanh, US-neuroscientist und AI-expert, Dr. Vivienne Ming, Vice President and Managing Director, Adobe Central Europe, Christoph Kull, and many, many more.

Becoming a key player in the Future Skills Transformation - Why corporate learning must change

The Zukunft Personal Europe is Europe's leading HR event around the world of work and a driving force for HR management, digitalization & leadership. ZP Europe opens its doors this year from September 12-14, 2023 in Cologne, Germany and i40 will be there on September 12 at 10:15 am on the Learning and Development Stage with a keynote speech.

Great hopes are associated with the promises of digitalization and artificial intelligence: more efficient, faster, better for people. But to be successful with these technologies, it takes much more than algorithms and smart devices. Organizations must be rethought from the ground up, silos must be broken down, and employees and managers must understand these changes.

In his keynote speech "From ball boy or ball girl to a game changer in the Future Skills Transformation - Why Corporate Learning needs to change", the winner of the eLearning Awards 2022 and 2023, Philipp V. Ramin, CEO i40 - the future skills company will talk about the necessary changes at Zukunft Personal Europe. In this context, upskilling and reskilling become key strategic factors that not only impart knowledge, but drive innovation.

We are looking forward to seeing you there and to an inspiring interactions.

Free tickets for #ZPEurope can be accessed here.

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