Tentative embrace of AI

Upper Valley business owners describe their experiences with artificial intelligence

By TRACY HUTCHINS Executive Director, Upper Valley Business Alliance

Over 60 years ago, “The Jetsons” cartoon television series imagined a two-hour workweek with George Jetson working at Spacely Sprockets, pushing buttons on a computer named RUDI, while his robot housekeeper named Rosy took care of housework at home. Both RUDI and Rosy would have conversations with George and perform duties without being told —in other words, they had artificial intelligence or AI.

While our imaginationsmay havebeen thinkingaboutAIin theearly1960s,actual artificialintelligence nowis fastbecoming areality andubiquitous. TheAI of today doesn’t look like Rosy (yet) but is becoming a tool that affects how we work and interact while at work.

You have likelyalready encountered AIif youshop online.Many onlineretailers and service providers are using chatbots ontheir websites forcustomer service or to triage complaints. However, moreandmore smalllocalbusinesses arediscovering AIto helpin theirbusiness as well.

Asaregional chamberofcommerce, the Upper Valley Business Alliance likes to keep on top of trends that affect or can be useful to our businesses. A recent poll in ourweekly newsletteron whetherour Upper Valley businesses were employingAIsawmany sayingyes.Ofthose whouse AI,mostwereusing itformarketingpurposes, suchas writingblog posts orsocial mediaposts, butothers were using AI intheir customer engage- ment and human resources as well.

Lisa Vallejo Sorensen, communicationsdirectorat theUpperValley Aquatic Center (UVAC), explained howthe WhiteRiver Junctionnonprofit organization is using AI.

“Weareinthe earlystagesofusing AI in our business here at Upper ValleyAquatic Center.We areresearching moreways touse itand whether it is a good fit for us,”Sorenson said. “UVAC usesAIforblog posts,scavenger huntclues,writing code for forms, and writing lyrics for fun songs. Weare considering using some other applicationsfor machine learning and remarketing, but we are still in the early stages for that.”

The time-saving aspect of apps such as ChatGPT and JasperAI is attractive to smallbusiness owners trying to jugglemultiple tasks.

Dustin Burke,owner ofProfessional

Painters of New England in Hartford, uses AIto stay onschedule writing blog posts.

“Itis suchas timesaver,”Burke said. “Ina shorttime, Ican generate content forseveral months’worth of blog posts. Sometimes I will need to go inand editthe contentfor errors and it’shelpful tohaveknowledgeof the subject, but it saves me hours.”

Much has been in the news about students using AI tools such as ChatGPT to generate papers and whether teachers were ableto distinguish AIwrittencontentfrom studentorhuman-written content.

Marketing professionalChuck Sink, owner of Chuck Sink Link, a full-service marketing agency and a professorof marketingatPlymouth State University, said that he can spotAI-writtencontent byitsvanilla and surface level qualities.

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“Either it’s over-promptedor it sounds likeit’s‘trying toohard,’” Sink said.“Sometimes itsimply parrotswhatyougive itinafewredundant ways. I knew immediately when afew ofmy studentsused AIlast minute on their term papers.”

Sink said that using AI is a timesaver in writing for marketing purposesbut doesn’tfully replacethe “human touch.”

“I have used ChatGPT and JasperAI on several client projects andhave hadto editthe contentconsiderably beforeI woulddare submit it,”he said.“Butit hascertainly saved timeby draftingdecent baseline content thatI can add toand improve.”

Long-time radio account executive Bob Sherman, of Great Eastern Radio Stations, agrees.

“Locallyhere atGreatEastern

Radio in West Lebanon, we have been usingAI for draftsfor radio scripts and it has been very helpful to our newesthires indeveloping new creative messaging,”Sherman said. “We then jump inand edit for some contextand morefine-tuneddialogue, but it’s a great starter.”

However, Sherman went on to add thatiHeartMedia, aconglomerateof 850 radio stations across the country, recently banned use of AI-generated ads. iHeartMedia CEOBob Pittman was addressing AI concerns and they have banned public AI chatbot use for company projects.

Ina newsrelease, Pittmansaid, “AlthoughAI, includingChatGPT andother AIs,can beenormously helpful and transformative, we want to be smart about how we implement