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Why Smart Business Owners Are Prioritizing Automation & Prompt Engineering as Their Next Key Hire
The silent scaling that will set the SME winners apart
Hi Friends š
Happy Tuesday! Once again ChatGPT is changing. Itās hard to keep up. Iām here to help you try.
In this weekās email:
Why smart business owners are prioritising automation & prompt engineering as their next key hire
AI to decode brain waves
Learn how to build your LLM own model for free
ChatGPT - big update incoming
Business intelligence just got more intelligent with Amazon
And moreā¦
Letās get startedā¦
AI for Marketing š
šļø AI News
Youāre Invited. Entry Point AI is hosting a free Fine-tuning Masterclass. In 30 minutes per day for 4 days, you will fine-tune your first working models with hands-on examples. This class is completely free and open to AI practitioners and enthusiasts of all levels. They will use 100% no-code tools and no developer experience is required. Join the masterclass*
AI is changing online marketplaces, making them more efficient and personalised. Businesses that adapt to this change will have a competitive advantage. [Link]
Brain decoding technology is changing lives with AI. Some really smart people are doing pretty great stuff with brain decoding at the University of California, San Francisco. This video shows a head being plugged into a computer, which you may find amazing and visually shocking. [Link]
Business intelligence (BI) meets Generative AI (LLMs like ChatGPT). With Amazon Quicksight, anyone can now analyse large business datasets in English to find hidden data trends treasure [Link]
š¬ ChatGPT
Another big ChatGPT Plus update is imminent. There are two changes. Firstly you can directly chat about PDFs, plus, chatting with data files and other document types. Secondly, youāll no longer need to choose a model. ChatGPT will automatically decide whether to start a Bing web browser, run Python code in Data Analysis, or use DALL-E to generate images based on the requirements of the conversation's description. [Link]
*Partnership Content
Deep Dive
Why Smart Business Owners Are Prioritizing Automation & Prompt Engineering as Their Next Key Hire
The silent scaling that will set the SME winners apart
Why you should care: Using ChatGPT, you can automate so many tasks currently completed by knowledge workers. This means less cost, fewer staff and fewer mistakes.
What you need to know: āPrompt Engineeringā and the automation of tasks are now within reach of every business. The businesses that embrace this change are going to win because they will have a lower cost base and be able to attract talent by paying more than the competition.
On with the storyā¦
Twenty-five years ago, I was rafting down the Kaligandaki River in Nepal, a beautiful river which flows in one of the deepest gorges in the world.
High above the cliffs, something catches my eye.
There's an army of peopleāhundreds, maybe even a thousandābreaking rocks and cutting a road into the mountain with nothing but hand tools.
I couldn't work out why werenāt they using machinery or dynamite.
Back-breaking, dangerous and manual work is a wasted opportunity for these people.
Perhaps one could've been a Steve Jobs or a Nikola Tesla if given half a chance.
Fast forward to todayā¦
ā¦and you don't have to travel to Nepal to find a similar situation.
Think about your own office.
The sheer number of mind-numbing tasks we still do manuallyālike transferring data between emailsāis staggering.
It's 2023, and we've got AI that can do this type of knowledge work in seconds.
So why not put human brainpower to good use, and use AI to complete the mundane..?
Imagine if, instead of boring admin, your team was diving into big ideas, conjuring up killer marketing plans, and thinking up ways to revolutionise customer service.
My point here is simple: tech and education can be game-changers, unlocking human creativity like never before.
No more confined to manual toil; the sky's the limit when we put our minds to work.
That lesson has stuck with me since my Nepal days, and it's one if you run your own business that you should take to heart, too.
Hereās howā¦
The Democratization of Automation: You Don't Need to Be a Programmer
Until very recently, automating business processes required programming skills. Sure, you could use Zapier to merge together systems, share data and run automations.
By automation, I mean processes like replying to emails with delivery dates, answering support questions, and following up on business leads.
But to run anything that could make a decision, a logical āif this, do thatā, still required programmers.
Then GPT4 changed everything for three reasons:
1. You can write āifā statements within ChatGPT in plain old English
2. You can write code even if youāre not a programmer
3. Simple AI applications can be built in minutes vs months using LLMs like ChatGPT
So, what does this mean?
Letās take an exampleā¦
You want to sort your main company inbox and automatically forward emails to the right person, saving on an administration person.
The hardest part of this process is building the categorisation step. Eg the step that works out who each email should go to.
Now, just one ChatGPT prompt like this will do it:
Take a look this {email} and categorise it into one of the following categories.
Spam
Sales Enquiry
Sales follow up
Customer Support
Management need to see
Newsletter
Product update
Here are some example emails and categories to use as reference:
__________
Spam:
Subject: Congratulations, you've won $1,000,000!
Body: Click here to claim your prize now!
__________
Sales Enquiry:
Subject: Interested in your software solutions
Body: Hi, I saw your latest product demo online and would like to know more about pricing.
__________
Customer Support:
Subject: Issue with my recent purchase
Body: Hi there, I've just bought your software, but I'm having trouble with installation.
__________
Management Need to See:
Subject: Urgent: Legal Notice
Body: This is a formal cease-and-desist letter. Please forward to your legal team immediately.
__________
Newsletter:
Subject: October Update: What's new at Our Company
Body: Here are some highlights from this month at Our Company.
__________
Product Update:
Subject: New Features in Version 2.0
Body: We're excited to announce new features in the latest version of our product!
__________
Job Application:
Subject: Application for the Marketing Manager Position
Body: I came across your job posting and I am very interested in applying.
__________
Social Media Notification:
Subject: John Doe just followed you on Twitter!
Body: You have a new follower on Twitter.
__________
Billing:
Subject: Your invoice for October is ready
Body: Please find attached your invoice for services provided in October.
__________
Now categorise this {email}:
"It was great to finally meet in person! I'm diving into a relatively untapped niche in SAAS, and as things progress, I'd value catching up for your insights on my upcoming marketing strategies.
By the way, those PG essays are going to keep me occupied during lunch for the next few weeks!
I'll keep you in the loop about our developments, and I'll touch base once our new website is live and I embark on my initial marketing!"
Rules:
1. Your output should only be the categories name. Nothing else.
2. Choose the best category.
Until LLMās like ChatGPT were born, making a system like this would have been costly.
Either a supervised learning process would have taken months to make. Or a programming tool would have taken weeks to build and often give the wrong output.
But now anyone can write prompts, and you iterate the prompt until it works every time.
No need for programmers or an AI learning process.
That process is called āPrompt Engineeringā, an overly stated name for telling ChatGPT or other LLMs what to do.
Whether it takes 10 minutes or 10 hours, it's a process anyone with a creative and logical mind and patience can master.
So now, you donāt need a programmer to automate your business processes.
You need someone that is smart, quick to learn, hard-working and logical to automate with no code tools, like Zapier and an LLM AI like ChatGPT.
Want to know how to implement the email sorter? Here is our previous deep dive guide on setting up automation to get you startedš
Mind-Blowing Simplicity
Most SMEs don't even know this is possible.
Meanwhile, young 3-person start-ups are turning over tens of millions with AI-powered automation doing the job of 10ās of people.
To start, just look at your own business processes, which:
1. Suck up your teamās time with no brainpower required
2. Text-based work
These tasks can now be automated.
Now you can choose between adding another team member who brings in more money. Or a team member who uses AI to automate tasks and help your business grow without needing to expand your back office.
Which do you choose and why?
Iād choose both, as youāll grow even quicker.
But the question is this - will your business benefit?
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Thanks for reading,
Tim