May 133 min read

Shadow's GenAI Event Debrief

We held a tremendous British American Business Council event in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, with a room packed with business leaders and practitioners. There was plenty of interest in the presentation topic and the panel discussion, and it is worth summarizing what was presented, the takeaways and a new service that has been created to manage several real-world GenAI concerns that arose.

Thanks to BABC President Ed Haines for the welcome. A few photos are added to the end of this post.

Demystifying Generative AI

Simon Boardman and I attempted to present the history of AI, generative AI theory, use cases and benefits plus a couple of demos in 45 minutes. It was fast and furious! Some of the topics included:

AI Evolution: We traced AI development from foundational theories by Turing and McCarthy to contemporary applications like Siri and ChatGPT.
Key Milestones: Highlighted significant achievements such as IBM's Deep Blue and Google DeepMind's AlphaGo, showcasing AI's milestones.
AI Layers: Explained distinctions between AI, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning, discussing their applications across various industries.
AI Use Cases: We presented the broad applicability of Generative AI across industries, emphasizing its role in content creation, customer interaction, and data analysis.
Risk and Future Considerations: Addressed several risks and envisioned future advancements in AI for transforming business operations and decision-making.
Demonstration: Showcased ChatGPT, Meta AI and a custom GPT called Shadow from ShadowSeller AI.
Presentation here

Panel Discussion

[Panel: Laurie Hood, Carson Topping, Jason Stone, Andy McCartney]

Our panel was asked a series of questions about pros, cons and experiences to date with GenAI use at their companies. We can all read about the many use cases across business departments, but we talked about more general usage, such as:

Document analysis: Summarizing, categorizing, and extracting key information from documents.
Prospect and competitive research: Gathering and analyzing data on market trends, competitors, and customer insights.
Decision recommendations: Providing data-driven suggestions to enhance decision-making.
Content creation: Generating written, visual, or multimedia content for marketing and communications.
We touched on more advanced usage, integrating and automating GenAI content into business workflows using tools such as Zapier and Make.

We also discussed several real-world concerns about GenAI use, including bias, errors/hallucinations, job displacement, privacy/confidentiality breaches, skill requirements, and energy needs. Some are show stoppers preventing GenAI adoption in certain business functions, some require preparation, some need to wait for LLM enhancements.

All in all it was an enlightening event with fellow professionals, based around a technology that is rapidly changing, requiring ongoing diligence.

Creation of a New Kick-Start GenAI Service

Simon and I held our own debrief and both formed the conclusion that businesses would be well served with a GenAI kick-start type service, that holistically addresses both opportunity and risk. Smaller businesses without significant IT departments are more likely to need external assistance with new technologies and practices.

We will be launching this service within the next week, here is a one page overview of the kick-start program: (and a screenshot)