Beyond the Hype: How to Make AI Work for Your Business

Session Description

Heard the buzz about AI, but wondering what it actually means for your business? This workshop cuts through the noise. By exploring practical applications and real-life examples from business owners like you, you’ll leave with a personalized plan to put AI to work for your business right away.

You won't just learn about Google AI tools – you'll get hands-on practice. More importantly, you'll discover when and how to use them strategically to tackle common business challenges.

Through hands-on exercises and practical examples, you’ll practice how to:

• Write Effective Prompts: Get clear, targeted results from AI by defining exactly what you need.
• Generate Innovative Ideas: Brainstorm solutions and overcome business hurdles when you feel stuck.
• Streamline Repetitive Tasks: Use AI tools to help you save time and valuable resources.

This workshop is specifically designed for small business owners and their teams. No prior AI knowledge or technical expertise is required – just bring your business challenges!

Session Recap

(AI-generated session recap made available by Google NotebookLM)

Reclaim Your Time: Making AI Work For You
Are you drowning in your to-do lists? Feeling like administrative tasks are stealing time from what you love about your business or organization? This session, led by Stasia, a trainer for Google with almost 20 years of experience, explored how Artificial Intelligence, specifically Google's tools like Gemini and NotebookLM, can help you delegate time-consuming tasks and dramatically increase efficiency. The key is not just learning the tools, but reframing how you think about AI – focusing on your existing tasks and using AI to accomplish them faster, while always keeping a human in the loop. Learn how to craft effective prompts and leverage new tools to save time and focus on growth.

Session Outline

• Introduction and Framing: Thinking about tasks to delegate and reframing AI usage to fit existing workflows

• What is AI? A brief overview of AI, including large language models and generative AI

• Introduction to Prompting: Understanding that prompting is like starting a conversation with an AI tool

• The Prompt Framework: Detailing the five key elements of an effective prompt: Task, Persona, Format, Context, and References

• Evaluating and Iterating Output: How to assess if the AI's output meets goals, is accurate, and is useful, and techniques for refining prompts to get better results

• Using Constraints: Adding limits to prompts to get specific output lengths or types

• Security Considerations: Important notes on using open vs. paid AI tools and handling sensitive information

• Creating a Prompt Library: Saving effective prompts for future efficiency

• Multimodality: Exploring AI tools that can work with and create different types of media like text, images, and audio

• Example Use Cases: Demonstrations (conceptual) of using AI for drafting emails, summarizing documents like legislation, and creating marketing materials

• Spotlight on NotebookLM: Introduction to a tool designed for working with a closed set of user-uploaded documents, including a video example from Heritage Bikes

• NotebookLM Features: Discussing features like source annotation, language support, audio overviews, and interactive audio

• Time Savings with AI: Highlighting the potential for significant time savings in small and medium-sized businesses

• Responsible Usage: Emphasizing the importance of the human in the loop, assessing output, considering effects, disclosing AI use, and complying with organizational policies

• Keeping the Momentum: Encouraging continued learning and application of AI tools

Notable Quotes

• "Rather thinking about how to make AI work for you, think about what you're already doing, what tasks you already have on your plate, and then how you can use AI to get those tasks done. So, you're kind of flipping the script here."

• "It is absolutely critical for all of the work that we do with artificial intelligence that we maintain the human in the loop approach."

• "on average in the United States, small to medium-siz businesses are saving on average 13 hours every week thanks to AI tools."

Key Takeaways

• Identify Tasks for Delegation: Start by pinpointing the administrative or time-consuming tasks you wish you could offload. AI tools are powerful for assisting with these existing workloads

• Master the Prompt Framework: Utilize the five-element framework (Task, Persona, Format, Context, References) to construct clear and effective prompts that guide the AI to produce better results

• Embrace Iteration and Evaluation: Expect to refine your prompts and evaluate the AI's output multiple times. Check if the results meet your goals, are accurate, and are useful, then iterate as needed

• Explore NotebookLM for Source-Specific Tasks: For tasks requiring reference to specific documents (policies, manuals, research), consider using NotebookLM to work within a closed, private set of sources

• Stay the Human in the Loop: Always review and edit AI-generated content for accuracy and appropriateness, ensuring responsible usage and complying with relevant policies

Resources Mentioned

• Google Gemini: An AI-powered assistant from Google, useful for a wide range of tasks

• Notebook LM: A Google tool that allows you to upload sources and work with a closed, private set of documents. (URL: notebooklm.google.com)

• Music FX: A Google AI tool for creating music (mentioned as an example of multimodality)

• grow.google/ai: A website offering further training on AI, including prompting and fundamentals

• Session Workbook/Handout: A printed guide provided to attendees

Action Items

• Reflect on your tasks: Think about the administrative tasks you want to delegate using AI

• Try the Prompt Framework: Experiment with constructing prompts using the Task, Persona, Format, Context, and References elements after the session

• Explore NotebookLM: Visit notebooklm.google.com and upload some of your own documents to see how it can help you work with your specific sources

• Keep Learning: Visit grow.google/ai to find additional training resources on AI