For April’s First Friday webinar we were joined by Imran Farooq, CEO and James Partington, CMO at MMC Learning. They talked to us about generative AI tools, giving us insights into how fast these tools are progressing, examples of how we can use them and the 5C’s Path to AI Powered Momentum.
Imran Farooq
CEO, MMC Learning
James Partington
CMO, MMC Learning
James and Imran explained and demonstrated how AI tools can be used to:
- Answer inbound customer calls
- Make outbound marketing calls and even integrate with booking software to schedule calls and meetings.
- Turn a PDF into a slide deck
- Create static avatars
- Create moving avatars
- Create photos and videos
- Generate music
The Pace of Change
It was surprising to learn how fast these tools are improving and Imran gave us some examples of how Midjourney responded to being prompted to create a picture of ‘red sneakers’ last year, compared to very recently – what a difference! This shows the importance of persevering with these tools; their features may not have been what you were looking for 6 months ago but continuous updates mean their capabilities improve rapidly.
Imran says, ‘a lot of people try these tools and say, ‘oh, there’s a hand missing or this is missing’, and they stop using the tools without realising actually, the power of learning is to continue experimenting.’
5 key takeaways from an incredibly insightful session
- A LinkedIn study showed that ‘51% of customers say their organisation uses generative AI tools for search for solutions providers’. Which lead to the question ‘as solution providers, how do we ensure we’re getting picked up by the AI tools?) Imran says that unlike SEO, which is heavily reliant on keywords and backlinks, AI is looking for thought leadership pieces, answers to industry FAQ’s, reviews and mentions.
- Use your AI tool as your assistant, give it feedback and guidance. It may take a few prompts to get to a result you’re happy with.
- Don’t blame the tools! It will take time to learn how best to use them, and there are certain tools better suited for certain tasks (see below).
- Imran talked about the different levels of AI use from, helping you with idea generation, and drafting documents for you right through to managing complex task with minimal human interaction.
- To ensure you don’t lose authenticity, Imran recommends using a mix of AI and human spark. You should find a blend that works for your requirements, saves you time but also retains the human element of your business.
Generative AI Tools
There are 6 tools that Imran and James recommended to the group.
- HeyGen – realistic, customisable avatars for photo and video. With 175+ languages and dialects. More video tools include, RunwayML, Descript and Invideo AI.
- Suno.ai – run by a team of musicians and ai experts. Allowing anyone to create great music.
- Elevenlabs – text to speech and AI voice generation. This tool can be used to make, and answer calls for your business with an in depth set of personalisation settings and integration capabilities.
- Gamma.app – this content creation tool is packed with features and allows you to quickly and easily create websites, documents and slide decks from scratch or from existing content.
- Gemini – this is Google’s AI tool. A great option for helping you with planning, writing and learning.
- Midjourney – a portal to transform text into amazing images, and as we saw above, the images are getting more and more realistic.
The 5 C’s to AI-Powered Momentum
Imran closed the session by talking about a framework he has created, which featured throughout his session, to ensure you’re optimising your use of AI, as detailed below.
Conclusion
AI tools are learning and adapting quickly, creating countless opportunities for you to enhance your output and save time. However, to optimise your use of AI you need to identify the best tool for the job, learn how to get the most from it, strike a balance between AI and human spark, and be curious.
For more about AI, and how to integrate it into your role head to: AI Courses and Training
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