Love it or loathe it, ChatGPT has generated a great deal of controversy over the past few weeks. Lost in all the uproar is how the powerful new AI chatbot technology can help businesses work more efficiently and productively.

While it's impossible to list every potential ChatGPT business application, here's a quick look at eight ways businesses are already using the technology to build sales and streamline staff performance.

1. Document creation

Jeff Wong, chief innovation officer at business advisory firm EY, believes that once organizations have adequately assessed ChatGPT’s capabilities, they will use the tool to write documents faster and more efficiently.

Whether it's in the form of letters, PowerPoints, or agreements, financial organizations, for instance, will be able to use ChatGPT to deliver new ideas from an accounting perspective, or give analysts the risks associated with a certain situation, Wong explains. “Eventually, companies can even ask the application’s recommendation on a financial portfolio as well as create hedge fund algorithms.”

A process that so seamlessly acts like a human is groundbreaking, Wong says. “We're only scratching the surface of what it can achieve.”

2. Summarizing massive records

Businesses should look to ChatGPT to summarize massive amounts of written text, advises Vladimir Lukic, managing director and a senior partner with Boston Consulting Group. Document summarizations mark a critical step in leveraging ChatGPT for business applications, and can even be used to summarize speech or interview transcripts, he notes.

“There's such a large volume of information floating around that the task of managing all of it, and working toward surfacing common patterns or themes, requires a lot of individual effort,” Lukic explains. “ChatGPT could help streamline or expedite much of the tedious manual effort of summarizing and communicating that information.”

3. Faster, easier database queries

Imagine a physician looking for an answer to this question: “What was the average age of patients who spent five or more days in hospital due to COVID?” Ordinarily, acquiring this type of information would require a database specialist to craft a query for retrieval from a relevant database.

No longer, says Alex Jenkins, director of the WA Data Science Innovation Hub (WADSIH), a joint partnership between the Western Australian Government and Curtin University. “ChatGPT can easily craft that query for you and return the results from your hospital’s database systems,” he says. “The time savings will be significant.”

4. Speedier code creation

While still in its early phases, ChatGPT technology shows considerable promise in code writing, says Muddu Sudhakar, CEO of applied AI company Aisera.“While developers, programmers and software engineers can spend hours writing code for applications, using ChatGPT anyone can write a description asking to automate a process and they will receive a code,” he explains. “This process of prompt-based automation eliminates the need to work with complex code and allows teams to easily update or include new features.”

5. Rapid social media content development

ChatGPT can be a time-saver for people who want to make an impact in social media channels yet lack solid communication skills. “For example, small business owners who handle their own social media and have to produce a lot of content to keep the algorithms happy,” says Clara Burke, an associate teaching professor in business management communication at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. “Such individuals could offload some of their writing and video scripting to ChatGPT.”

6. Flexible idea generation

Ideas flourish when people gather together in groups. “We often build on what one person says with something else,” explains Wayne Butterfield, a partner with global technology research and advisory firm ISG.

Yet in a work-from-home environment, or when team members are dispersed over multiple sites, such tribal knowledge is often impossible to collect. “ChatGPT is a great alternative to build out examples that can be augmented,” Butterfield says. “When you utilize ChatGPT in tools like WriteSonic or Jasper.ai, the improved interface and additional capabilities makes it even easier.”

7. Custom job descriptions

Job descriptions frequently contain too much, not enough, or inaccurate information. ChatGPT can analyze a particular job role and within seconds specify the exact skills, knowledge, and experience levels needed. “It can even, if directed, provide all this using inclusive language,” says Cliff Jurkiewicz, vice president of global strategy for human resources firm Phenom.

Jurkiewicz notes that a recruiter can also request the most effective keywords for search engine optimization and direct ChatGPT to include those words in the generated text. “In seconds, the recruiter has an accurate job description, using inclusive language and optimized for SEO.”

8. Rapid website updates

ChatGPT can help businesses and other organizations create engaging content and keep their websites fresh and updated with minimal effort. The technology can deliver an interactive and highly personalized customer experience, offer round-the-clock support -- even post-sale -- and increase online brand engagement on social channels, explains Vijay Talreja, practice head, digital commerce and customer experience, at digital engineering professional services firm Apexon.

ChatGPT will be particularly useful in creating compelling product and marketing content, such as product descriptions, promotions, offers, and other types of website content, Talreja says. “Most businesses will value the speed at which ChatGPT can update large amounts of content to reflect a new product enhancement or time-sensitive promotion.”

Digital content creation is only the start, Talreja predicts, since ChatGPT can be used to automate multiple aspects of omnichannel retail and marketing. “For example, ChatGPT can be trained to deliver smart product recommendations to customers, reduce cart abandonment, and enhance the experience across multiple touch points.”

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