During a recent lunch conversation, a female business founder and friend turned to me and asked “Lorraine, am I being left behind?” This sentiment reflects how many people feel about artificial intelligence right now.
Of course, there is a lot to be excited about. Artificial intelligence will help solve problems large and small, from diagnosing cancer to combating climate change, or simply helping us become more productive.
This excitement was also mixed with fear. I’m afraid I don’t know the technology. Fear of making mistakes. And, like this entrepreneur, there is a fear of missing out.
If you have empathy, you are not alone. In a recent survey, only 32% of business leaders said their companies had widely adopted artificial intelligence. We’re still figuring out how to bring the benefits of artificial intelligence to our teams and what success looks like.
If I’ve learned anything in my 20 years at Google and 30 years in the advertising industry, it’s that we shape technology by using it. And the process is not linear.
When it comes to artificial intelligence, we are still testing and learning how to turn this technology into value. So now is the time for everyone to give it a try and start experimenting. Artificial intelligence tools are already available, and no advanced training or coding knowledge is required to participate.
But not enough of us are doing this right now.
It starts at the top. As leaders, we must be hands-on and use AI tools in our work and lives. We need to try as many different use cases and solutions as possible.
An AI tool can now find an email from my child’s school with all the important dates, summarize an entire work email thread, give me feedback on how our creative work will be received, or gift me a genius song of poetry.
We also need to allow our teams to innovate. Ideas come from everywhere, and often from where you least expect. Encourage your team—whether operations, marketing, sales, or engineering—to try a variety of AI tools.
At Google, we work hard to foster a culture of curiosity, where people try, fail, and try again, regularly sharing what works and what doesn’t. Our beta program is one way we encourage everyone to use early product features. At a recent hackathon we hosted, people brought teams across the company together to imagine new ways to use artificial intelligence.
There is nothing wrong with the experimental method. Identifying specific pain points is one way a company can get started—whether it’s an e-commerce retailer using generative AI to write product descriptions at scale, or a graphic design platform using AI to speed up video creation.
To help inspire others, we recently published a list of how more than 100 companies are using artificial intelligence. We also just launched a course to help everyone from small businesses to nonprofits and government use artificial intelligence.
Like many of us heading to Cannes International Festival of Creativity, I am particularly interested in how artificial intelligence will change marketing. Some believe artificial intelligence will threaten the very nature of creativity. I disagree.
Creatives have long embraced major technological changes. They use these as opportunities to try new things, often much earlier than anyone else, and ultimately ignite all of our imaginations. When creativity and technology combine, we can do extraordinary things.
I’m lucky enough to work with some of the best creatives in the world. Even they will tell you that a blank slate can be scary. So put the fear of that first terrible draft on artificial intelligence. Let yourself go. Then it becomes brilliant.
Artificial intelligence can also save marketers countless hours. At Google, we use artificial intelligence to generate multiple versions of an ad, whereas in the past only one ad would have to be created. We use artificial intelligence to translate ad copy and deploy campaigns in 150 countries.
Like any tool, artificial intelligence has its limitations. This is why humans remain vital. When we use AI to translate ad copy, real people review each ad copy before publishing. Artificial intelligence can augment the talent and judgment of our teams, not replace it. It helps us do better work faster and at larger scale, but only if it requires strong human judgment.
So what do I tell my business owner friends today? This is just the starting line.
The future of artificial intelligence is yet to be determined. It will be shaped by our actions today. We all have curiosity. This curiosity fuels amazing creativity and makes all of our work great.
It’s rare that we get the chance to shape the future together. Today is one of those moments.
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