Key Takeaways from Europe's Landmark AI Act

PLUS: Big companies like Meta and Walmart are taking the security of their AI assistants seriously.

 

Today we have a bunch of policy announcements from the EU; they have announced a landmark legislation that will have a profound impact on the European roadmap and will influence the way that other countries deal with AI technology.

We also talk a little about private GPTs inside companies like Meta and Walmart. For the productivity links, we cover tools and tips for the beginner, along with a deep dive sales use case.

Let’s get to it.

🥽 3 TRENDS TO WATCH

The European Parliament has voted to approve draft rules for the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, with further discussions pending between the Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission.

The AI Act takes a risk-based approach, potentially banning certain applications of AI deemed "unacceptable," including emotion recognition and real-time biometrics, and imposing limitations on high-risk technologies.

Social scoring by public agencies would also be prohibited under these regulations. The legislation additionally proposes new restrictions on generative AI, such as large language models like OpenAI’s GPT-4, and a ban on using copyrighted material in their training sets.

The draft also designates social media recommendation algorithms as "high-risk," which could increase scrutiny on these systems and tech companies' liability for user-generated content.

The AI Act signifies a landmark moment in AI regulation, establishing comprehensive and potentially game-changing parameters to ensure AI is used responsibly and ethically, despite likely pushbacks from the tech industry and other governing bodies.

Walmart, Meta, and LinkedIn are exploring in-house generative AI solutions to ensure safe use of company data, including AI "playgrounds" and chatbots.

This approach contrasts with companies such as Goldman Sachs, Amazon, and Verizon, which have banned the use of public generative AI tools like ChatGPT.

The move towards developing private, in-house AI assistants by corporations not only underscores the critical importance of data security in today's digital era, but it also illuminates a potential future in which companies operate increasingly autonomous digital ecosystems, further blurring the lines between technology and business operations.

Accenture, the global professional services and consulting giant, has announced a monumental investment of $3 billion in AI over the next three years.

The funding will be directed towards expanding its team of AI professionals and developing AI-focused solutions for clients.

This initiative will help Accenture's clients navigate from interest in AI to actionable steps and value realization, fostering innovation and development of new strategies, operating models, and digital core architecture.

Accenture's mammoth $3 billion investment in AI signifies a momentous leap in the AI landscape, underscoring the technology's potential and positioning Accenture as a formidable force in the field of AI-driven solutions and services.

🛠️ 2 PRODUCTIVITY POWER HACKS

 NEW TOOLS

Otter.ai an AI-powered voice transcription service, is launching a new AI meeting assistant, OtterPilot, aimed at enhancing meeting productivity by automating meeting summaries.

Post-meeting, OtterPilot will send an AI-generated summary of key topics, thereby relieving professionals from the burden of manual note-taking and allowing them to focus more on the discussion at hand.

This is a crowded space with big players like Microsoft entering the fray with Copilot for Teams which promises to ease the administrative burden of meetings by automating note-taking and summarizing key points, providing a streamlined experience for its users.

With all the endless video calls we are constantly on, we all benefit from having an assistant taking on this chore for us and we welcome the competition.

 A SECOND LOOK

Recently we began to take a second look at Google’s Bard as a conversational AI tool and were impressed with the way that it returned results leveraging search.

Unlike Bard, ChatGPT's knowledge is limited to data up until 2021, which hinders its ability to provide information on more recent developments and research.

Thus, Bard's real-time data gathering capability from the latest resources gives it a significant edge in terms of information relevancy and timeliness.

Another significant advantages of Google Bard is its ability to provide links to sources from which it extracts information. This feature not only facilitates fact-checking and verification for users, but also gives them the opportunity to explore topics in greater depth.

Consequently, Bard brings a level of transparency and informational comprehensiveness that can greatly enhance user trust and interaction.

💡 1 USE CASE DEEP DIVE 

Sales: Eleviating the burden of administrative tasks to keep sales people in front of customers.

As salespeople, their strength lies in connecting with customers, building relationships, and closing deals. However, administrative tasks often consume a significant portion of their time that could be better spent on more value-added activities. Generative AI can be an invaluable tool to help manage these routine tasks and free up more time for customer interactions.

One of the significant ways Generative AI can assist is by tracking and managing meetings. Instead of manually coordinating schedules, sending reminders, and noting follow-ups, a Generative AI tool can be programmed to handle these tasks automatically.

The AI could sync with various calendars and appointment systems, automatically schedule meetings based on preferred times, send reminders to both the salesperson and the client, and even transcribe meetings, turning conversation into written notes. This eliminates the hassle of jotting down minutes during the meeting, allowing the salesperson to focus entirely on the customer conversation.

Another area where Generative AI can prove extremely useful is in customer follow-ups and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) data entry. A salesperson often needs to follow up with customers multiple times, which can be an arduous process.

The AI assistant can automate this by sending personalized emails or messages at the right intervals, depending on the customer's interaction history.

Entering customer interaction data into CRM tools is another mundane task that consumes a lot of time. The AI can streamline this by automatically logging every customer interaction, whether it be a call, email, or meeting, into the CRM system. It can also analyze past data to provide insights into customer behavior, identifying trends and opportunities that can lead to more sales.

By leveraging the capabilities of Generative AI, salespeople can substantially reduce the time spent on administrative tasks and focus more on what they do best: connecting with customers and driving sales.

When done properly and securely, an AI assisting your sales teams can have a dramatic effect on the ability for sales teams to hit their numbers and it direct there energy and time at selling product.

Thats a wrap!

We’ll see you again next week. Please send us your thoughts and any ideas you have to improve this content. If you have any questions you can reach out to us at [email protected]

Cheers,

The Simply Augmented Team