AIch Your Life: Bridging the Tech Gap Without Losing Your Mind

"The machines are taking our jobs,"

"It’s only a trend, it will go away soon"

"I’ll be all right, I don't need to learn that, it’s not my job,"

"AI is the best thing ever"

"If we don’t learn it, we are not going to be able to work"

"Do we know what impact it is going to have on our environment?"

"It’s making us lazy"

Whatever you listen to, whatever side of the Tech, especially AI, argument you are on, we do need to properly think, implement the basics and figure out for ourselves how and if we are going to use it and what for. 

The tech skills gap is a growing concern in every industry. With the speed of tech advancements, mainly due to AI, we are starting to already see the impact of people’s thoughts of being left behind. 

Is it moving too fast for any of us to actually keep up with it?

5 years ago we saw the start of businesses as a whole trying to get all their staff members onboard to create content to dominate socials or even to find the time to create any content for socials at all. Some still are!  Some saw it as another ask on sometimes an already busy workforce or business. With the introduction of AI the creative ignition of creating content may have been relieved slightly, however, for this one problem, it helps with (not fully resolves) it in itself creates its own issue. Businesses now need someone to know about AI, the pitfalls, how to use it, how to set it up safely and where to use it to reap the benefits. And if you are a solo entrepreneur then oh yay, another hat to attempt to wear!

We need to start to address this skills gap issue and ask of ourselves or others before it gets a little out of hand. 

But where on earth do we start to demystify the ever-growing fear of lots to learn and not being able to keep up? I’m just going to clear this fear and knock down this mountain of learning to a smaller, not quite molehill, but a hill that you can cartwheel down. It’s not about keeping up, it’s about being practical about it and figuring out what we need it for and how best to use it. Figure that out and you’ll thrive in this ever-changing non-stop world and be able to embrace one of the biggest opportunities to make the “work” part of life a little bit easier.

Tech, and I might just say “AIch” now because let us be honest every piece of software I’m currently using or building something in has an AI addition in it, is not about replacing the human effort, but just to amplify it. 

Alch (not sure that will catch on) can save us time, streamline our processes and unlock creative potential. I would prefer it to do the washing up, iron and clean the house rather than create Art, but that’s because I’m a sucker for a paintbrush and a lover of creative mess. But when it comes to making me work better and push my business forward, it is a no-brainer to use it. For example, today I started building an app for The VA Lounge, literally in 10 mins I had the base for it, and now I get to do the fun side of things - I also need to do a lot more tech bits to it, but without the AI feature in Softr it would have taken a lot longer trying to figure it all out and build it from scratch.

When you figure out how easy Alch (shall I drop this now) is to use and how impactful it can be, the fear does seem to go away. So where do we even start to figure out what to use it for?

“People” (even me) always go on about Purpose, purpose, purpose. Start with the purpose of what you are trying to achieve and go from there. But when looking at where to use automation and AI to get the full impact you also have to understand what tasks take up most of your time.

If you don’t know the answer to that yet then 

a) have you not been listening to me over the past few years nagging you

b) please start tracking your own time, use Toggl Track, to identify where all your hours go when you are not working on client work. Once you know your biggest time sinks in your own business you need to then ask yourself:

• What is the process of doing this task?
• Can this be automated?
• How can AI help improve this? And if you are not sure, then guess what, you can ask AI
• What would it look like if I freed up my time? What would it let me do? Earn more money, finish work early, find more joy?

And after this you have to think about the following before going any further:

- Your ethical uses of AI, think about your values and how AI fits with it. Don’t use it just because you think it is cool, make sure it solves actual bottlenecks in your business and you understand the impact that it has. 

- Safety, do you feel safe using it? Do you need to invest in some personal learning to understand fully with what it is using your Data for? This is so very very important especially if you are then going to introduce team use to it.

- Letting others know about how you are using it. Recently at The VA Conference, Luke Williams talked about having an AI Statement for your business, so potential clients, followers, and partners can openly see how you are using AI and what your stance on it is.

So what am I currently using AI for and why did I decide to use it for these?

- Drafting and editing content, from newsletters to email templates for clients, obviously Hayleyfying them after. Productivity through the roof and ensures that I stay on brand for clients and me.

- Turning research into clear, concise insights. Recently I summarised 150 responses from an initial enquiry form for a client that then gave insight and strategy to attract more ideal clients. Just for your security peeps out there, no personal details were added. Quicker summary of data given and then time to add a more human element to understand it even better and look at social and exterior human reactions.

- Refining workflows from simple templates and responses I have built. Logic is what AI thrives on, it doesn’t always get it right but produces a good base.

- Building an app for The VA Lounge - because it would have taken me a billion years to do by myself.

- Recording calls and converting recordings to video content. Quicker to produce content and makes sure that the good parts of my waffle are captured. 

And my personal favourite, solving my errors in coding! Saves me so much sanity!

Where did I start? I’m no specialist at all, I’ll stick to what I know thanks, but I know a few whom I would say are worth a follow and a sign-up to, Jacqueline Leake , already mentioned Luke, but please go check out Duke his AI version of himself too and Heather Murray .

I found “free” resources, webinars, or LinkedIn Learning courses on AI basics. I experimented with tools like ChatGPT, and the AI features that my current Tech Stack is offering. I’m still finding new things in a lot of my Tech Stack, some, of which I won’t name, that are pointless and do we really need it - no, so I don’t use it. Again it brings it back to what we actually need it for. Stick with that question and it will save you from a whole lot of rabbit holes.

I started small, and picked one task, and tried it. Using something like ChatGPT for a simple content idea and building your own custom GPT might sound horrendous but it really isn’t. 

I tracked the impact. Nagged myself - is the use of AI saving me time? Making me better?

Only you can decide what you are going to do about advancing tech, but you need to really have a think about how you can utilise it to enhance the next few years in your business or career.

What are you using AI for?