What is there to say about AI? Where does it fit in society? Now that we have AI what does this mean for search engines?
I have enjoyed several conversations influenced by the surging popularity of AI on the topic and have gathered insights from these conversations.
Matches vs Thoughts
If Google and Bing are search engines, AI tools (chat GPT, Google Bard, and Bing Chat) are thought engines. Search engines give you sites that have a highly relevant match to your search query.
- Plumbers Near Me
- Italian Restaurant Reviews in Van Nuys
- Costco Hours
These simpler search queries work just as well in AI but since AI is more sophisticated (and expensive to operate) we should use it for more challenging queries.
Search engines are very weak at aggregating data and making a determination. For example try these queries:
- Pizza restaurants in Fresno that are closed on Mondays
- What minority owned restaurants are in Redding?
- How do I determine who installed my garage door?
If these queries ever do work on a search engine, it is only because an algorithm was previously made to anticipate the question. That is why on Google (and Bing) the query:
“Pizza restaurants in Fresno that are closed on Mondays”
Does not work, but the opposite does:
“Pizza restaurants in Fresno that are open on Mondays”
People rarely ask a search engineer for when a restaurant is closed so no programmer coded an algorithm for that situation.
Saving Time
As a marketer we are beginning to see AI have the capability of aggregating valuable marketing data in a much quicker time than it takes a human. As AI companies work to ‘tune’ their AI for performance, accuracy, and reduce cost, we find the consistency to vary but queries that we find of interest include:
- Number of Followers: “Provide the number of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram Followers in a tabular format for Dominoes Pizza on Shaw Ave in Clovis, CA.”
- Writing Headlines – this article, as a matter of fact, was fed to an AI requesting ten catchy titles. The other titles it provided were:”The Impact of AI on Search Engines and Society””AI vs. Search Engines: Transforming Information Retrieval””The Evolution of Search Engines with AI””Unlocking the Power of AI in Search and Beyond””AI’s Role in Shaping the Future of Information Retrieval””AI and Search Engines: A Paradigm Shift in Information Access””Maximizing AI’s Potential in Marketing and Content Creation””Specialized AI: The Future of Industry Knowledge””AI as a Job Enhancer: Redefining Work in the Digital Age”
- Writing Articles – We have found AI to do a wonderful job writing articles if you provide all the facts. You may have heard of the phenomenon of “Hallucination” where the AI not only creates the copy but also ‘creates’ the facts as well. We have found that AI should be used for fact finding (assuming you are prepared to fact-check) and separately, the task of writing content. If AI is given both tasks simultaneously, you have created more work for yourself since you will have to now dig through long-copy to find and check each comment stated as fact.
- Summarizing Articles and Legal Documents – I must be honest here and admit my inability to read whitepapers, legal documents, long-winded emails, and anything with ‘boiler plate’ in it. AI has given me the ability to paste the offending document and ask my AI of choice to provide a short summary highlighting the important points. This has saved me time and most importantly – mental energy.
Specialization
There is no doubt that AI is powerful, Chat GPT after all has passed the bar exam and several other medical exams, but as it is self taught by crawling an uncountable number of sources on the internet, AI is prone to giving wrong answers and sometimes even dangerous advice. As AI companies adjust, you can expect to see custom AIs programmed with a select library of proven knowledge about the world (instead of the whole internet) and then trained on a specific industry. Expect soon to find AIs specialized in:
- Criminal Law
- Tax Law
- Medicine
- Building Codes
- Insurance Claims
- Teaching curriculum, tests, and study guides
AI is a Job Enhancer
There should be little worry of AI replacing jobs, rather it should be considered one that enhances your job allowing you to think more on strategy and spend less time on aggregating data or word fill to convert your outline to a cohesive written report.
Our team continues to lean into AI, and most recently we have implemented AI to answer staff questions for Torchlight operations; from vacation time to client onboarding, we have been feeding it all our internal knowledge base articles in order to allow for easier and quicker access for our team members.
I am optimistic that with the time saved, productivity and quality in the workplace will be improved.