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The Coming Wave of Ambient AI

Knownwell

Are you ready for AI that’s so intuitive it anticipates your next moves without being prompted? Is ambient AI the next frontier for driving workplace productivity and efficiency? The AI Knowhow team bites off these questions and more on the latest episode of AI Knowhow.

What is Ambient AI?

The conversation starts with a discussion giving an overview of ambient AI (think Alexa, just without having to tell it what to do) and its potential impact on businesses. David DeWolf shares his predictions about UX integration, stressing that AI will start delivering insights without user prompts, significantly altering daily workflows.

“The UX of AI will become more sophisticated and much more seamlessly integrated into our daily workflows,” David predicts. “Rather than users going to AI to ask for insights, for example, AI will start delivering insights without being prompted.”

David emphasizes how technology has progressively become more integrated into our lives. From mainframes to mobile phones, technology keeps blending more seamlessly into our daily routines. He believes ambient AI is the next natural step in this evolutionary journey, making technology a ubiquitous, unobtrusive part of our environment.

Real-World Examples of Ambient AI

Mohan Rao provides a practical example of what ambient AI might feel like with his Garmin watch, which monitors stress levels and suggests breaks. He extrapolates this to business contexts, where ambient AI can perform tasks and make decisions from learned contexts, fundamentally transforming knowledge management within organizations.

Addressing Trust and Adoption

Mohan discusses the hurdles of trust and responsibility when integrating AI into business workflows. Legal and privacy concerns will need to be addressed, especially as AI begins to handle more critical tasks. David adds that society may shift its paradigms from assuming genuine output to validating authenticity rigorously.

Ambient AI: When Will It Be Mainstream?

The panel touches on timeframes, predicting that while the adoption will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary, significant advancements will appear within the next couple of years. “I think you will see this mature in software within a year or two, similar to how it has in hardware,” David says.

Canva Price Hikes: How Much is That Software in the Window?!

The episode introduces a new segment where Pete Buer discusses Canva’s recent 300% price hike for some users due to newly introduced AI features. Courtney weighs in, noting that while Canva has been invaluable for Knownwell and countless other companies, the price hike might force users to reconsider their options and possibly revert to traditional tools like Adobe Photoshop.

Dan Chuparkoff on AI Adoption

In an insightful conversation, Dan Chuparkoff discusses the fine line between AI as hype and its practical applications. Dan has firsthand experience leading innovation teams at Google, McKinsey, Atlassian, and many more, and he has consulted with a number of Fortune 500 companies on AI, innovation, change management, and collaboration.

For businesses looking to get the most out of AI, he emphasizes the need to break down the many different types of AI into components to make it comprehensible and actionable. He envisions a future where AI will be a part of the fabric of our everyday work, much like spellcheck has become today.

This, by the way, is not something we should feel guilty about. Quite the contrary in fact. Dan cites spellcheck as something that everyone used to have to do manually but now widely accepts and is grateful for as a simple technology precursor for what AI will become. “Spellcheck doesn’t feel like cheating anymore,” Dan says. “It’s so built in to every single tool that we use that it’s like the fabric of the universe now. AI will be like that, too.”

Dan talks about his framework, the Hierarchy of Human Experience, which categorizes tasks AI can handle and those best left to humans. Problem-solving tasks and creative aspects are uniquely human and will remain beyond AI’s scope for the foreseeable future. “Tasks that are uniquely human involve problem-solving and creativity, areas where AI can’t yet compete,” Dan says.

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Show Notes & Related Links

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