3 Ways Chat GPT Can Transform Your Company’s Back-Office Operations

On November 30, 2022, Open AI released the latest iteration of its generative AI chatbot, Chat GPT.

Five days later, they gained over 1M users, and two months later, over 100M users! So popular is this AI technology that Microsoft has already invested several billion dollars.

GPT stands for Generative Pretrained Transformer. Specifically, Chat GPT is a chatbot that can generate surprisingly accurate new content based on user queries. The "Pretrained" in GPT indicates that the information from which the bot scans, processes, and answers questions is based on "old" data. In the case of ChatGPT, it relies on web-based data up to 2021.

The "Transformer" in GPT speaks to Chat GPT's ability to not only transform the way we conduct research online but also how we manage some of our back-office operations.

The above screenshot shows examples of how you can leverage ChatGPT. In this article, I'll share at least three such ways Chat GPT can serve as a digital assistant in transforming some of your back-office operations.

#1: Connecting Digital Technologies

There's a high probability that you and your team use multiple digital technologies to power your company's operations. Ideally, you'd like to invest in technologies that can integrate with those already in use. It's not uncommon to run into snags when attempting to connect technologies via an API.

For example, my team and I use Notion as our operating system for storing and managing the majority of our back-office operations. It integrates with several other tools like Asana, Google Sheets, and Slack. We've unsuccessfully tried to integrate Asana so that we won't have to constantly log into two different systems to manage projects. With Chat GPT we can quickly get the code needed to fix the bugs our internal tech support has encountered. This will not only save thousands of dollars on expensive programmers who've offered to help us but the speed at which troubleshooting takes place is impressive.

#2: Creating Content

In the digital age, cash isn't the only thing that's king. So is content! Companies across every industry are employing content management strategies (i.e., blog posts, ads, articles, videos, podcasts, and social media posts) to raise awareness for their goods and services.

After testing several queries in Chat GPT, I attempted to "trick" it by asking about the relatively obscure topic that I specialize in - business infrastructure. To my surprise, it generated a fast response. We're talking seconds, not minutes!

Yes, I agree with the above information. Mostly because I recognize it. A good bit of it comes from information I've written online on the topic of business infrastructure over the years! For that reason, I suggest using ChatGPT not as a replacement for creating original content, but as a digital research assistant for streamlining the ideation and writing processes. Otherwise, you can open yourself to accusations of plagiarism and copyright infringement.

#3: Providing Customer Support

I'm an advocate of developing tools like scripts and FAQs to provide canned responses that address common questions that customers may have. Because ChatGPT is designed to be more conversational and less robotic in its tone, your company can leverage it as a means for providing quicker, more accurate responses than if customers were to conduct online searches, forums, and FAQs on your website - an experience that can leave them more confused and, less likely to buy.

This does not mean replacing human beings in providing customer support. It simply means streamlining the time that can be involved in answering common questions. Let digital assistants like Chat GPT take care of those. This means that more advanced questions can be routed to human assistants who likely have specialized knowledge and can spend more quality time working with your customers one-on-one rather than rudely rushing them off the phone so that they can answer the next call in the queue.

Trust, but Verify

As with the launch of any new technology, there are pitfalls some of which include:

• False information,
• References to deep fake videos and images,
• Copyright infringement,
• Dated information,
• Erosion of critical thinking and deductive reasoning skills,
• Users not performing fact-checking, and more.

Over time, we can only hope that these issues will be mitigated. Microsoft currently has a beta version of its search engine Bing which includes Chat GPT. This version addresses the issue of dated information when using Chat GPT as a stand-alone tool. There's also the broader concern about the erosion of journalism but keep in mind that AI tools rely on the information provided by original content creators in the first place.

Perhaps a larger concern is the "dumbing down" of responses if users rely exclusively on the results generated by AI tools like Chat GPT. Language has many nuances that, frankly, AI hasn't mastered yet. It reminds me of what George Orwell writes about in his seminal book, 1984, where language becomes more robotic - instead of using "good, better, and best," characters were forced to describe things as "good, double good, or double plus good."

One thing is for sure - Chat GPT's technology will improve over time. Remember Wikipedia? When it debuted, professors across the world expressed concern over a growing number of students consistently citing false or misinformation. They eventually discovered these students were taking research shortcuts by using Wikipedia, an open-source tool, instead of reading books and periodicals. Wikipedia now has several measures in place to ensure the accuracy of the information it provides. For now, Chat GPT can be the digital assistant many of us need to streamline and supplement (not replace) some of our back-office operations. And that is transformative indeed!

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About the Author

Alicia Butler Pierre is the Founder & CEO of Equilibria, Inc. – an operations management firm specializing in business infrastructure for fast-growing small businesses. She’s a software inventor, author of the two-time Amazon bestseller Behind the Façade: How to Structure Company Operations for Sustainable Success, and host of the top 2% Business Infrastructure podcast.

Alicia’s also an adjunct instructor of Lean Principles at Purdue University and the newly appointed USA Chair of the G100’s Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises. A chemical engineer turned entrepreneur, she’s advised, designed, and optimized processes for companies including Shell Oil, Coca-Cola, and The Home Depot.