AI for Business: Top 3 Tips for Getting Started
Artificial Intelligence, or “AI,” is rapidly entering the business space.
It’s an exciting time, and many organizations are enthusiastic about getting started with these productivity enhancing tools. The IT industry has been using it for a while, and it can be a huge part of your business’s digital transformation journey. But it’s important that you use the tools safely, in a way that benefits your business and your team.
Here are ADNET’s top tips for getting started, and how you can securely enhance your business productivity using AI.
Have the right policies and protections in place.
An acceptable use policy that informs your team of what’s acceptable with AI is an essential piece of your AI strategy. This has to be defined at an organizational level, so that each team member is aware of how they can use the technology appropriately.
Ask yourself, what can you use it for – and what shouldn’t you use it for? While some of this boils down to common sense, policies like this can ensure people are using AI responsibly, ethically, and securely. At the end of the day, you want people to consider exactly what they’re using AI for. Taking a thoughtful approach will help keep your organization more secure, and set clear expectations for your team.
We’re using AI at ADNET, and we know a lot of other people and organizations are too. A few ways we use it are for summarizing technical issues, helping refine documents, generating design ideas, and turning notes from meetings into actionable items. This is just the tip of the iceberg, but our team is aware of how we can use AI, and how we can’t.
Here are some sample AI acceptable usage guidelines based on best-practices:
• Never use AI tools (such as Microsoft Copilot) with any administrator type accounts.
• Never use client data or identifiable, sensitive, or proprietary data in AI platforms that have not been properly secured. For instance, a tool like Microsoft Copilot can be configured securely to work with your Microsoft 365 license.
• Implement measures to protect sensitive/protected data and ensure compliance with relevant data protection regulations.
• Do not use AI to infringe on the rights of others, including privacy and intellectual property rights.
The goal here is to not pass any of your sensitive data into AI models. AI should help you enhance your own work, while respecting the work of others. You should aim to help your team use the tools ethically and responsibly, in a way that makes sense for your organization.
Keep in mind, you’ll need to regularly monitor and evaluate AI systems for effectiveness and adherence to guidelines with processes in place for continuous improvement.
Having the correct technical protections in place before rolling out any AI tools within an organization is critical. This helps safeguard against potential risks and ensures the effective and secure deployment of AI systems. These protections serve as the defense mechanism against threats like data breaches, algorithmic biases, system failures, and malicious attacks. Organizations can mitigate these risks and enhance the reliability, privacy, and integrity of their AI applications by implementing technical measures such as encryption, access controls, data anonymization, and thorough testing procedures.
Establishing a strong foundation of technical protections instills trust among stakeholders, promotes compliance with regulatory requirements, and ultimately enables the organization to leverage AI technology to its fullest potential, while minimizing potential harm or disruptions.
Get your team on board and standardize.
We’re certainly encouraging people to use AI in the IT industry. Recently, several of our team members have attended conferences dedicated to AI for business.
Our experts have been on panels and participated in speaking engagements to help organizations leverage AI. It’s exciting that we can harness these tools to improve our professional efficiency and even our personal lives. We encourage our teams to learn more about AI, and to try using it within our organization. We just want to make sure that everyone’s doing it in a secure, controlled way.
Give your team access to your preferred AI model – ours is Microsoft Copilot, since it securely integrates into the Microsoft 365 tools – and the tools they need to be successful. Help them understand how you expect them to use AI. Share the policies, secure your systems, and encourage people to get creative with the technology. You can accomplish some incredible things with AI.
Understand the limitations of the tools.
Some of the tools have safeguards built in, some do not. AI right now is a bit like the Wild West – there’s a whole lot of opportunity and competition, but not much regulation and governance.
AI tools are made to amplify talent and help increase productivity – not to replace your team and their talents. Creations made by AI need to be reviewed, edited, and understood by humans. It’s a balance, and often it’s a starting point or can help you polish something. AI can create amazing things – if you’re willing to go back and add that personal touch – but it’s not going to take the place of a skilled professional with decades of real-life experience.
Have realistic expectations about how you can reasonably use these tools. Understand how they can integrate into your existing workforce and how they can add value, but don’t expect AI to do everything.
It’s important to remember that AI is very powerful. If security settings aren’t configured correctly for your organization, or policies aren’t in place to clarify what AI can be used for, it’s easy for sensitive data to become available. Working with a trusted, experienced IT partner can help ensure your environment is configured properly to keep security at the forefront while leveraging AI for your business.
Need help getting started securely with AI? Visit thinkADNET.com and reach out to us – we’re happy to help.