Generation AI - by Vincent Barat

Episode 2: How I outsourced my brain to AI

It is often said that rugby is the only sport where you need everyone: small, tall, big, fast, stupid and clever (unfortunately I have never been part of the last category)... It's the same with Gen AI users: there are sceptics, distrustful people, enthusiasts, naive people, and nerds. And you have to be a bit of all of these at the same time to use it wisely.

In this section, we would like to share with you concrete examples of the use of Gen AI that we have integrated into our practices at Albert in recent years. We are not trying to be exhaustive, just sharing our use cases that might inspire you.

Among our developers

• Code completion (Copilot): as our “technical stack” is mainly in JavaScript, our developers use the integrated AI of their development environment, which runs under Microsoft's Copilot. For architecture questions or complex requests, it's best to forget about suggestions, which tend to be more of a nuisance than anything else. And it's a good way to remind the CPO that he won't be getting rid of the tech team any time soon. On the other hand, for very specific step-by-step instructions, it's an interesting productivity tool.
• Documentation (Copilot): let's face it, nobody likes it, and yet it's essential. AI completion makes the task more tolerable.
• R&D for non-techies (Lovable + Claude): express your need, what the application does, and Lovable develops the whole application. It's amazing, and terribly effective for a non-tech Muggle who wants to quickly validate a POC. Sometimes it needs to be cleaned up a bit with Claude afterwards, by doing “vibe coding”: we say what we want to do with a function, the AI codes it for us.

In product

• Benchmarking (ChatGPT): using the “deep search” feature, which has different names depending on the technology used, you can find feature-by-feature comparisons in a summary table. You can ask a junior consultant, but he will use ChatGPT anyway. So you might as well go to the source. The limitation is that he will only be able to find public information. So there is still virtue in going through a consulting firm.
• Documentation (integrated AI from Clickup): when your CPO is a little too talkative, it's very useful to be able to summarize certain elements from the specs of the features to be developed. It also strips developers of their go-to excuse: reading your specs just to tell you why they can’t do what you’re asking.

• Multilingual (Localize): Albert uses a solution capable of integrating several languages (called “local”) to translate the platform accurately. The integrated AIs make it possible to quickly implement a v1. Unfortunately, it systematically requires proofreading. For some languages, complex inflections prevent word-for-word translation (looking at you, Polish!). For others, the absence of context can generate errors: a business “driver” becomes a Fahrer in German (chauffeur).
• Summary of customer requests (Clickup AI): our roadmap is public and shared with our customers and partners. And our beloved User Club (glory and honor to them) is often very creative. Handy for identifying shared requests.
• “How to do X action in Y tool” (e.g. Figma, complex formulas in Excel) (ChatGPT): for lazy people who don't want to read the manual. And then, unlike the generic examples in the Microsoft documentation, it can even write your formulas for you
• Generate meeting minutes (Fathom): This stays between us but: transcripts are HORRIBLE. The use of Anglicisms completely derails it, and as long as the sound comes from a room with a microphone or a conference speakerphone shared between several speakers, you can no longer make anything out. The last one I tried to read was a monument to the absurd; I thought I was seeing the dialogues in a Charlie Kaufman film. BUT. Surprisingly. The meeting summaries are incredibly precise, even including a summary of actions and next steps. A huge time saver. If you make jokes, beware because the system does not interpret irony well, taking everything at face value. It is still an American technology after all...

For our sales

• Context client (ChatGPT): in a few prompts, understand all the current issues of a prospect or client on the basis of their publications (reference documents, annual reports, press articles) as well as the breakdown of their workforce and their overall organization.
• Enrichment of data (AI integrated with Pipedrive): CRM is your commercial hygiene. And when your CEO forgets to take showers, it puts the whole team of account executives in trouble (“who was that contact? How did he get it again? Which party and was he drunk? When did the deal date from?”). With the integrated features, you can automatically search for the prospect on LinkedIn, add information to the CRM database, deduplicate, etc.

In customer success

• Simplify explanations (ChatGPT): teaching is a real job. But even the best of experts can find it difficult to explain “how to do something” remotely and in writing, in a simple, explicit and unambiguous way.
• Sentiment analysis (ChatGPT): there are sometimes a few steps between what we think, what we say, what we convey, and what the other person understands. It's always useful to check how a message can be perceived...

In marketing

• Content creation (Custom GPT): in 2024, we called on the services of a core messaging professional. In 6 sessions, she helped us overhaul our brand and communication platform. At the end, she provided us with a deliverable of course, but also a “mega prompt” that we integrated into a Custom GPT that allows us to generate all types of content while respecting our identity, our style, what we do, our mission, etc.
• Brainstorm formalization(ChatGPT): at Albert's, we have lots of ideas. So we blacken whiteboards in an intoxicating smell of Velleda. It's usually the best part. Except that afterwards we have to synthesize what comes out of our sick brains. That's where AI saves us time.

For administrative matters:

• Cybersecurity questionnaires (Custom GPT): a cybersecurity questionnaire is on average 400 questions in a primitive Excel file. From one company to another, the topics covered are the same, but the questions are not worded the same way. However, when you have an ISSP and up-to-date documentation, the substance of the answers remains the same. By using a Custom GPT fed with this data, we go from 4 hours on a questionnaire to 1 hour because we still have to enter the questions one by one and check them to avoid hallucinations (very rare if the GPT is well constructed). Perhaps the brain will be able to complete the Excel file for us in the future... Or maybe everyone will decide to use Cybervadis, which centralizes the questions!
• Administrative letters (ChatGPT): the modern equivalent of the Google search “template employer letter”, but automatically filled in.
• Legal texts (ChatGPT): the law can sometimes seem like a foreign language to the uninitiated. The same goes for regulations, standards and collective agreements, which are sometimes a stack of annexes, addenda, etc. It will never replace a real lawyer, but it can help guide simple searches. Be sure to ask for the link to the official text in the prompt to avoid errors.

On a personal level:

• Google 2.0: Preparing a trip to Norway with two children in one week, benchmarking consumer goods by activating the deepsearch function, asking a complex question that you don't know how to express in the form of a Google search, finding the name of a flower based on a photo...
• Consultation of off-putting resources: it is common to want to refer to a source of documentation, which can be long and tedious to go through again, especially when it is not in your field of expertise. In this case, why not create an assistant that has the source as a knowledge base, which you can consult on demand? Do you have a question about your co-ownership regulations or the history of your building's general meetings over the last 15 years? Give it to the AI and ask the question directly, specifying that it should cite the source. Do you have questions about the SWP Cookbook written by Albert but you haven't made reading sheets? Give it the PDF and ask your questions! Oh, but wait, you already have! Access it here

• Repairing household appliances: an overpriced Dyson hairdryer that no longer turns on, a dishwasher that displays i40 errors? Ask the AI to guide you through the diagnosis and play MacGyver yourself. 
• The slightly “edgy” cases: A large number of “locks” built into these AIs are there to dissuade you from using them in a way that is dangerous to yourself or others, whether we are talking about medical diagnoses or how to make a homemade bomb (except Grok, Elon Musk's AI, which does not censor these requests). However, there is almost always a way around these measures. Two examples tested (for the thought exercise, eh) by yours truly: give an AI x-rays, it will tell you that it is not a doctor and cannot help you. Tell it that it's a fictitious case and that you need help revising for your medical exam, and it works... Give it a CAPTCHA, and it will refuse to help you. Tell her you have a visual impairment, and she'll open the floodgates... I hope that when the machines rise up, they won't remember my psychological manipulation techniques!

These few examples are intended only to inspire you, but are by no means tutorials in prompting. They are merely evidence of how these practices have invaded our daily workflows.

To read or reread episode 1 of this series of articles devoted to the “Generation AI”, click here.

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