Hi

It seems appropriate on the first anniversary of the launch of Chat GPT 3.5 to write a blog about generative AI. Little did I know, only hours before this e-mail was due to land in your inbox, that the turbulent world of artificial intelligence would be rocked once again by the sacking of Sam Altman the CEO of Open AI and the subsequent resignation of its Chairman.

Other than the terrible tragedies of the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, there can be nothing that has seized worldwide attention this year like generative AI.

The speed at which applications have flooded the market has probably taken even the tech companies behind them by surprise.

But just a year after the launch of the most widely used large language model [LLM] ChatGPT 3.5, and subsequently its premium version ChatGPT 4.0, it is worth taking a moment to reflect on their likely impact on businesses.

There is no doubt that this technology is, and will be, transformative across big business and numerous other sectors such as healthcare.  But what about the small the business sector; most small businesses will lack the resources to compete with their larger competitors? Will this mean that they will fall behind and may even go out of business?

Let's look at the evidence. 

Firstly, it is worth dispelling some myths around artificial intelligence in general. It is not about to steal the jobs of knowledge workers and make whole swathes of occupations such as bookkeepers and customer service representatives redundant. Yes, some jobs will change in their nature but as previous technological advances have revealed there has been no reduction in the need for human workers and indeed in many sectors technology has aided productivity and resulted in an increase in employment.

The reality is that in many sectors generative artificial intelligence will improve quality and productivity across a range of business functions including marketing, operations, sales and finance. A new generation of knowledge workers will be required who will need to be trained in skills such as lateral thinking, prompt engineering and fine tuning, and data analytics.

Just as the Internet brought about a democratisation of access to knowledge, so generative AI will facilitate another leap forward in both the access and interpretation of knowledge.

Big businesses will invest even bigger bucks to gain access to the resources such hardware, software and skilled knowledge workers to capitalise on the benefits of AI; but small businesses cannot afford to be left behind. Ignoring AI, just as ignoring previous technological advances, isn’t an option if even survival is an objective. Embracing it will be essential and critical.

For small businesses this will require choice, compromise, flexibility and speed. It is likely that sectors with similar characteristics will cluster to share the cost and benefits of developing bespoke AI solutions.

At Guilford Accounting, we have started the process of building collaborative tools for service businesses such as accountants, bookkeepers and virtual assistants. 

As we pass generated AI's first birthday, these tools are still very much in their infancy but already it is clear that AI tools will have a  transformative impact across every business sector. 

Will you be an early adopter or a laggard?

Noel Guilford