Just two months after its launch, ChatGPT, the AI-powered chatbot developed by OpenAI, garnered 100 million users. Most first joined just to play around with the marvelous new tool, generating clever limericks and drafting quick email responses. But users are rapidly discovering the unprecedented opportunities the platform unlocks.
Nicole Valentine is the fintech director of the Center for Financial Markets at the Milken Institute. She says the dramatic adoption curve portends a major shift in the way we do business. “People want to be part of the experiment and learn how to derive benefit from it,” she says. One of the most important benefits she points to is increased financial inclusion, especially for entrepreneurs and small business owners. “AI is going to change the game for someone that was on the fence about starting a business,” says Valentine.
“Inclusion is really about enabling users that otherwise would not have had an opportunity to leverage certain technologies to be engaged in the potential benefits,” Valentine adds. She says that AI can help support entrepreneurs in their journey by providing capabilities that have traditionally required a substantial workforce and expensive services. “When you’re starting a business, you wear many hats. I see a lot of these applications as an opportunity for business owners to include AI as a partner,” says Valentine.
In addition to text-generating tools like ChatGPT, the proliferation of AI has yielded applications that can serve a variety of functions, allowing entrepreneurs to take off some of those hats and focus on advancing their goals. AI programs can now: take live notes during meetings, organize legal documents, monitor compliance functions, detect potential fraud threats, gather market research, handle customer service needs, edit high-quality videos, write computer code from prompts, and draft tight pitch decks for the fundraising process.
“These applications are creating a lot of leapfrog opportunities for business owners to bring those capabilities into their businesses,” says Valentine. She notes that AI can help with nearly every aspect of starting and growing a business, from developing a strong business plan to crafting a marketing strategy.
“With AI we’ve been able to pull all our datasets into one place–there’s a lot of unrealized value that more people can tap into,” says Valentine. Large corporations and big tech companies have been able to tap into that information for years, and now it’s available to everyone with access to the internet. AI tools are also ensuring more people have access to the capital they need by screening for algorithmic bias in the lending process.
Valentine cautions that, although these platforms can help identify market trends and pull research data, they can’t be relied upon to fully inform financial decisions. She also encourages users to be judicious about the information they share on the platforms. “Be careful what you feed the beast,” she jokes. We’re still early in this burgeoning phase of the technological continuum and can expect to see more oversight to address important privacy and ethical concerns. But Valentine is optimistic about the robust potential of AI. Individuals and businesses will continue to have increasing access to the financial tools they need to flourish. “Our imaginations have been captured as to what is possible,” she says.
Join us at TE23 in Lake Nona, FL, as we dive into AI development’s opportunities, threats, and challenges. From healthcare to agriculture, government to climate, transportation to finance, our expert speakers will delve into how AI will revolutionize every industry. Request an invitation.
