32 01732 759725 In September, as part of its LogiWORK event series, Logitech hosted a panel discussion on AI and productivity at the London offices of Deliveroo. James Goulding reports AI & productivity and is being used by 92% of Fortune 500 companies. In her role as a consultant, Kallman has witnessed businesses using AI in a similar way to how she uses it in her writing, not just to save time but to reach an outcome that synthesises input from human and machine. “I recently consulted for an agency that works with experts in different fields. They put all that expertise into a model that they queried and asked to come up with a future scenario and three potential strategies for addressing it. Two of the strategies were dismissed, but one was quite meaningful and not something any one of those experts would have come up with on their own. For me, it’s about how we can use AI as a tool to enhance and amplify our own intelligence.” Anatoliy Polyanker agrees that the penetration of AI is growing rapidly but added that adoption levels vary significantly. “In occupations like software development, creative professionals, journalists, we see people already integrating AI into their workflows. They are gaining time and the quality of output is improving. At the same time, we have millions and millions of less tech-savvy people for whom AI, even ChatGPT, is overwhelming. These people want more intuitive solutions and simplicity. They don’t want to have to move from their email or word processing app into ChatGPT and back again. This is where technology companies can play a role, by making experiences more intuitive. That was one of the reasons we created AI Prompt Builder. It’s a tool that helps you quickly activate the overlay in your email or in your presentation and gives you simple prompt options – summarise, replace, respond to mail. Many people appreciate that simplicity.” Disrupt your routine Grace Beverley believes people have a responsibility to start using AI and need to be proactive in learning new skills that can enable them to be more productive. She recommends disrupting established routines as a good starting point. available for everyone, but it is able to sift through and select from unlabelled and unstructured data, and this is unlocking the second half of automation,” she said. “We’re moving out of this age of digital transformation into an age of AI transformation when we are going to be able to achieve more with less. Everything that’s digital today is going to become AI‑enabled, and everything that’s AI-enabled we’re going to be able to communicate with through natural language conversation. I like to think of it as an evolution of a tool, like the microscope or the telescope which allowed us to see into things that we could not see on our own. Now, we’re able to merge disparate data sets to identify patterns that we otherwise couldn’t see.” Doing more with less In the context of personal productivity, Anatoliy Polyanker described AI as an all-in-one personal assistant, interpreter and consultant that helps him save time and make decisions faster. As an example, he explained how he had prompted ChatGPT to compare two very detailed, technical solar panel quotes for his house in Switzerland. Within seconds, it had produced a side-by-side comparison of the two and how they compared to other providers in his area. This, he said, turned a two-hour task into one that took just five minutes. In common with most people taking their first steps in AI, Amelia Kallman uses it to improve her writing skills. She is currently writing the first draft of her third book and turns to AI when she needs help to articulate a point or make her copy more descriptive. “It’ll come up with 10 different ways to say something. It’s very rare that one of them is exactly what I’m looking for, but it enables me to say I like this and I like that. Using it as a tool in that way means my first draft is a bit more like a second draft,” she said. Kallman added that easy productivity gains such as these have accelerated AI adoption to the point where ChatGPT now has 200 million active weekly users Logitech has been focused on the personal productivity of computer users since it was founded in 1981, starting out as a manufacturer of computer peripherals, such as keyboards and mice, before diversifying into the related areas of music, gaming, meeting and video accessories. More recently, it has been advancing the potential of AI to boost productivity by building AI features into its products. These range from Logi AI Prompt Builder, which gives instant access to ChatGPT from Logitech mice and keyboards, to AI-powered object detection in video bars (see overleaf). Moderator Viviane Paxinos started out by asking panellists for their understanding of AI and how they are using it in their daily lives. Futurist Amelia Kallman pointed out that most discussions today refer to generative AI, which she likened to the invention of the microscope and the telescope for its ability to uncover previously hidden details and connections. “Since October 2022, what we’ve been talking about specifically is generative AI. This is the biggest thing to happen to AI in our lifetime – so far. Not only has it become free and accessible and Ask the experts
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