Using GenAI Tools
GenAI models have evolved considerably since their initial release and new ones as well as AI assistants are being developed on an ongoing basis in commercial and open source arenas. The capabilities are also expanding: We can now create organized systems of AI agents wherein several AI models or tools can take on specific roles then interact autonomously with each other to achieve a common goal. Regardless of the structure, good direction will result in effective outcomes.
Whereas initially you had to use text to command the genAI model, now you may choose to use voice, text, images, camera, data, and PDF files in your prompting strategy, though capabilities will vary from one model to another. For example at this writing, Mistral/Mixtral offers only text-bases functions. In addition, genAI models have been trained to interact with you using a conversational approach, allowing you to engage with them in a multimodal way that is as familiar as speaking to any human.
Given the general public’s lack of familiarity with the technology itself and the implications of its use on our own work, on organizations, and on society, proceeding with courage, curiosity, and caution is advisable. The following offers some general tips on how to use genAI models along with an overview of selected tools that would be useful in technical contexts.
Tips for Using GenAI
With some genAI models, you can direct the model to use a specific tone: friendly, casual, professional, technical, and the like. Selecting the tone in the features or requesting it in your prompt will affect the vocabulary, syntax, and content of the output. It will also affect the manner in which the genAI tool interacts with you. In fact, you will find that genAI tools often sound very much like humans, and can exhibit unexpected traits such as cuteness, curtness, flamboyance, and rudeness. Most times, and depending on the model, it will tend to respond in a manner in which it is prompted to respond, so the general rule for focused interaction in business contexts is to be polite and professional. Your degree of politeness is significant. Researchers have discovered that the use moderate politeness in prompting will result in better outcomes and that this approach applies to modulations for cultural contexts and different languages (Yin et al., n.d.). Besides, when using politeness, your interaction with the model will be that much more pleasant.
While you can certainly use genAI in a casual manner by simply inputting a question and seeing what comes up in the output, in the workplace we tend to have limited time, a specific purpose, and contextual information we want to see in the output, so taking a more deliberate, problem-solving approach in the use of genAI will result in usable output and time saved.
The following tips, organized according to a typical workflow, aim to help you use genAI models in your day-to-day professional tasks such as email, report, and presentation dra