These AI tools will make your work faster and easier

Been there, done that? Not quite yet

This year, we all had our "meet the AI” moment, especially with the introduction of OpenAI's GPT-3 and GPT-3.5. This generative AI technology made AI tangible and accessible, sparking both excitement and fear of missing out. However, it's important to remember that AI tools are still in their teenage years, finding their place in the world.

We learned about the huge potential of AI, saw the great things you can build with new tools and the ways you can use AI to make your organisation more efficient.

By using the right AI tools in the right way in your workflows, you can gain — and keep — a competitive edge. But not every tool is relevant for everyone. So how do you make the right choices? We let iO pioneers Christofer, Gijs and Mark do the talking.

Poe.com, the aggregator of AI tools

Gijs Besselink, Art Director, explains:

“For AI beginners, our own AiO is a wonderful starting point. But if you want to get started with longer texts, or just creative writing, it might also be interesting to try another model.

A personal favourite of mine is Poe.com, a platform that bundles several AI models. Playing around with the latest ChatGPT-4 models, experimenting with other models like Llama-2 or PaLM, or setting up your own chatbots: it's all possible on Poe — and it's completely free!”

Weaviate, search smarter and build faster

Raymond Muilwijk, explains:

“My favourite AI tool is Weaviate, an Open-Source Vector Database that allows you to search for relevance using vectors (embeddings through LLM).

This kind of Vector Database searches for relevant results by comparing vectors. The big advantage of Weaviate is that it has modules that take the work of creating vectors out of your hands. That's not the case with other Vector Databases, like Pinecone.

Weaviate lets you turn on modules to use GPT, Huggingface, or a local model, for instance. This way, you can index items (e.g. FAQs) and literally ask it to generate the three most relevant FAQs based on a text. Since we have AiO - a proprietary GPT API using Azure - I wrote a module for that as well."

"Playing around with the latest ChatGPT-4 models, experimenting with other models like Llama-2 or PaLM, or setting up your own chatbots: it's all possible on Poe — and it's completely free!"

OpenAI API, building beautiful things with just a few lines of code

Christofer Falkman, AI Strategy Lead, explains:

“I've been very impressed by the OpenAI API with Python base scripts, with the support of Microsoft 365 Copilot (or ChatGPT). That combination makes using AI child's play.

I'm not a developer myself, but a designer. And even I can now build beautiful things. The sky is the limit, as we are often told. But in this case, it really is true: the only limits are your own creativity and ideas.

For example, using the OpenAI API, I've already performed advanced data analysis, transcribed long audio and video (with Whisper and FFmpeg) and used the transcripts in my datasets, created my own Slack and Discord bots, and converted text to speech (with ElevenLabs API) to narrate content — all with just a few lines of code.

I recommend checking out OpenAI's API documentation. With that, it's easier than you think to get started. Just keep in mind not to send confidential data to OpenAI. I recommend using the Azure OpenAI service. It has the best documentation on policies and so on."

Github Copilot, a developer’s best AI friend

Mark Verheij, Front-End Developer, explains:

“My favourite AI tool is Github Copilot, because it really does make development a lot faster.

As a developer, you can integrate Github Copilot into your code editor. That way, while programming, you get real-time suggestions when you start typing. As a result, you have to write a lot less code yourself and you will often quickly get the solutions you need.

The great thing about this tool is that it takes into account the code you wrote earlier in your project. In other words, Copilot can make smart additions based on your previous work. But be careful, because not all suggestions are equally useful, so you still have to pay attention.”

"I'm not a developer myself, but a designer. And even I can now build beautiful things."

The power of AI

As you can see, more AI tools are already available than we all know — and that number is unlikely to decrease any time soon.

AI has the potential to add significant value to your business processes. Embrace its power and foster a mindset that combines innovation and ethical considerations. Let AI be a tool that propels your business forward, creating a competitive edge in an ever-evolving digital landscape.