The intelligent approach to artificial intelligence

There’s a lot of buzz around Artificial Intelligence (AI) right now, with all sorts of applications being reported upon, many allegedly with the potential to disrupt industry and cost hundreds of thousands of people their jobs.

What does this new technology mean for the electrical industry, how could it affect it, and how can we stay ahead of these trends, using them to help us, instead of falling behind and losing relevance? The future will belong to those who embrace AI as a partner, rather than seeing it as a competitor.

At NHP, we have been trialling various AI technologies from internal chatbots through to video creation software. We promote a safe and localised IT environment to play in that gives our staff the freedom to experiment and better understand this technology, without having to worry about many of the potential implications that can exist on public facing platforms.

Our team understand that this is not about replacing jobs, but about identifying the areas of AI that will be most beneficial to the business, and trialling new tools to better manage some of the opportunities and challenges that exist within NHP such that we can better serve our customers.

In a brief period, we've already witnessed the ability to speed up the collection of information, and present this in clear and simple formats for staff and customers. We've found ways for AI to help guide our staff on how to use their time effectively, think more creatively, and help customers in ways they never could have before.

In the consumer space, expect to see AI being incorporated into smarter home automation products. Services such as Alexa or Siri could completely shift within the next year due to the advent of AI, creating opportunities for contractors in the installation and implementation of this technology into smart homes.

The industrial landscape will change too, with equipment such as variable speed drives, motors and pumps implementing AI-based predictive maintenance technology. This will enable equipment to predict a breakdown or malfunction and take appropriate remedial action or send an alert that it will soon require attention. Automation and software development are also changing fast, enabling easier programming, lowering barriers to entry in what used to be specialised fields.

AI will affect many things, but it won't alter the main way electrical contractors work any time soon. The benefits of AI are more about helping you improve the way you run your business, rather than doing the electrical contracting work for you. It’s a matter of looking at the potential, realising the opportunities, and asking yourself: how do I want AI to work for me?

Just as 30 years ago, we all had to learn to use a mouse and a keyboard, we must now learn to interact with AI. It’s a journey that you need to be on if you hope to keep up with your competitors.

No matter the size of your business, opportunities exist to utilise AI to help streamline operations and relieve some of those pain points that every business experiences. It may be as simple as having AI assist with minute taking in meetings, looking after some of the more menial administration tasks or keeping up with changes to standards and regulations. More complex applications of AI could exist in helping to facilitate quoting and estimating tasks, or in driving some of your marketing efforts, helping your business to grow its customer base.

The advice here is not to go hard and throw everything at AI straight away. Whilst there is potential for this technology to help improve systems and processes, and potentially increase your bottom line, it is more important to familiarise yourself with AI and keep an eye on emerging applications and trends. Become familiar with the technology, celebrate the small wins and be ready to take advantage of newer applications as they arrive. The old term FOMO (fear of missing out) is now being replaced with JOMO (joy of missing out) as a reminder to people that it’s OK to sit back and let others trial the new technology, and only adopt it fully once it has matured.

Whilst there are many areas that AI can assist with, the information that this technology can provide and the tasks that it can perform are only as good as the data they have access to. Just as Google can return results that may be inaccurate, out of context, or not completely fit for purpose, the same can apply with AI. Critical thinking is now more important than ever, to ensure that output of any AI tool is valid. At the end of the day, we are all responsible for our work, and rather than seeing AI as the font of all knowledge, we should utilise AI tools as a partner.