Central Otago business owners and managers were treated to an Artificial Intelligence (AI) seminar hosted by Australian-based marketing strategist Kelly Slessor on Tuesday.

Hosted by the Central App, the seminar offered insights on how to leverage AI to drive growth, efficiency and innovation in the workplace.

Originally from the UK and the daughter of a Nigerian father, Kelly quickly learned about coding as a young woman growing up with a father who was left injured and unable to work.

When her father bought a home computer to further himself with his career, Kelly quickly realised “that on the other side of every digital experience is a living breathing customer.”

Eventually, after moving to Australia, she used her expertise to design digital experiences for major corporate companies, and AI was soon at the forefront of that.

“The rate of change in AI is like nothing we have ever seen in history before,” she said.

AI was literally going to infiltrate everything we do in business, but the key was teaching people not to be fearful of it, she said.

“AI is like the ultimate calculator and we just can’t unplug this. But we do have to train it in the right way.”

When AI first arrived in the world, it received one million users within the first five days. 

And the more people who used it, the better the apps would become, she said.

Kelly was quick to point out that it would never replace humans, but by using it appropriately “was where we get the gold out of it.”

She said it was important that businesses used the right apps to generate their content, video and images, and the more precise the instructions, the better the outcome.

“It’s just like a child really. You can tell it something and sometimes it does something completely different.”

The other thing business owners should be mindful of was being transparent to their clients about where they were using AI, whether that be on their website within the terms and conditions, she said.

“We should be open and honest about when we are using AI.”

To hear more from Kelly, listen to this week's edition of The Outlet podcast.