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The Big AI Misconception – It’s not about technology, it’s about how we use it

Posted August 21, 2024

Travel Manitoba’s Cody Chomiak shares some insights on how behaviour shifts and change management can make AI work for you

Whether we know it or not, artificial intelligence (AI) has been helping us with our daily tasks and improving our routines for over a decade. From wearable fitness trackers, voice prompts for Alexa, online shopping recommendations based on our history or autocorrect suggestions, AI has been quietly working in the background to improve our experience for a while now. Generative AI (GenAI) is the artificial intelligence that can take prompts and generate text, images and video through products like ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, TopazLabs or HeyGen. While the impact is enormous and will certainly change our daily lives, working with AI isn’t as scary as it seems.

“AI should be seen as an opportunity,” says Cody Chomiak, Vice-President of Marketing at Travel Manitoba. “At its core, this is about change management, not technology adoption. Sure, change can be uncomfortable, but if you think about electricity and how it is in everything, that is going to be AI. We are at a tipping point that has immense potential to assist us to improve our work and the way visitors engage with us.”

Just as the advent of the printing press or the internet changed the way humans communicate, learn and interact with knowledge and each other, so too will AI. Rather than question what AI means or how we jump on the latest trend, the most crucial change for business and individuals will be in taking the time to assess how we adjust our behaviour. We need to make AI to work for us as a supportive tool so we can capitalize on the advantage without rushing in without a well-thought out plan, Chomiak notes.

“The businesses and industries that manage this change and shift their attitudes and behaviours will fare the best and get the most out of AI,” says Chomiak.

Where to begin?

From how visitors plan their trips to how we operate our tourism businesses, almost every aspect of tourism will feel some impact. But over time, we’ll become more comfortable and less aware of AI’s presence. Just like how dishwashers and electronic appliances went from novel to the norm, we’ll become comfortable relying on technology to help solve some of the biggest time sucks we have in our lives. AI can be an assistant to help. If we lead with data-driven decision making and focus on changing our habits for better performance, there is a lot of opportunity to use AI to enhance our work and improve our effectiveness.

Change is hard. Breaking it down into steps makes it easier.

The greatest hurdle to overcome with AI adoption is changing the way we think and operate. Chomiak has some recommendations on how to get started.

  1. Use the free ChatGPT, Copilot or Gemini AI tools to test out a few prompts as a great way to start if you haven’t already tried it. For example, ask the AI to plan a trip from one location to another with flights or driving directions, accommodations and activities. You may be surprised at the results.
  2. Learn how to (effectively) generate a prompt with AI. This is one example of the change in behaviour and attitude that’s required, as instinctively you might want to type in a prompt like you would a search in an internet browser. In GenAI, you can describe what you want, get results from a prompt and continue to refine that answer until it’s satisfactory. AI experts suggest providing extra details in your prompt. Using the trip itinerary example above, include why you want to go, what type of activities you like and what type of flight or drive you’d prefer and why. This information will provide customized results.
  3. Try a verbal prompt. ChatGPT and many GenAI apps will allow for voice prompts. We talk differently than we write or type, which naturally allows for a more iterative description with extra details (as encouraged in #2). Try it out and see if you like the results. Of course, the AI will provide a vocal response back which can still be copied and pasted from the chat history.
  4. Use AI consistently. Like anything, practice makes perfect! Even some of the foremost experts in the field of AI adoption have a sticky note on their laptop reminding them to “Use AI”.
  5. Follow the experts. See what folks in the know are saying, like Greg Oates Senior Vice-President of Innovation MMGY and NextFactor, Conor Grennan of NYU, or Andrew Ng founder of DeepLearning.ai and Coursera. There are plenty of great minds offering well thought-out advice on how to make AI work for you.

Responsible use of AI and the importance of an AI policy

Organizations all over the world are working to implement policies and rules around AI use. According to Microsoft’s 2024 work trend index (WTI) survey of over 31,000 employees across 31 countries, three-quarters (75%) of all employees are using AI at work in some capacity.

“Businesses need to stay responsive, open minded and flexible to the changing workplace,” said Chomiak. “It is vital that your organization have an AI policy and encourage the ethical adoption of AI. Your employees are using AI whether you know it or not, so you need to be prepared and understand the risks and benefits."

Some of the major concerns around AI use stem from accuracy of results, bias within AI that might exclude different groups and perspectives as well as issues surrounding privacy, copyright and intellectual property. To counter these, Travel Manitoba’s AI policy supports our use of AI for minimal text, photo or video editing (such as extending the borders of water or sky in video or images), ensuring we are respecting copyright and continuing to depict an authentic experience to maintain the trust of our audiences.

The ethical adoption and use case for AI

Despite some of the pitfalls, it’s important to encourage the ethical adoption of AI use. A report from Harvard found that when the Boston Consulting Group asked consultants to use AI, there was a 43 per cent increase in productivity among below average consultants and a 17 per cent increase for above average workers. AI has the ability to free up staff resources for more important tasks, reducing the time it takes to complete basic tasks and improving the results. Here are some great uses for AI:

  1. Meeting notes. Use AI to document a meeting and then take the transcript and summarize it with key takeaways listed for participants.
  2. Ideation. Use AI to give you a headstart in coming up with ideas for a task or challenge. Try something like “suggest a marketing plan to publicly launch a new outdoor snowshoeing tourism experience”. Just remember that you do not want to provide any private, personal or sensitive information that is not for the public in any prompts. Don’t forget to use AI’s ability to iterate on prompts to further refine and focus the answers.
  3. Up-res older video. If you have footage that was shot at a lower resolution, AI can improve the quality.
  4. Writing support. AI is helpful to start a writing project–from emails to speeches to scripts–or in reviewing these projects for you. AI is also very adept at summarizing longer content into bullets or key points as well as rewriting your material into a social media post.
  5. Stress test a concept. You can ask AI to challenge an idea or concept with directions on the types of holes or problems you want it to search for.

AI has been a part of our lives for some time but most of us don’t know how integrated it has become with our daily tools and technology. We need to work together as an industry, focus on changing our behaviours to remain both flexible and curious as to where this rapidly expanding technology will take us, while ensuring we are ethical in our use of AI and mindful in how we fill the time that use of AI brings back into our schedules.