Artificial Intelligence (AI), is the future and everyone knows it. There are already applications pervading society, such as ChatGPT, that we see being used every day.Where it will be implemented in the smart home industry is evolving every day. In terms of product technologies, the electronic/smart security market has been the first sector to truly benefit from AI particularly in video surveillance cameras. As for 2024, we couldn’t help but address how AI might impact the custom integration industry. Because we are very much in the Wild West of AI’s maturity, for our purposes in 2024, let’s focus on how AI tools can aid integration companies in enhancing their processes and business operations.

For that speculation, CE Pro turned to Ron Callis, co-founder and CEO of One Firefly, a marketing specialist whose client base consists of integrators seeking to improve their digital presence.

“We’re already implementing AI at One Firefly, and we’re putting defined processes in place to continue implementing it into the business next year and beyond. One of the neat things we’re doing with AI is using Fathom to record meetings and create AI summaries from them,” Callis enthuses.

“Fathom is incredibly helpful to have during client discovery meetings, because we’re able to create a record of relevant conversations in the clients’ own words to use during website and campaign production. We’re saving time and our meetings are more productive now. Our paid advertising team uses Shape to monitor the ad spend on our clients’ Google Ad campaigns and adjust the budget as needed to maintain good pacing throughout the month.”

Callis adds that One Firefly’s content team utilizes MarketMuse and NeuronWriter to produce more relevant content for clients targeted around SEO topics and keyword strategies. Sales and marketing uses generative imagery tools like Adobe Firefly and DALL-E to more quickly find high-quality imagery for industry presentations and webinars.

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“We’re slowly and methodically working on implementing AI into every facet of One Firefly,” he says. “We have even bigger plans in the works for [2024]. As part of our AI approach, we’ve created an internal AI Council to guide research, innovation, and implementation of new AI tools and processes.”

Learning ChatGPT Is Like Taking AI 101

In the coming months, he explains, the Council will analyze the company’s products and services, then prioritize them to receive AI optimizations based on strengths/weaknesses and biggest opportunity areas for improving the quality or efficiency of a product.

“Anyone can use AI technology on their own. But these tools — like any tool — are only effective if the operator knows when and how to wield them,” Callis says. “My advice to integrators who want to apply AI tools and methods on their own is start at the foundational level: ChatGPT. Get really good at prompt engineering in ChatGPT to help you generate email replies, copy for social media posts, project proposals, responses to challenging customer service issues, content for service and maintenance plans, etc.

“And train the tool to understand your voice, culture, and audience so that all the content you’re producing for the applications listed above align with your brand and messaging,” Callis adds. “Simply using the tools isn’t going to be very effective — the key is to customize, refine, and train AI tools like ChatGPT to speak on your behalf. That’s when you’ll start to save time and energy, while producing elevated communications and messaging.”

Make no mistake, Callis advises, AI is coming for every area of business — sales, marketing, HR, hiring, onboarding, training, finance, project management, customer service, warehouse and inventory management, etc. For example, he says, HR and hiring managers can use a tool like ChatGPT to help create job descriptions and functions for every role in the company.

“That’s a powerful and immediate way to use AI to help solve problems and aid growth. Another example is using an LLM to help create system summaries for project proposals faster and more efficiently,” Callis says.

“Specific applications will look different in every business. I recommend that all businesses develop a systematic approach to guide the investigation and implementation of AI tools within the business. At One Firefly, we’ve formed an AI Council to lead those efforts across every area of our organization. Experimentation and keeping an open mind are key to finding the most beneficial and exciting applications of AI — not everything will end up being a home run, but many things will, and you’ll learn a lot along the way. “

The reality, he says, is that employees are going to use AI tools regardless, and pretty soon they’ll be integrated in daily work flows — like Copilot in Microsoft platforms and Duet AI in Google Workspace platforms. It’s better for businesses to have a company policy and structured approach to use, training, and application in place.

The other reality is that AI technology is advancing so fast, it’s hard to imagine what these tools will look like six months from now, much less 12 months, Callis notes.

“Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, has called AI the most profound technology, more profound than fire or electricity. And I think we’ll see profound changes at all levels of business and society in 2024 due to AI,” he says. “I encourage integrators to continue to pay attention. And don’t fear AI — understand it. Turn your fear into curiosity, and your curiosity into results, to help you grow.”

Companies Are Staying Ahead of Security Market AI Curve

AXIS Communications recently unveiled a slew of new additions to its video surveillance portfolio, which like several other vendors’ solutions these days leverages AI. This includes the AXIS P37 Panoramic Camera Series, AXIS Q18 Bullet Camera Series and AXIS P3268-SLVE Dome Camera, all of which will come equipped with a deep learning processing unit (DLPU), the Swedish company stated before last November’s ISC East in New York City.

AXIS states that the DLPU eliminates the need for expensive servers and allows for a faster and more scalable system when installing. These cameras are also able to run metadata and AXIS Object Analytics streams on multiple channels to detect and classify people and vehicles, for instance, entering a user-defined area.

The company also announced it will be updating its Objects Analytics in conjunction with the release of its deep-learning video cameras. The updates include a new Crossline feature that counts objects that cross a virtual tripwire in a defined direction and Occupancy feature that allows the user to define an area to count selected objects, providing an estimate of occupancy levels in real-time.

See our other home technology trends and predictions for 2024 by clicking here.

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