Lynne Kingsley’s company recently undertook an interesting AI experiment.

The vice president of marketing and strategic services at Ironmark (asi/169127) is the founder of the IronMark AI Council, a group of 17 employees who advocate for AI use in their respective departments. They chose daily redundant tasks – such as writing blog posts, developing meta tags for websites, creating content calendars and summarizing meetings – and compared the time it would take to do them with and without AI’s help. Collectively, it saved the team nearly 100 hours.

Kingsley was one of three panelists – alongside Kate Alavez, president of Counselor Top 40 distributor PromoShop (asi/300446), and Jon Norris, chief strategy officer at Counselor Top 40 supplier Hit Promotional Products (asi/61125) – who joined ASI Media Executive Editor Theresa Hegel for an hour-long webinar on becoming comfortable with AI tools and best practices for a more efficient promotional products business.

“We’ve standardized internal processes for ethical use,” she said. “We’ve outlined the areas where AI tools can be used, like in predictive analytics and developing websites. Companies need to be responsible for how their employees use AI.”

View the entire AI webinar here.

Thanks to AI, people can focus more on critical thinking during the day, rather than laborious, repetitive tasks, said Norris. “We’ve been using it in graphics processing, like for logo anomaly detection and process automation,” he added “And of course, we have a customer service chatbot.”

Alavez said her company has been leveraging the existing tools in Microsoft, mostly Copilot, to draft emails and detect anomalies in order to “work smarter, not harder.”

“We’ve outlined the areas where AI tools can be used, like in predictive analytics and developing websites. Companies need to be responsible for how their employees use AI.” Lynne Kingsley, Ironmark (asi/169127)

Meanwhile, data security should be top of mind for anyone using AI tools. If you’re using a paid tool, read the fine print, said Kingsley. If it’s a free tool, the platform is definitely using any data entered in to develop subsequent models.

Along with ChatGPT, some of the tools the group recommended are those built into the Adobe Creative Suite, MS Office and Canva; DALL-E for images; as well as Google Gemini, Claude and Meta Llama. Different tools serve different needs – Claude is “friendlier,” said Kingsley, and can analyze complex data. Gemini has “a longer attention span.” Meta Llama is an open model that can run locally on a company’s network (unlike ChatGPT which is closed).

“AI is good at managing efficiencies,” said Alavez. “It does the things that suck the joy out of our days. The images aren’t always great, but you can craft a better email to prospects using AI and a human touch, so it sounds authentic.”

“AI is good at managing efficiencies. It does the things that suck the joy out of our days.” Kate Alavez, PromoShop (asi/300446)

There’s also opportunity for AI to take a larger role in product search – most of the teams in a recent PromoStandards hack-a-thon that was focused on creating an AI app for promo set their sights there, Norris said. “AI-powered search is low-hanging fruit,” he added. “But then you have to analyze the results. If you know that a certain T-shirt is your bestseller, but the results say it’s a different shirt, what do you do with that?”

Another area is data processing and logistics – Norris said AI is already dissecting the information entered in purchase orders to help companies make more efficient shipping decisions. Soon, manual POs will be a thing of the past.

“The first jobs it’ll replace are data processing, order entry, graphics and customer service – anything we could outsource overseas and have someone else handle,” he said. “If someone takes meeting notes, that’s going away. If you use your brain constructively, you’re good. AI takes care of the redundant tasks, and that person can do something else.”

Still, there’s uncertainty about how best to use the many tools now available. Think small at first, said Alavez. Take the time to explore features built into daily-use programs like PowerPoint, Canva and Adobe. “Start by just getting comfortable,” she said. “Then it’s not as terrifying when I go to use it in a work case. Companies can also give their employees three vetted ways they can use it in the system and possible pitfalls, and then ask employees to let them know where they need support. There’s still a lot of fear and mistrust – address the unease.”

While working with AI tools, consider ethical use like privacy and copyright infringement (“If there’s any question, talk to a legal consultant,” said Kingsley). Meanwhile, there are a plethora of opportunities to start using AI now to help streamline the workday.

“Take the simple wins. You don’t have to solve the world’s graphics problems or the industry’s order entry problems. But if you make yourself 5% more efficient, that’s a win.” Jon Norris, Hit Promotional Products (asi/61125)

“AI helps us do our best work,” said Alavez. “People can focus on the things that make them shine. This is where the joy of work begins – when we get beyond robotic processing.”

Spend time experimenting, said Kingsley, and don’t be afraid. “There are a lot of dumb things we spend time on during the day,” she said. “Think to yourself, ‘How can I put this into AI?’”

Come up with just five things you do every day that AI can do instead, said Norris. And go for the paid version of your preferred tool if possible. “Take the simple wins,” he said. “You don’t have to solve the world’s graphics problems or the industry’s order entry problems. But if you make yourself 5% more efficient, that’s a win.”