If there's one AI-powered app that has been the talk of the town, it’s OpenAI’s ChatGPT. According to a report by UBS, the app has managed to reach 100 million users in just 2 months after launching. The reaction of the public has been mixed, from some being amazed by its human-like responses to concerns about how this will affect creative industries, spread of misinformation, and plagiarism in education.

A Force for Good?

With the current version of ChatGPT still providing inaccurate and/or unclear responses from complex user inputs, its still years away from creating unique artwork like Leonardo Da Vinci or taking over the world like SkyNet (The Terminator, 1984). What if however the chatbot app be used as a tool in everyday work life, helping users to complete tasks quicker and improve their productivity in the context of an intranet platform?

Generate Reports, Presentations, and Emails Faster

There have been many examples of users creating imagery and programming code using ChatGPT, but what if this could extend to users creating documents, presentations, emails, etc., faster, and quicker, especially when integrated with Microsoft 365 (formerly Office365)?

A hypothetical example could be a user logging onto the intranet, opening a chatbot window, and writing “Create end-of-year report document in Word using Financials 2023 data”. Once the document is ready to download, all the user has to do is check all the details are correct and it’s ready to be sent out.

Search with Natural Language

Since the 1990s, search engines have provided access to vast amounts of information mainly using keyword-based queries. This has evolved somewhat over the decades but doesn’t mirror the type of language we use in everyday speech and writing. ChatGPT can interpret natural language text prompts and provide a response based on what the user has entered. In the context of intranet employee platforms, users could simply ask the AI chatbot “Who is the managing director of Brazil?” or “Is the meeting room available next Wednesday between 1 pm and 2 pm?” and ChatGPT could provide the relevant response and/or information without the need to sift through search results and pages.

A Virtual Assistance at Your Fingertips

Users could use ChatGPT as a virtual assistant regardless of where they are on an intranet platform, by simply clicking the AI chatbot and typing a prompt to schedule an event, book a meeting room, create reminders, and more. Using the tool in this context could help increase productivity by performing tasks quicker and reduce the amount of times users need to switch between applications.

A Blurry Future

While the future remains unclear on how ChatGPT will transform business, education, and society, one thing is for sure, apps like this won’t disappear anytime soon. While tools like ChatGPT have the potential to reduce time spent on mundane tasks and activities that a user may experience in their workday, what exactly will the trade-offs be?