AI-as-a-team-member: How integrating generative AI creates long-term value

We have a new member on our team, and we’re excited to introduce them. Welcome… Consultron!

• Works a 168-hour work week!
• Never takes a day off!
• Doesn’t get tired or slow down!
• Can take any kind of feedback without complaint!
• Just needs a really good brief!

The explosion of AI technologies

Here at Momentum ITSMA, we’re on a mission to create long-term client advantage by blending human and artificial intelligence, particularly Generative AI.

The rapid adoption of AI has been nothing short of remarkable. We’ve witnessed the exponential growth of new tools and the creation of massive user bases in record time. ChatGPT hit 100 million users in just two months – beating WhatsApp and Twitter and making history by becoming the fastest-growing technology application. This shows the huge potential of AI and likely impact it will have for organizations.

Because of its transformative nature, and rapid adoption, Gen AI is likely to significantly disrupt many industries and remove an important bottleneck in what Ben Thompson calls the ‘idea propagation value chain’. Many industries, especially those in the strategy and creative space are going to have to re-invent and re-articulate the value chain, learning new skills along the way. After all it takes skill to collaborate with AI, to successfully realize ideas, and – importantly – create unique value when everyone is using the same tools. AI won’t be the answer to every brief, but it’s already at least part of the answer to many of them!

The idea propagation value chain. AI will impact on the last remaining bottleneck ‘Creation to Substantiation’ – source: Stratchery

Preparing for the long-term impact

Despite the hype surrounding AI, we need to remember Roy Amara’s Law: “We overestimate the impact of technology in the short-term and underestimate the effect in the long run.” Recognizing this, our approach at Momentum ITSMA focuses on quietly and calmly building skills and capabilities that will deliver sustained value for our clients in the long term.

This is where our latest team member, Consultron, comes in. We’re using the concept of AI-as-a-team-member – embedding AI tools into multiple teams and workflows, working in partnership with our incredibly talented humans. This way, our teams can identify and develop effective use cases, moving beyond the hype and generating real-world value in the following ways:

Amplifying our capabilities: AI won’t replace our world-class team. Far from it. It’ll serve as a trusted ally to make us even better. And our people and clients will benefit in many ways.

Faster, more efficient ways of working: AI-driven automation streamlines tasks. We can optimize our workflows and identify bottlenecks

Broader inputs, more ground covered: Integrating AI into teams enables access to diverse sources of information. This enhances our understanding and capabilities.

Obliquity through human-AI collaboration: Combining human creativity and contextual understanding with AI’s technology leads to obliquity – new and different angles and perspectives which lead to innovative ideas and solutions.

All of these are clear, tangible benefits. What really excites us is the ability of AI to be a team member to really make our work better. Whether you think of AI in its current guise as genuine intelligence or not (spoiler… it’s not! Read more from tech guru Jaron Lanier) the feedback and input from AI is, well, different. And that provides new ways of looking at problems, new perspectives, and new ideas.

To turn the theory into reality and build the muscle to create long-term client value, we have developed several use cases that are operational today in our team’s workflows and are creating value for customers.

Expanding research insights How? Broadening account, competitor, or stakeholder research dataset to improve insights by using GPT4/LLM tool. Tech used? Cognosys

Creative concept enrichment How? Build audience relevance and richness into a creative concept by using a GPT4/LLM to add specific persona or geographic detail. Tech used? ChatGPT

Increasing imagery relevance How? Build brand, sector, and topic relevance by enhancing or editing imagery with new content and colourways using generative fill. Tech used? Adobe Firefly

Leveraging existing content How? Creating new customer relevant ‘spin-off’ content options from existing materials by automating its creation using GPT4/LLM. Tech Used? ChatGPT

Scaling social outreach How? Scaling social outreach by automating connection request message creation using LLM. Tech Used? ChatGPT

Channeling Asimov to protect clients with our own ‘Rules of AI’

While the potential benefits of integrating Gen AI are clear, this doesn’t come without risks. So, taking inspiration from Issac Asimov’s Rules of Robotics, we have our own ‘Rules of AI’. First and foremost, we prioritize safeguarding our clients’ confidentiality. We only utilize publicly available data and have measures in place to prevent any inappropriate or confidential data accessed by AI by well-intentioned enthusiasm! Secondly, we put our human stakeholders’ needs at the forefront, which naturally includes our great team, and we commit to use AI to enhance, not replace, human workers. And thirdly, we apply something like the Hippocratic oath to the use of AI… we must have a ‘do-no-harm’ approach to how we implement this technology.

Driving client value

As well as the benefits to the quality and impact of our work mentioned above, we have also quantified the time and cost efficiency of having AI on our team. And, as a result, we’ve structured our pricing with reductions of as much as 20% for certain types of work.

Recent research by PwC found AI could contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy in 2030. Of this, $6.6 trillion is likely to come from increased productivity and $9.1 trillion is likely to come from consumption-side effects. So, we’re excited to have Consultron on our team, to deliver enhanced project outputs and outcomes that we know will create long-term value for our clients and their customers.

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