Navigating the AI jungle: why RISE developed AI at Work

There are guides, videos, courses, podcasts and posts promising to show you the best tools, the smartest prompts and the latest features. Having all that knowledge just a search away is wonderful, of course. But if you are not quite sure how you want to use AI, or what you want to use it for, finding a starting point can be difficult.

Start with the basics

At RISE, we meet many companies that are curious about AI and whose employees may already have started experimenting with different tools. Yet their use is often sporadic, and taking the next step can be challenging. That is one of the reasons we developed the AI at Work course. The aim is not for participants to learn everything about AI. Instead, we provide a clear way into a field that can easily feel overwhelming.

In the first part, Generative AI in Practice—from Question to Useful Answer, we therefore start with the basics. How does generative AI work? What is the technology good at, and when do we need to be more cautious? How do we formulate a good question, and how do we build on the answer?

From an empty chat box to a work task

During the course, participants work on practical tasks, exploring step by step how the results change when they give AI better instructions and more relevant information. Alongside this, we discuss why the responses turn out the way they do, which tasks call for caution, and why a well-written answer is not necessarily correct.

Several participants highlighted this combination of understanding and hands-on practice after the course. For some, the value lay in getting better at writing instructions for AI. Others appreciated learning why AI sometimes gives incorrect answers and what they need to check themselves.

One participant described the value as getting “a kick-start to begin using AI practically and intelligently.”

The next step is often found in your own working day

Perhaps the most interesting shift happens when the discussion moves from what AI can do to what it can help you do.

After the course, participants were asked to reflect on what they wanted to try next. Their answers covered a wide range of work tasks. One wanted to analyse a large Excel file in which anomalies are currently identified manually. Others saw opportunities in planning, meeting preparation, reports, presentations, marketing and managing recurring tasks.

There is an important point in that breadth. Getting started with AI does not have to mean launching a major AI project. It can begin with an employee identifying a time-consuming task and asking: could AI help me here?

Then you give it a try.

Learning is better together

You can, of course, learn a great deal about AI on your own. For those who know what they are looking for, an enormous amount of good material is available—not least through using AI for independent learning. But sometimes you need a setting where someone has selected the starting material for you, and where you can ask the question the guide does not answer, try things out for yourself and hear how others approach similar challenges.

Our participants come from different companies and bring different experiences, needs and questions. When these perspectives come together, the course becomes more than a way to learn about a new technology. It is also an opportunity to learn from one another.

For someone who is not yet quite sure where to begin, that may be exactly what is needed.

Start somewhere

AI will continue to evolve. New tools and features will emerge, and what we learn today will need to be supplemented with new knowledge. That is why I do not think we will ever be finished learning. What matters is building a foundation that makes it easier to keep learning, experimenting and assessing new opportunities.

AI at Work is our way of helping more companies build that foundation. We do this by helping participants understand enough to start exploring for themselves what AI could mean for their work, rather than trying to show them everything it can do.

Curious about how RISE and the AI at Work course could help you and your company?

Contact me or find out more about AI at Work and upcoming course dates.