AI is here and it’s making its mark on the world, let alone the green industry.
At this year’s Lawn & Landscape Technology Conference, Scott Klososky, founding partner of Future Point of View, gave the keynote address and warned attendees not to wait to embrace AI and technology.
“The technology is growing so quickly that we have a gap between the power it has and how fast people are learning about it,” Klososky says. “One of the things you should be focusing on is getting AI skills into your team members. Don’t be caught a year from now being flatfooted.”
Klososky’s presentation titled “Synthetic Intelligence: A Generational Opportunity with AI,” gave attendees a crash course in all things artificial intelligence — though Klososky points out he prefers another term — synthetic intelligence.
Klososky says synthetic intelligence is when it’s built into software or business operations and machine intelligence is when it’s built into a product — like an autonomous mower.
“We should get rid of the word artificial — it’s not fake intelligence, it’s just not human intelligence,” he says. “We are allowing machines to be able to think, learn, and co-work with us in ways they never have in history — and it’s very important.”
Just like with any revolutionary technology, Klososky says AI will impact all areas of life until it becomes so popular and conventional that the hype around it begins to die down.
“AI is going to be straight up and to the right as far as its impact to the economy,” Klososky notes. “We won’t be talking about it as much anymore, but it will be assumed that things are intelligent… we just won’t be talking about it anymore.
Because this phenomenon will one day be so commonplace, Klososky told attendees to get on board with it now.
“I’ve watched a lot of things blossom,” he says. “When a new wave of technology blossoms, there will be winners and losers in terms of how people adapt to it.”
And to ensure they are not behind the competition, companies should start investing in AI and training employees on how to utilize it in their day-to-day roles, Klososky says.
“There’s a great opportunity now for some organizations to leapfrog others,” he adds. “That’s one thing I love about this technology — small players are able to play. There’s a lot of power for not a lot of money.”
Klososky says one of the most cost-effective and easy to learn AI models for companies new to the technology is generative AI or synthetic experts. These include things like chatbots and GPTs (general-purpose technologies).
“This is trained AI that has knowledge that can communicate with a human,” he says. “I’m shocked when people are telling me they aren’t building GPTs in their company. You can do it for literally $20 a month.”
While this is the most common version of AI, Klososky notes it’s not even close to being the only form.
“Generative AI is not all we’ve got — that is a rookie mistake,” he says. “That is only one type of synthetic intelligence.”
Klososky explains that there are analytics engines to analyze data you’re feeding into it and that can help with proposals or accounting needs, while diagnostic engines can help you diagnose problems within your business or a process and help you avoid them. Additionally, predictive and prescriptive engines help you model for the future while also suggesting improvements.
After defining the various types of AI for attendees, Klososky shared a simple AI strategy for any company looking to better embrace the technology:
- Build a two-year rolling roadmap to ensure you win with AI and review it at least every quarter
- Know your AI goals
- Break those goals down into dimensions that can be worked on
- Establish resources to put behind AI
Klososky adds there’s a 5% rule that he feels all green industry companies should aim for when setting their AI goals. This includes:
- Pledge to gain 5% automation in each area of the business
- Have 5% better decision-making through AI driven analytics
- Have 5% more innovation and creative problem-solving
- Require 5% across the board improvement in people’s AI skills so they have more efficiency in what they’re doing.
