For the past few months, there has been a lot of talk about OpenAI and their amazing product, GPT-4. The possibilities it provides are huge, and as a result, many new projects have emerged that are truly impressive.

People are using the GPT-4 model and a UX specifically adapted to a task to create incredible value.

However, there is one area that particularly interests me, and in the next 3–5 years, I predict that significant changes await us.

Photo by Rich Tervet on Unsplash

AI makes information more accessible.

What does accessible really mean? Imagine working for a company where 10–15 tools are used to store different types of information, such as CRM, spreadsheets, documents, design, analytics, and tasks.

All this information exists in a vacuum. It exists, but is it easily accessible to the average employee? The answer is no.

When a company uses several tools, it creates an information block that makes seemingly related information disconnected. For example, you may have a spreadsheet with a financial model that has many formulas, but there is no reference to any document that explains how it’s calculated. This creates isolation of employees from the context.

You may think this is an exaggerated example, but it’s not. If you work for a company, regardless of its size, you’ve likely encountered this situation many times. You just need to understand the context of a task, document, or graphic, but you don’t know how to do it. You start searching, asking colleagues, and doing many unnecessary actions, but there is no choice.

Recent research on information search and work has shown that 30% of employees’ working time is spent on this. That’s an incredible amount of time.

But now, technology, specifically AI, can help solve this problem.

How can AI solve this problem?

Let’s start with the fact that I wrote a post a long time ago on the topic of AI and knowledge, where I showed trends. One of them was a new format for searching information.

Why do problems arise when you search for a document? Because you don’t know exactly what it’s called or what it contains. You have hypotheses, but trying to verify them often fails.

And AI helps solve this problem. You no longer need to think about what the document is called or even what’s in it. For the most part, you never even need to. You need to find information that will help solve the problem or answer the question. You don’t need graphs, reports, documents — none of that. You need information from there and a specific answer to the question or solution to the problem.

The guys from Knowledgly gave me a chance to try out their product. I uploaded a couple of tables, connected my Notion, and added a few more examples to see the quality.

Look at an example of how an employee asks a question and what answer they get.

Knowledgly UI

It seems like something incredible. But we went even further and look at what the employee is asking in the context of this document.

Knowledgly UI

And AI understands this, it has all the information, and therefore it can draw conclusions.

The example above very well shows the difference between AI and an ordinary employee. And they differ only in one thing — AI has all the information that exists in the company: sales, documents, tasks, comments, etc. And based on the entire context, it can make conclusions that are as close to real facts as possible.

Habit and Democratization.

At first glance, everything I’m about to say may seem incredible. Providing all employees with access to a tool that minimizes context isolation is not an easy feat. People find it difficult to get used to something new, no matter how cool and fast it can solve their problem. Consider the following two paths:

• Fast, high-quality, and convenient but unknown. That is, a person has never tried to go this way on their own.
• Long and difficult but time-tested. The person knows exactly what desired result they will get.

Even if you apply these two paths to your life, it has probably happened to you at least once. When it seems that a new solution is better, but out of habit, we continue to use the old one.

That is why the goal of any innovative product is to create seamless integration into a person’s workflow. So that a person, without changing their habits, gets an additional option that they can use or not use.

I will give an example of a seamless option in Notion. People use Notion because they enjoy working there, but whether to use AI or not is their choice. They do not need to change anything in their processes, they do not need to do anything at all. It’s just there.

Such seamless integration helps new products gain an audience and users.

Consider an example of such an option from the point of view of working with a database search.

Knowledgly Widget

You do not need to go anywhere, you do not need to search for anything — you have a small widget on the screen that you can click and essentially go to your company’s information hub. Ask any question and get an instant answer.

The most important thing here is that you open this widget when you really need it. You started writing documentation or created a new document and want to read previous versions or see what the company already has on this topic in general? Click the widget, ask a question, and get an answer.

Everything is so simple that it seems like it can help. But, as they say, time will tell.

Conclusion.

AI technologies have already reached an incredible level. And I am very inspired by the fact that they will help in the field of knowledge work. But it is important to remember that technology without proper adaptation will not help anyone and will not bring any benefits.