Bard, Bing AI, Runway, Jasper, Ponzu, Dalle-2, and the list goes on. More and more companies are throwing their hats into the generative AI ring. Left and right, AI has been the talk of the town, with ghost story rhetoric going around on how AI will inevitably change the world as we know it. Rest assured, and to the dismay of many tech journalists with catchy headlines looking for an easy click, the impending Orwellian universe some would like to believe is coming may be less 1984 and more Big Hero 6. With so many conflicting opinions on AI and the future of the universe, it can be hard to keep up with what's what. Should I use this stuff? Should I throw my Alexa in the trash? The implications of this technology can be challenging to conceptualize realistically without understanding a few key facts first.
The RACE to 1 Million Users
The time it took Instagram to reach one million users? 2 months. Facebook? 10 months. Netflix? 3 1/2 years. Chat GPT? 5 DAYS. In just five days, the AI giant surpassed a million unique users, effectively blowing all the other tech giants entirely out of the water. With user demand growing daily, in fact, if you were to go on ChatGPT right now, there's a decent chance it's at max capacity; there's no denying AI is here to stay.
Here's a chart showing how the Generative AI (GAI) market will grow in the next seven years.
A significant shift with a projected market value of 110.8 billion dollars by 2030. There's a reason why everyone's talking about this stuff. Beyond what it can already do, the anticipation for what it will soon become is even stronger. GAI is like using a smartphone when everyone else is still trying to find the comma button on their Blackberry.
The market will change radically in the coming years, and industries are already adapting their infrastructure to include AI. This shift is particularly critical for smaller institutions looking to get ahead. Generative AI isn't a job killer or a replacement for human beings; it's a catalyst for exponential ROI and growth. Realistically, any person on the planet with access to the internet can and should take advantage of this tech. GAI is a tiny human assistant that doesn't take vacation days. And if your response is… "Well, I just haven't found an AI tool good enough!"
You might not be looking hard enough. Take a look at this chart by Sequoia Capital showing tech companies that have their foot in the door with AI:
The list is growing daily, with valuable start-ups investing billions in creating models to tackle industries of all shapes and sizes.
Need tools right now? Futurepedia is a fantastic resource for parsing through every AI model on the block, from text-based LLMs that can write emails, newsletters, presentations, and more to AI representatives that can have human conversations based on trained data. Resources are out there.
Here's another chart by Sequoia analyzing how they predict AI to develop in the coming years.
The question isn't if the technology works or if it will take off in the mainstream masses, it's a question of when? When do you, as an institution or individual, need to adopt AI into your current business model to stay afloat? Quite reasonably, you may have some time. But that's the answer to the wrong question. The question you should be asking is, when do I start using AI to GET AHEAD? The answer is now.
The more time you spend integrating AI into your content management system now, the more you can take advantage of when the AI revolution becomes necessary for business survival. By the time the masses adopt AI, it'll be more and more challenging to stand out in the crowd. It's like preparing for a storm you know is bound to come. So why wait?
GENERATIVE AI IN THE WORLD OF ADMISSIONS
Significant internal changes in integrating new technology can take years to settle, so by the time you feel ready to dip your toe, others will have already swam to the other side. Therefore, it's essential to leverage tools that are available as they come. When it comes to GAI and admissions, this is no exception. There's a multitude of ways for schools to utilize AI. From using text models like ChatGPT or Jasper to help write outreach emails and marketing copy to image generators like OpenArt or Midjourney to create visually stunning design concepts.
It can involve some digging to find the exact fit for your institution, so CampusXR is making things easier for you. Introducing the CampusXR: AI representative—a highly customizable GAI-powered character to showcase your institution. Instead of a chatbot sending you to a designated page or forwarding you an email address, this AI-powered character trains off your school's website. It doesn't search through text or write back a prewritten answer; the AI model predicts how to respond to user input based on your custom data. It then makes predictions about user interactions based on the data it has been trained on. And as more users pile in, the better the answers get. The self-learning aspect of AI permits it to remember when a user has a positive interaction or learns something new and recalls this for future inquiries. That's the beauty of GAI, its ability to think more like humans while working like a machine. Thus, students can navigate a website for the answers they need while having a personable conversation with someone who feels like a human being. Think of it as a personal ChatGPT, but YOUR ChatGPT that's trained and explicitly designed for your institution. Below is a demo of an early-stage test trained on a partnering school's information.
This is but a representation of all that's to come. Include a custom voice, and create a character with objectives and motivations that align with your institution's mission. Add branding and integrate custom facts for the AI to train itself. Put it together with your AR business card and your school's virtual tour!
Any questions? CampusXR is here for you. Reach out to a member of our team and schedule a live demo of our AI experience!