It’s trendy. It’s cutting edge. It’s innovative. And it’s complicated. Data centers and machine learning feel like futuristic sci-fi, but artificial intelligence (AI) is real and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. So, let’s talk about it. If you’re hoping to understand how it works, you’ll want to read something else. That’s not what this post is about. If you want to ease your mind about your ability to use AI, keep reading. You may be surprised how easy it is.

You’re Probably Already Using It

As prevalent as the technology is, you’re likely using AI without even knowing it. If you’ve used Google or YouTube to search for anything online, you used AI. If you’ve missed a turn and the GPS rerouted you, you’ve used AI. If you’ve been on a social media platform, you’ve used AI. Perhaps the best argument for why AI should always be “supervised” by a human is the AI gremlin we call autocorrect. It tries so hard to be helpful, but it often misses the mark. (Autocorrect and predictive text—finishing a word or sentence before you type it–are powered by AI, to be clear.)

Knowing you’ve already begun a relationship with AI should make you feel a little easier about using other AI-powered tools. If it’s so easy you didn’t even know it was happening, it’s not as ominous as your mind may have convinced you it is.

You Don’t Have to Understand How It Works

“But I don’t understand how it works. How can I use something I don’t understand?” You use things you don’t understand every day without even thinking about it. Chances are that you don’t know how remote controls work. Or electricity. The internet. Your car. New technology can seem intimidating when we’re unfamiliar with it, but soon enough it’s just something we adapt to use to make life easier. At that point it’s difficult to believe we ever lived without it.

AI is the same way. Now that you realize you’ve already been using it, you’re beginning to get the picture. It’s complicated technology, but it’s not complicated to use. In fact, the whole premise behind it is to make life easier, not more difficult.

That being said, if you need some reassurance that the rise of the robots isn’t happening right under our noses, let’s look at some analogies for how it works. These are oversimplified for the sake of illustration.

Think of AI as Crowdsourcing on Steroids

You’ve heard of crowdsourcing: asking lots of people for input to solve a particular problem. Whether it’s a GoFundMe to cover medical expenses or an informal survey on social media, the goal is to get a bunch of people working together for a common purpose. If two heads are better than one, then 200 heads must be exceptional.

Think of AI as crowdsourcing on steroids. It gathers data points from hundreds of thousands of sources and uses that data to solve a problem. That’s it. Instead of you having to sift through all the information yourself, artificial intelligence does it for you. It tallies the information and presents you with an answer based on those tallies.

A more complex metaphor is algorithms. You may have heard of algorithms as they relate to social media. The (oversimplified) gist is this: social media platforms use your activity on their platform to determine what types of posts you like so it can serve you more of those. The goal is to keep you on the platform as long as possible (for more ad dollars and such). In essence, the algorithm “learns” what you like based on data you provide when you comment, like, watch, and share.

While algorithms may be a simple as “this, not that”, AI is a series of algorithms that adapt and change what constitutes the “this” and “that” parameters based on what it learns from ongoing input.

Think of AI as a Genre of Tech Tools

Whether it’s an Image Generator, an email editor, a Presentation Wizard, or logo eraser, AI tools are meant to make life easier. Don’t let the technology label deter you. If worst comes to worst, think of AI tools as magic wands that do amazing things with a “click” of the wrist.

Try your hand at using newly released AI-powered technology in SAGE Workplace™. To learn about the new features released at the beginning of the year, go to https://www.sageworld.com/events/new-features/.