In January, the Shift team took a field trip over to Nova Place, where we held our annual company retreat. We may be based in East Liberty, but as members of the Pittsburgh Technology Council, we were excited for the opportunity to use conference space in their office for a North Side change of scenery.
The Retreat
During our retreat, planned by partners Cynthia Closkey and Sarah Mayer, we reviewed the successes and experiences of 2023 and explored our area of focus for 2024. This year (drum roll please) we are focused on the fast-paced, ever-expanding world of artificial intelligence (AI).
AI has garnered lots of public attention of late. It’s in the news regularly. A combination of factors — including advancements in computing power and breakthroughs in machine learning algorithms — quickly propelled the development of tools using AI models to front and center stage in 2023.
These days, it feels like AI is everywhere. It’s even been built into a number of the tools Shift uses daily for email marketing, graphic design, text editing, and more. We’re excited that AI has the potential to offer consumers a more personalized experience, while also being aware of its limitations.
During the retreat we partnered up in teams and experimented with several different AI tools including ChatGPT, running through multiple prompts and scenarios. ChatGPT is a conversational AI developed by OpenAI, based on the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) architecture (that sentence was written by ChatGPT). We came together as a group to discuss and review our results and what we learned.
And what did we learn? We were reminded of this caveat: despite its name, “artificial intelligence” isn’t, well, intelligent. Every AI integration and tool you’ve read about or experimented with uses pattern recognition and machine learning algorithms to get the job done. And that’s an important distinction, and perhaps an ethical consideration, to make when deciding how much you want to integrate (and trust) an AI tool in your marketing tactics.
The Food
The retreat wasn’t just AI and slide decks – of course, there was food. (This isn’t a food blog, but every good meeting has good food to accompany it, and we know you love those details)! PTC is located right next door to Federal Galley, where most of the Shift team headed for lunch. Federal Galley is the perfect place to go with multiple team members with different food preferences. They have four unique kitchens in one location so everyone can find something that fits their needs (or desires). The food hall’s communal seating allows for easy conversation and was a nice time to catch up and chat while we munched on everything from grilled cheese to tacos to pizza.
All in all, we had a great day of both professional development and camaraderie.
We’d Love to Hear from You
2024 is an exciting time for Shift as we continue to explore the capabilities, limitations, and best practices of AI integrations. Nothing sparks our energy quite like a new challenge or getting to explore new tools, and we’d love to talk your ear off about it. We are interested to hear about ways you’re using AI at work. And, if you have questions about AI, send them our way – we’ll gladly share our professional opinions on how to use these tools in 2024 and beyond. Contact us with your AI thoughts, musings, and questions.
