🧙🏼 We're at peak AI hype 📈

Howdy, wizards.

Here’s what’s simmering in the AI pot today:

• AI chatbots are more popular than ever, Google data shows

• Microsoft relaunches it’s “privacy nightmare” feature Recall

• Retail: 5 real-world examples of companies using AI

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1. We’re at peak AI interest right now

I’ve looked at the data, and popularity of the top AI chatbots is surging big time in Google these days. It’s all time high for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity – the leading general assistant chatbots.

The chart below shows how frequently they’re searched for in Google (worldwide), relative to their total search volume.

‎ Why it matters‎ ‎ After the summer, the leading AI companies have been racing to 1-up each other with new models, products and feature launches. The capability of AI to transform our work and life is becoming way more clear to the masses, and the FOMO level is high. And so here we are 📈

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2. Microsoft is relaunching it’s AI screenshot tool Recall

Remember Recall? Microsoft’s new Copilot+ PCs were set to launch with this feature in back in June. It’s designed to take screenshots every few seconds to help users find “anything they’ve seen or worked on”. However, due to criticism and concerns about privacy, Microsoft postponed the release.

Now, Recall is back, set to launch with Copilot+ computers in November. According to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK’s data watchdog, they’ve made a “series of changes” to address the previous privacy concerns. Among other things, screenshots are encrypted and it’s now an opt-in experience – disabled by default. It also requires biometric login and doesn’t capture sensitive data like credit card details.

‎ Why it matters‎ ‎ Recall is an interesting concept – I mean who wouldn’t like instant access to all the useful things we ever saw? That said, I’m as concerned about the privacy aspect of this as anyone, and I wouldn’t like to be the test rabbit here.

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3. 5 real-world company AI use cases from retail

(I’m amazed by Google’s list of 185 real-world gen AI use cases. In case you missed it, I’ve organized and categorized the article into an Airtable for you, and you can access it for free.)

Over the next days, I’ll break down some amazing industry-specific use cases companies have found for Gemini. I’ll focus on use cases of easy to moderate difficulty, to spark ideas on feasible ways you could start bringing AI into your work.

Here’s how 5 retail companies are transforming their business with AI:

• Best Buy uses AI to summarise customer support calls, saving 30-90 seconds per call. It allows their staff to focus on helping the customer rather than note-taking, and both customers and agents are citing improved satisfaction.

• Procter & Gamble has created an AI tool based on Imagen (Google’s image generator) that creates photo-realistic images and creative assets. It enables their marketing teams to spend more time focusing on high-level planning and improving the customer experience.

• Victoria’s Secret is testing AI to help their in-store staff quickly find info on product availability and fitting & sizing tips to make better recommendations to customers.

• Woolworths, Australia’s leading retailer, has 10,000 administrative employees using the “Help me write” feature across Google Workspace; the feature helps you create drafts and rewrite text easily.

• Belk eCommerce uses gen AI to make product descriptions – traditionally a time-consuming task for digital retailers.

‎ Why it matters‎ ‎ Retail is using AI actively to save time on things like writing, design and searching for information. It lets staff focus on high-level tasks and on better serving their customers, rather than mundane, repetitive work.

BTW, you can access the full list of organized use cases here for free. I’ve also made a premium version for just 10$ that includes categorization by industry and difficulty level as well. Enjoy!

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