Use New Lines or Dividers to Structure Your Queries
When interacting with a chatbot, especially for complex tasks, break your input into multiple lines or use dividers. This helps the AI process information more clearly and provide more accurate responses. For example:
Task 1: Generate a summary of this document.
Task 2: Create a list of key takeaways.
Clear formatting ensures that each part of your request is addressed properly.
Use Shift+Enter to add a new line.
Leverage Agentic Workflows for Better Results
Don’t just ask a single question—create a dynamic conversation with the chatbot. Like managing multiple AI agents, guide the AI step-by-step by refining your requests or following up with more detailed instructions. For instance, after getting an initial response, you might ask, "Can you expand on this?" or "Summarize this in a more concise way." This iterative approach helps you get more useful and relevant answers.
Upload Data in Text or Excel Formats for Analysis
Many chatbots, especially those built with advanced capabilities like ChatGPT, can analyze data you provide. Upload your data in structured formats like text files or Excel spreadsheets. This enables the chatbot to process, summarize, or perform calculations on your data. For example, you can upload an Excel sheet for financial analysis or text data for summarization or sentiment analysis.
Use Multiple Frontier AI Models for Due Diligence
When conducting analysis or research, don’t rely solely on one AI model. Use a combination of leading models such as ChatGPT (OpenAI), Gemini (Google), and Claude (Anthropic) for comparison. Each model may provide slightly different insights or perspectives. Using all three ensures you cover various angles, providing a more well-rounded analysis. This is crucial for making informed business decisions and mitigating the risk of AI bias.
Experiment with Different Prompts to Get Better Results
The way you phrase a question can impact the quality of the response. If the answer isn’t as expected, try rephrasing or asking the chatbot in different ways. For example:
Initial Query: "Summarize this data."
Revised Query: "Can you analyze the trends in this data from 2015 to 2020 and provide a concise summary?"
Experimenting with prompts will help you get more precise and useful information.
Understand the Limitations and Hallucination Risks
It’s important to know that AI models, while powerful, can produce inaccurate or misleading information, known as "hallucinations." Always cross-check critical information, especially for high-stakes business decisions, by verifying the data against other reliable sources or consulting subject matter experts.
Ask for Visualizations and Tables for Better Understanding
Most AI chatbots can help generate charts, tables, or even pseudo-code for data analysis. For example, you can ask a chatbot to summarize your data in a table, or request it to create a pie chart or bar graph to better visualize the results. This can be especially helpful when presenting findings to stakeholders.
Incorporate Domain-Specific Knowledge
When asking for help with business analytics tasks, provide domain-specific context to get more accurate and tailored responses. For instance, when asking about financial modeling, mention specific industry factors like "profit margins in the retail sector." This will help the chatbot generate more relevant insights.
Understand and Apply AI Ethically
As business analytics professionals, understanding the ethical implications of AI is crucial. Be mindful of privacy concerns when using sensitive data and ensure compliance with regulations like GDPR. Ensure that the AI tools you use are not inadvertently perpetuating bias or discrimination.
Automate Data Preprocessing Tasks
Use AI chatbots to automate repetitive tasks like data cleaning, formatting, or basic preprocessing. This frees up time for more advanced analysis. For example, you can paste raw data into a chatbot and ask it to clean the dataset by removing duplicates, filling missing values, or converting data types.
Be Mindful of Data Privacy and Security Risks 🔒
When using AI chatbots, especially in a business context, it's crucial to protect sensitive information.
Avoid Sharing Confidential Data: Refrain from inputting proprietary or sensitive business data into chatbots unless you are certain about the data handling policies of the platform.
Anonymize Data When Possible: Before sharing datasets, remove or mask any personally identifiable information (PII) or confidential details.
Understand the Chatbot's Data Policies: Review the terms of service and privacy policies to ensure compliance with regulations like GDPR or HIPAA.
Use Secure Connections: Ensure that your interaction with the chatbot is over a secure connection (HTTPS) to prevent data interception.
Consult IT and Legal Teams: Before integrating chatbots into your workflow, get approval from your organization's IT security and legal departments.