With Open AI debuting Chat GPT in March this year, the question—often half-jokingly— that dominated people’s minds was, “Will artificial intelligence (AI) take my job?” Honestly, I wondered that, too. However, the industry’s top technology experts answered that question at this year’s MEMA Aftermarket Technology Conference in October. The answer: AI won’t take your job. A person who knows how to use AI in your role will.

“I usually give talks to engineers, and they ask, ‘Am I going to lose my engineering job?’” I say, ‘You may lose your engineering job to another engineer who knows AI. You have to adopt it as a tool. It’s a massive productivity gain. It’s around to stay,” said Kaivan Karimi, global partner of strategy and cybersecurity at Microsoft, at the conference.

What my industry colleagues and I learned from the tech conference was that using AI in your role can enhance productivity and efficiency. Applying an algorithm to data through AI takes away those hours-long tasks of sifting through data to understand patterns and problem areas. AI can summarize that for you and tell you the high and low points of your company’s data. This, in turn, gives you more time to focus on solutions that will propel your company forward and enhance your product offering, availability and quality for your customers.

For example, Predii’s generative AI “co-pilot,” Predii 360, is a technology that intelligently responds to automotive service and repair questions and produces reliable, actionable intelligence to enhance the efficiency and productivity of service writers, technicians, parts counter people and other industry professionals. With technologies such as these, gone are the days of spending time searching for answers; instead the AI that has been “learned” on automotive service data and TSBs can.

Speaking of AI, I’m excited to share with you our story on AI in the Aftermarket. You can find it here. Learn about aftermarket companies that are applying AI to different segments of their business, what it means to utilize responsible AI as well as the challenges and questions that still exist for our industry around this technology.

After attending the conference, I can tell you the applications are endless for companies to use AI to streamline operations. Having conversations now around how to apply AI in a responsible way to the many aspects of your business will pay dividends for generations to come.

Let me know how you’re using AI in your company. Email me at [email protected]!