THE NEWS

📈 Does AI only help the best entrepreneurs?

In a five-month study, researchers dove into how AI advice affects small businesses, zeroing in on 640 Kenyan entrepreneurs. They split these business owners into two camps: a control group got a basic business handbook, while the other group got to chat with a GPT-4 powered AI mentor on WhatsApp.

At first glance, the AI didn't seem to make a difference overall. But a deeper dive into the data revealed a split story: high-performing entrepreneurs boosted their game by over 20% with AI help, while those struggling saw about a 10% drop in performance.

Why does AI help the successful?

High and low-performing entrepreneurs both reached out for AI advice pretty much equally, but the type of help they sought varied. The study revealed that those who were already doing well in business often asked the AI simpler questions, like tips for menu expansion or marketing ideas for their successful Nairobi restaurant. This group generally found the AI's input really useful.

In contrast, the entrepreneurs who were having a tough time tended to ask the AI for help with trickier issues. For example, someone struggling might ask the AI for a lifeline on how to pull their business back from the brink of bankruptcy—a complex challenge that the AI might not be fully equipped to handle effectively.

The study revealed an interesting trend: low-performers actually have the potential to gain more from AI for any given task. The catch is, they often end up using it mainly for tough challenges—exactly where AI struggles to provide effective solutions. This means they're not fully tapping into the benefits AI could offer for simpler tasks.

The bigger picture: The most significant finding of the study is that generative AI tools are emerging as a resource for personalized advice, especially in developing economies. Achieving a 20% boost in productivity typically involves expensive mentoring and training, so having access to this kind of help mostly for free is a big deal.

That said, there's a flip side to consider. This technology could actually widen the gap between the top-performing businesses and those that are already lagging behind, because of how each group uses—and benefits from—the AI.

What about us? I think this applies to us as well in the more developed part of the world. While other research shows that AI can level the productivity playing field for well-defined tasks, our jobs these days are becoming more varied and less structured. Using these AI tools wisely can really boost our productivity and give us an edge.

Let's be real, at the moment we are using AI to save some time, so we can hit the gym or run errands in the middle of the day, all while pretending to be busy working from home. But here's the twist: soon that working speed will be the new norm and being able to use these tools effectively will be the most important skill to keep up with the pace.

ONE MORE THING

New ChatGPT Archive chats feature

From now on you can archive chats in ChatGPT. Until now, all chats older than 30 days were deleted. Now, those important chats you don’t want to lose can be added to your archive.

⌚ If You Have One More Minute

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AI Art of the Day 🎨

Half Batman Half Venom from Midjourney v6 test images. It’s incredible how far we came from the images we could make in January.

🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄🌊🏄

That's all for today, folks!

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