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GETTING STARTED WITH AI
WORKFLOWS
In the golf industry, we have been
slow to scale AI beyond the basic
use of chatbots like ChatGPT. I
have nothing against using
ChatGPT – I use it every day to
brainstorm, write copy, and
research. However, the real power
of AI comes from implementing
the technology into your business
processes. As my colleague Alec
Mandla says, “Implementing AI
into your business workflows takes
ChatGPT from toy to tool.”
In the past, integrating systems
to create automated workflows
required software engineering.
Today, platforms like Zapier allow
anyone to build web applications
to integrate cloud-based systems.
By adding Zapier to the manual
workflow above, we can completely
automate the process. Let’s review
two examples of how Zapier can
take your AI implementation to the
next level.
1. Automatically Create Draft
Email Responses
Like many of us, perhaps you use
ChatGPT to help you write
responses to emails. This process
starts in your inbox reading your
email, logging into Chat, generating
text, and pasting it back into your
reply. With the addition of Zapier,
this process can be drastically
improved.
Start in Zapier by building a
workflow or “Zap.” The Zap will
start whenever your inbox receives
a new message - called the
“trigger”. Then, we create an
“action” to pass the text of the
message to ChatGPT, where a
custom GPT is trained to respond
in the way you desire. Once the
response is complete, another
“action” sends the reply back to
your email and creates a draft reply
automatically.
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With this workflow in place,
you now start in your inbox, where
all of your email replies have
already been drafted. You can build
similar workflows using AI built
into your inbox - like Microsoft’s
Co-Pilot, or Google’s Gemini.
2. Automatically Create To-Do
Lists for Team Members
Keeping a complex operation like a
golf facility running smoothly is no
easy task, and one of the key factors
in keeping things smooth is staff
communication. Most facilities
have weekly or monthly staff
meetings where inter-department
topics are discussed. Sometimes,
the follow-up communication from
these meetings falls short. This is a
great opportunity to use AI to keep
the team focused and moving
forward.
Implement a note-taking
system like Otter.ai or Fireflies.ai in
your staff meeting. These
technologies will listen to the call,
recognize the individual voices,
and create a complete transcription.
They will also use that transcription
to generate follow-up action items
for all participants. You could then
use Zapier to send those items
directly to each team member, or
even integrate them into a project
management/task scheduler like
Asana or Monday.com where you
can assign dates and keep track of
progress.
EMBRACING AI
These examples above barely
scratch the surface of AI. The real
key to your course is building
workflows that address your
specific needs. It seems as though
anytime someone mentions a
problem, someone has an “AI
solution for that.” With so many
tools available, knowing where to
start can be daunting.
Instead of aiming to integrate
AI broadly across your
organization, begin by identifying
a specific aspect of your business
that needs improvement. Start with
a simple exercise: make a list of
challenges or inefficiencies in your
business. Not everything on your
list will have an AI solution, but
this process will help you focus on
areas where AI can make a
significant impact.
Historically, the golf industry
has been a little slow to adopt new
technologies, but AI is no longer a
futuristic concept. It is a tool with
immense potential to improve
operations, enhance customer
experiences, and drive innovation.
Now is the time to embrace AI and
explore its possibilities. The key is
a willingness to learn and adopt
new tools consistently.
Start small by identifying a
repetitive task or process that could
benefit from automation.
Implement a simple AI solution,
learn from the experience, and
build from there. Remember,
success with AI requires patience
and a willingness to adapt.
Finally, ensure you understand
the tools you are evaluating, and if
they learn from public data, or if
they learn from your data. The
effectiveness of any AI system
depends on the quality and
relevance of the data it was trained
on. By taking thoughtful,
incremental steps, you will be well
on your way to unlocking the full
potential of AI in your business.
Editor’s Note - Be sure to follow along
in the next edition of Golf Business
Canada magazine where we do a deeper
dive with an Advanced AI article to
help your golf operations in the future!
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