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As part of NJBIZ’s latest virtual discussion, executives at New Jersey-based companies delved into ways in which businesses can incorporate artificial intelligence to improve efficiency, boost productivity, save money, enhance customer service or identify new revenue streams.

Moderated by NJBIZ Editor Jeffrey Kanige, the Jan. 14 panel featured:

• Tim Guim, founder and chief executive officer of PCH Technologies, a security first managed provider (MSP) headquartered in Washington Township
• Dee C. Marshall, chief executive officer and managing partner at Diverse & Engaged, a Newark-based, award-winning leadership development and DEI consulting practice
• Judy Sailer, director of learning and development for Westhampton-headquartered Primepoint, a leading provider of comprehensive HR and payroll solutions

During the 90-minute roundtable discussion, panelists addressed factors to consider regarding the technology, such as how to roll it out to their teams – including the need to establish clearly defined policies and procedures guiding usage.

“AI is not going to take your job. The people who know AI and leverage AI, they are going to take your job,” said Marshall, who described the technology as a “power and empowerment tool.”

“As a small business owner, I look at it as leverage in terms of, how do we do more and do it better with less. I look at how do we really increase and improve our competitive advantage. And so, I think for businesses … this is really about a competitive resource,” she said. “And I think that’s the opportunity today is to lean in and to see, how do I use this to do what I do better, faster and work smarter — not harder.

“It’s now a non-negotiable. If you want to stay competitive – and not even just competitive but remain relevant – it’s 2025 and it’s go time. If it was 2023, people, corporations and companies were starting to lean in and maybe you had the option to not participate,” Marshall said.

“But in 2025, there’s so much disruption, this is going to save your business for small and mid-sized businesses. It’s not only going to save your business, but this could be your 10x year because you have leveraged the tool,” she said.

Guim agreed, saying, “When you’re looking at your day in a business environment, there’s three ways to look at it: there’s tasks that only humans can do, there’s tasks that you can use AI as a co-pilot or a helper … and [there’s] AI that can just run by itself.”

Some examples of using AI include workforce development, reviewing resumes from candidates, employee engagement, addressing skill gaps among workers, helping create marketing plans or blog posts, and aiding in performance reviews.

He compared AI to “having unlimited interns to do what you want.”

“From a business perspective … you have to look at your business and say ‘OK, this particular task takes us three hours to do,’ and then look to see how you could leverage generative AI technologies to take that down from three hours to 20 minutes over time. And maybe cut that in half as you continue to get better and better at it as you’re using it,” he said. “And people in the company may be using it already to make their jobs easier, to be more productive and basically do more with less.”

Sailer said, “You have to think about all the way around, what is this going to do? How is it going to impact, what’s the financial output? What’s the financial gain?”

“And that’s really where we’re at right now with AI. We’ve got to stare this down and go, what is this really going to do for us? What can it do? What should I make it do?” she said.

Despite how advanced the technology is, participants stressed the importance of maintaining some level of human oversight.

Sailer said, “The human factor has to be engaged on all different levels. It has to be the entire organization who’s staring at things and going, ‘Is that right? Is that right? Is that right?’ Because when it’s wrong, it could go really wrong.”

The upside of AI

Marshall said, “This this is about change management, it’s about workforce culture … It improves efficiency – AI can boost employee productivity by about 40%, but it’s collaborative. So, employees are using the tool to do what it is that you need to do more efficiently.”

Another area that stands to benefit is additional revenue generation, Marshall said.

“Employees are going to use the tool and leverage the tool for innovation … Twelve percent of businesses have reported using AI to create new income stream,” she said. “And then cost optimization is probably the third. According to a 2022 study, 28% of companies lowered their costs by 10% or less, while 4% achieved cost savings. And this is specifically with AI as a collaborative tool, not a standalone or plugin.”

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“I think a lot of what we’re talking about right now is the main bucket, the co-pilot piece where humans can use AI as an assistant to do their job better and faster, but also to have the proper security when you’re using these tools,” Guim said.

Guim went on to say, “It’s important to make sure that how we’re using AI is secure … I look at AI in the scope of generative AI, which is when you’re basically creating text, video and graphics … You also have chatbots that you’re going to interact with on websites or apps that are just AI driven. You have AI avatars that can be built, like phone agents or automation. So, there’s a lot of different AI technologies out there as well. But, with all these technologies, you want to make sure when you’re using them for your business in a secure manner that does not to put any data at risk.”

“For small businesses, the entry point to AI secure tools is very low,” he said. “As far as getting a subscription, there are tools out there that you can use AI securely. So, for less than a hundred dollars a month you can get started with AI.

“The pathway I see if to first put an acceptable AI use policy, have the secure tools to use and then educate employees on how to use it,” Guim said said. “You have to crawl, walk and then run.”

AI is not going to take your job. The people who know AI and leverage AI, they are going to take your job.
– Dee Marshall, Diverse & Engaged

Participants also advocated for a phased, deliberate approach to implementing AI in the workplace.

Guim said, “We have a staff of about 30 people here and we’re an early adopter of AI in general. After picking our secure tool, we worked together to create the policy and we rolled out to the managers first so they could use the tool. Then we rolled it out to all the end workers.”

He also reiterated the need to be “very, very specific and very clear with how you want your team members or employees to use it so they’re not going to make a mistake.”

“Building guardrails would also be very succinct. This is how we’re going to use AI and we want you to be very, very innovative. Here’s the tool to use it, go to town with it. But here are the guardrails so we don’t get ourselves in any type of trouble,” Guim said.

Marshall also took a similar approach.

“We recommend it as part of a broader change management. We recommend getting buy-in from your people that you’re going someplace, and you want them to come with you,” she said. “And then provide the opportunity for training and provide the window to apply the training so it’s not rushed.”

After training, Guim said users need to continue using these tools on a regular basis.

“If you take a month, take 30 minutes a day, it’s kind of like going to gym and working out … then you’ll get better and better and better at interacting, asking questions and refining results,” he said.

A smart policy

When it comes to developing a policy, Guim said it should cover areas such as ethical use; confidentiality of data-approved AI tools; and protection of intellectual property, copyrightable content and human contribution.

Rules should also be set for user roles and responsibilities, as well as penalties for breaching the policy, he said.

“The policy could be to get started – saying there’s no approved tools at AI at this juncture and to mitigate that risk quickly,” Guim said. “Then, talk to your attorney and get your policy.”

Sailer agreed, saying, “This is coming whether you want it to or not. You don’t want to have to backtrack on the rules, on the standards and the expectations with staff. You can never go backwards with that.”

Marshall said, “It’s risk management. You need to get it to your people, whether you have 10 people, a hundred people, a thousand people — get the policy to them ASAP. Why? Because if they start using the tool, what you don’t want to do is have sensitive data or confidential data out in open AI … absolutely you need the policy yesterday.”

AI is helpful in recruiting new talent, Sailer said.

Primepoint uses AI to communicate with candidates throughout the hiring process so jobseekers are aware of where they stand, she explained.

“AI can also review a CV and resume and see if there are false things on it. It looks for dates and times,” she said. “We have had folks get into jobs, very high jobs with fake paperwork only unfortunately to be fired later on because they were lying. And then you have to start the whole process over again to hire this person. So, there’s spaces in there where AI can do great things for us, save us time, save us energy,” she said.

However, Sailer warned that users should be “very careful” and mindful that some talent may be missed because of how they replied to a certain question or checked off a particular box.

Panelists all agreed that the technology could not replace an actual HR manager, though.

Marshall said, “We’re big on leveraging the tool … but we are super big on the human element and not forgetting that you still need people because there are things that the tool cannot do.”

Guim said, “Everybody here has a secure tool they can use to help them … but it comes down to a human making the final decision on who we think we would interview, bring to the next round and go through our hiring process.”

When it comes to solely using AI-powered chatbots for customer service or employee training, panelists said it depends on the business and target audience.

Guim said, “A lot of people do not want to talk to an AI engine in general … And I think that I’m kind of making very broad strokes here. I think some of the younger generation is more apt to not even speak to anybody. They could just rather use an online tool or a technology.”

“But I think that’s the area you have to look at too, is you’re giving a communication channel for all your clients and you have to figure out what the best way is, how they want to communicate with you, the most effective way to make their lives easier,” he said.

Marshall agreed, adding, “We call it reading the room, knowing your target, knowing your client. If your client is millennial, Gen Z, gen alpha versus X or Boomer, just understanding and maybe it’s somewhere in the middle.”