As part of NJBIZ’s latest virtual discussion, executives at New Jersey-based companies delved into ways that 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 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 teams – including the need to establish clearly defined policies and procedures guiding usage.

‘Work smarter, not harder’

Marshall described AI 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 it’s a non-negotiable. If you want to say competitive and 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 AI that can just run by itself.”

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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.

Guim 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 why where we’re at right now with AI; we’ve got to stare at 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, “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.”

‘Crawl, walk and then run’

“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.

He 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 is to first put an acceptable AI use policy, have the secure tools to use and then educate employees on how to use it,” he said. “You have to crawl, walk and then run.”

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.

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.”

A more detailed recap will appear in the Feb. 27 issue of NJBIZ.