This is the first of many blog posts I plan to make this year, stay tuned (please subscribe) for more soon.
Learning AI
Currently I am working my way through the four stages of competence with the topic of AI. This quarter (Q1 of 2024), I’m currently working on moving from stage 2 to stage 3 in the four stages of competence. For reference, those stages are:
- Unconscious incompetence
- Conscious incompetence
- Conscious competence
- Unconscious competence
Last year I moved from stage 1 to stage 2:
In the beginning of last year (2023) I had my head buried in the sand while all the other leaders in my industry were actively learning how to use the latest and greatest AI tool (ChatGPT). Around the middle of the year when Microsoft started making their Github Copilot more available and more useful, I finally started to pay attention and use the new Generative AI tools - specifically in helping my day-to-day activities of coding. I’ve also started to realize that it is nicer to “chat” with a tool in normal language to search instead of trying to find the right mix and order of keywords to do a search (ie. Bing Chat and OpenAI ChatGPT)
Getting more comfortable with being in stage 2:
By October/November of last year, I had realized that it was time for me to really dig into learning what I don’t know about AI that I need to know … and most of all - start using it whereever I can. Also I came to the conclusion that I need to start to learn how it will affect my clients (whom are all small businesses - not large enterprises).
Goals for this quarter (January - March 2024):
This quarter I’m continuing to learn to use new AI tools that I find to help me with my day-to-day activities but I’m also searching for how my customers could benefit from AI in the near term. To help with this, I’m working on solidifying my knowledge in the “raw materials” or fundamental AI services provided by Azure (like vision, language, gen AI, etc.).
Things I’m actively working to complete this quarter (my attempt at practicing deliberate learning to increase my competence):
- Studying to for the AI-900 exam and pass it before April 2024
- Working my way through the Generative AI for Beginners course
- Work my way through the AI/ML workshops in the Workshop Library
If you are like myself and have small business clients - how do you see them using AI in the near term? If you have a comment please message me @haleyjason on twitter/X.