Generative AI

Chat assistants and image generators both fall under the label. At work most people meet it as a chat box, yet the same models can draft documents and, once connected to other tools, take actions for you.

How it differs from other AI

Older business AI mostly sorted or scored things that already existed: flagging a payment as likely fraud, or predicting which customers will cancel. Generative AI produces something that did not exist a minute ago, such as a paragraph or a product photo.

Text tools run on a large language model. Image and video tools use models trained on pictures and their descriptions. Many current models are multimodal, so one model can look at an image and write about it.

Example

A two-person shop selling ceramic mugs online uses a chat assistant to write 30 product descriptions from a spreadsheet of sizes and glaze names. The owner edits them for tone, then uses an image tool for lifestyle mockups on the homepage. She keeps lettering out of the generated images, since text inside AI pictures tends to come out garbled.

Common mistake

Using it like a slightly smarter Google search and closing the tab after one answer. That misses most of what it does well, which is producing and reworking drafts you can check. It is also where people get burned, because a generated answer about facts can be wrong while sounding certain. Ask for a draft, push back on it with follow-ups, and check any facts before you use them.