What is AI really?

A tool that predicts demand is doing something different from one that writes a customer reply. A feature that categorises enquiries is doing something different again. Calling them all “AI” tells you very little about what they offer or what happens when they get something wrong.

This book makes those differences clear through familiar business situations. It helps you recognise what kind of assistance you are being offered, understand what supports the result and decide what needs checking. You do not need technical knowledge to follow it.

• Recognise AI beyond chatbots, including the labels, estimates and recommendations inside everyday software.
• Understand the difference between AI, machine learning and generative AI without getting lost in technical terminology.
• See why convincing answers can be wrong—and why different AI tasks need different checks.
• Distinguish a recorded fact from an inference, a forecast from an order and a generated suggestion from an authorised action.

An AI answer does not prove that something happened or that somebody agreed to it. A suggested product is not evidence that the customer wants it. An estimated sale is not an order. A sentence saying that work has been approved is not evidence of approval.

People can also mistake a confident answer for an informed one. The software may not have received the latest agreement, the missing cost or the news about next week’s closure. Before relying on an important answer, establish what supports it and what is still unknown. The point is not to reject useful assistance, but to avoid giving its output more authority than the information justifies.

Extract from What is AI really?, “What people miss when they just trust AI”.

Russell Parrott is a plain-English writer exploring hidden AI in everyday business tools. He investigates what AI does, what information it draws on and what it can recommend, communicate or change as a result.

He finds where AI is operating inside the tools a business already uses and explains what information it can use and what it recommends, communicate or change as a result. His books turn that research into independent plain-English explanations.