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Actis Presentation Resources

Opening Video

 

We started with the fun video of my speaking seven languages.  If you're interested in how I created it, the details are in the YouTube description.  

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Here are the LLMs and ChatBots we discussed

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Companies highlighted
 

Companies we discussed in the presentation:

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Companies we didn't mention but are worth checking out. 

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Prompts Discussed

In the presentation, we jumped into a number of prompts.  I'll include many of them here.  Please check out the section of PROMPTING 101 as a primer on how to improve your prompts.

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Strategic Expansion: Developing AI-Driven Services for Commercial Energy Clients
The prompt series guides the model through a structured strategic planning process for expanding an energy company's offerings into AI-driven services for commercial and industrial sectors.

  • LLM Strengths: Demonstrates the ability to identify innovative services, develop unique market differentiation, and craft detailed implementation strategies while assessing risks and challenges.

  • Prompt Design: Prompts are focused, building upon each other to cover various aspects of business strategy—from service ideation to risk mitigation. They use clear directives, ensuring actionable responses.

  • Expansion Potential: The final prompt offers flexibility, asking for additional information if needed, which enables deeper exploration and refinement of strategy and evaluation steps.  LINK

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Precision Project Planning: Leveraging LLMs for Detailed, Iterative Task Breakdown and Automation: The prompt series demonstrates the power of LLMs to handle complex, domain-specific tasks by breaking them into manageable steps and providing detailed outputs. The first prompt outlines a project plan for a technical audience, while the second follows up with more granular details. Key takeaways include:

  • LLM Strengths: Adaptability to technical subjects, ability to maintain context, and iterative deepening of responses.

  • Prompt Design: Clear, specific prompts yield structured and relevant outputs; follow-up prompts enhance detail and precision.

  • Expansion: Iterative prompting can build increasingly detailed plans, while specifying tools and automations can drive further insights.  LINK

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Translating Scientific Research into Business Strategy: Analyzing the Impact of Sustainable Energy Innovation

This prompt series demonstrates the use of an LLM to analyze complex scientific research and translate it into actionable business insights for renewable energy projects, focusing on economic returns, societal impact, and future technological advancements.

  • LLM Strengths: The model adeptly shifts from technical analysis to practical business application, offering insights across both scientific and business domains. It bridges the gap between complex research and strategic executive communication.

  • Prompt Design: Prompts move fluidly from explaining scientific concepts to practical business applications, including stakeholder communication and identifying top opportunities. Clear, structured inputs elicit specific and actionable outputs.

  • Expansion Potential: The final prompt invites further exploration of long-term opportunities by assuming disruptive changes in energy and computing costs, encouraging creative business strategy.  LINK

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Research on AI Impact

 

HBR & BCG.  The first study I highlighted was the one conducted by Harvard Business School and Boston Consulting Group. 

  • The full study, "Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality" is HERE

  • For most people, I suggest reading the analysis of the study.  Wharton's Ethan Mollick did a robust analysis of the work and a summarizes it HERE

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McKinsey.  The second report showed where AI was being adopted across different functional areas.  I'm very impressed with the work that McKinsey's Quantum Black group is conducting.  Their high-level research is HERE

The chart I referenced comes from the McKinsey study "The state of AI in early 2024: Gen AI adoption spikes and starts to generate value"  May 30, 2024 | Survey.  LINK

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Here's some additional research that might be interesting to discuss in the future:
 

McKinsey:  "AI for social good: Improving lives and protecting the planet". Aug, 2024.   The report illustrates how AI is being leveraged to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a particular focus on scaling impactful AI solutions despite challenges like data quality and access to talent. For the Actis community, the relevance lies in AI's potential to accelerate progress in areas critical to your businesses, such as climate action (SDG 13) and affordable clean energy (SDG 7), by optimizing operations, reducing emissions, and enabling innovative solutions that can enhance sustainability efforts on a global scale.

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BCG: "From Potential to Profit with GenAI". (Jan 2024) 

BCG’s survey of 1,400+ C-suite executives reveals that GenAI is quickly changing the way companies do business—and big gaps are emerging between the winners and the observers.

✴ 54% of leaders expect AI and GenAI to deliver cost savings in 2024. Of those, roughly half anticipate cost savings in excess of 10%. But 90% are either waiting for GenAI to move beyond the hype or experimenting in small ways. We call them observers.

✴ Winners recognize that extraordinary opportunities for productivity gains—as well as topline growth—are within reach right now.

✴ Five characteristics set the winners apart from the observers:
   ​➊ investment in productivity and topline growth

   ➋ systematic upskilling

   ➌ vigilance about AI cost of use

   ➍ a focus on building strategic relationships

   ➎ implementation of responsible AI principles
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BCG:  AI at Work 2024: Friend and Foe (BCG) 

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Salesforce Study
 

Microsoft & LinkedIn
 

Microsoft: "What Can Copilot’s Earliest Users Teach Us About Generative AI at Work?"  Data and survey supporting that "Copilot makes people more productive and creative, and saves time"


Microsoft:  Report on GitHub Productivity, "Research: quantifying GitHub Copilot’s impact on developer productivity and happiness"
 

Case Study:  Moderna 

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Case Study:  Asana -- AI Teammates

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Wisq and their Whitepaper for some of the best thinking on AI-powered guides that delivers personalized coaching in real-time.

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McKinsey's AI Research (Of all the big consulting forms, I'm most impressed with what McKinsey and BCG are doing with AI)​


Workday's study: Global CHRO AI.  Indicator Report:  A Vision for Strategic Value. Three Ways to Thoughtfully Embrace Al in HR

 

 

AI Policies & Guidance -- Jump over HERE

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Other Resources

 

Actis and The Prompt offer to portfolio companies

 

Prompting 101 Guide

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