What’s Next??? 

I’ve been in the technology industry for almost 30 years.  When I started, the “big news” in our industry was the release of Windows 95.  People camped outside of electronics stores to be one of the first people to get it.  Microsoft would release an updated version in a few more years, and that process would continue for a long time.  Slow, steady, and predictable.  It was something that we could plan for, and our clients could plan for. 

Fast forward to today.  Although OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022, it and its peers like Claude and Copilot didn’t really reach mainstream visibility until 2025.  And since then, it’s been a wild ride.  It seems new “models” come out frequently, along with new tools to go with them.  I’ve never seen the pace of innovation in our industry that we’ve had in just the past year. 

So, what should we as business owners, and more importantly, people, be doing and thinking now? 

First, embrace it.  Not the cutting-edge stuff, or at least not IN your business.  There will always be some new “shiny” tool, model, or function that comes out.  Our industry press is full of stories where someone added a model or application to their network and asked it to optimize their database, only to find it chose to delete the database because it couldn’t optimize it to its standard and the best option was to start from scratch.  At OneSource, we use it for research, to help create new processes, evaluate current workflows and suggest improvements, and even in day-to-day functions like triaging incoming support tickets.  It makes us more efficient and helps us serve our clients better.   

Second, pick a team.  There are four (current) heavyweights; ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot.  We chose and suggested that our clients also choose Copilot.  It’s Microsoft’s entry into that market.  If you’re on Office 365, it includes functionality that’s built into the products you already use daily like Outlook, Word, and Excel.  That was one of the reasons we picked it, but we also felt it was a more secure option for us.  Since it’s part of the Office 365 family, all of our data stays within our “tenant” or our slice of Microsoft’s cloud.  That means that not only will it not use what it learns from our interactions with it to help others, but that it won’t be using that information (and our data) to serve us advertisements in the future.  Yes, I’m looking at you, Muse from Meta.  The last benefit of picking a model and sticking with it is that it will learn from you and about you.  Copilot has access to my OneDrive files and selected SharePoint data for OneSource.  That means it can relate its answers to our existing data.  And combine that with what it knows about me and OneSource from previous chats.  That seems like a force multiplier to me. 

Lastly, to quote Martin Sheen when he played the President in “West Wing,” keep asking “What’s next.”  I think with the accelerating pace of innovation in AI, there will always be something new on the horizon.  Be open to it.  But keep in mind my first two suggestions.   

If you’re unsure where to go from here, reach out to me or my team.  We may not have the answer for you at this moment, but we’re here for the ride with you.