I’m really struggling with AI right now. On the one hand, it’s infuriating when it doesn’t help me with the task or activity that I prompt it to, and hallucinates total garbage. I’m also concerned for humanity, as the blind faith that some have in AI seems to me to be pretty dangerous. But, on another level, if we strip away the overenthusiastic promises, and look at the little things that are now embedded in our productivity tools, it can be quite impressive.

Multiple takes

Today, I recorded a short video for an internal SharePoint site that supports some work I’m doing around Node4’s 2030 vision and strategy. It took about 8 takes and a lot of wrangling with technology for a simple talking head in front of a background. But I got there and, after an hour or so, I had the minute or so of content I wanted. I didn’t use professional video tools – just the things I have in Microsoft 365 and Windows 11 – I recorded myself in Teams against a custom background I’d created in PowerPoint, used Clipchamp to trim the video, and uploaded to Stream.

Copilot has entered the room

Then the cool stuff started. Microsoft Stream generated captions from the video. They weren’t quite right – but the edits were minimal and it let me make them. That means that I now have a working transcript and closed captions – assistive technologies to aid viewers.

But the impressive part was when I asked Copilot to summarise the content. This is what it came up with.

Key Topics:

• Introduction to Vision2030: Mark Wilson, one of the Technology and Innovation Directors in Node4’s Office of the CTO, introduced Vision2030, a forward-looking strategy that outlines key trends and technologies expected to define the future of mid-market businesses. 0:00
• Focus of Vision2030: Mark Wilson explained that Vision2030 focuses on integrating emerging innovations across all technology verticals in which Node4 operates, aiming to empower clients to anticipate and adapt to future technology trends, navigate complexity, and increase competitiveness and resilience. 0:21
• Creating Lasting Value: Mark Wilson emphasized that Vision2030 is not just about adopting new technologies but also about helping clients create lasting value. 0:39
• Future Content and Sales Plays: Mark Wilson mentioned that over the coming weeks and months, Node4 will create more content that builds on the core theme of enabling productivity and directly links to their sales plays, ensuring a clear connection from Vision through go-to-market to delivery. 0:45
• Commitment to Mid-Market Businesses: Mark Wilson reiterated Node4’s commitment to guiding mid-market businesses through the transformation, ensuring they are well-positioned to succeed in the future digital economy. 0:57

Spot on. Sure, it has an edited transcription to work from but now my colleagues don’t even need to watch the video. (Which begs the question why I recorded it in the first place – to which the answer is choice).

Changing the medium

So now, lets take this a bit further… out of Copilot and Stream and into the real implications of this technology. Starting with a couple of observations:

• When I’m driving, Apple CarPlay reads my messages to me. Or, I ask Siri to send a message, or to take a note.
• When I’m in a group messaging situation, some people seem to have a propensity to create short form audio.

I used to think that WhatApp voice messages are the spawn of the devil. Why should I have to listen to someone drone on for 30 seconds when I could read a text message much more quickly? Is it because they couldn’t be bothered to type? Then someone suggested it might be because they struggle with writing. That puts a different lens on things.

Create and consume according to our individual preferences

Now, with technologies like this we can create content in audio/video or written form – and that same content can be consumed in audio/video or written form. We can each use our preferred methods to create a message, and the recipient can use their preferred method to consume it.

This is the stuff that really makes a difference – the little things that make someone’s life easier – all adding up to a bigger boost in our individual productivity, or just getting things done.

Featured image – author’s own screenshot