While the world is abuzz with conversations surrounding AI, not a whole lot of businesses fully understand how AI can create a real impact in their day-to-day. We want to help our users—and anybody else interested—discover ways to implement AI into their business properly.
Not just because everyone’s doing it, but in a way that produces powerful positive impacts for their company.
At Glide, we provide anyone with the ability to create custom software that integrates seamlessly with their unique business rhythms and processes. Now with the introduction of Glide AI into the mix, things are getting exciting and we’re starting to discover novel ways to leverage AI through Glide, thanks in part to our community of Glide Experts.
I recently asked the Glide Experts where their clients were getting the most benefit and positive impact through Glide AI.
Our Experts have built countless internal tools and no code software solutions for businesses, spanning multiple industries and use cases, so I was confident they’d have some solid intel for me. And they didn’t disappoint! Their responses were as inspiring as they were fascinating and thought-provoking.
Here are the five primary use cases of AI in business software, according to the Experts:
Ideation
This is the most common use case right now for AI. Most people have heard of ChatGPT and maybe some of the other LLMs (Large Language Models) that generate new ideas, create lists, write content, and generally respond to prompts. These tools are perfect for ideating on content, processes, and more.
When it comes to building custom no-code software in Glide, ideating as a use case refers to customizing Glide AI in order to craft responses that are tailored to your business needs.
For example, in one of our recent Build with Glide AI sessions on YouTube live, Jesus from LowCode Agency showcased how he created an app that would generate social content based on purpose (how-to, benefit, list, tips, etc.) and format it for all platforms selected (X, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram) in their company’s tone of voice.
In another live session, Glide Expert, Miguel, showcased how one of his clients is using AI to ideate and brainstorm around product innovation.
Going from zero to one is often the hardest part of any project. With AI, you can go from zero to a whole lot of ones pretty quickly—making ideation a breeze.
Extracting text from images
One of the clearest use cases revolves around uploading pictures of receipts for expense tracking purposes. Jesus from Low Code created an app called Billing Buddy, to showcase how AI can make expense tracking incredibly simple and convenient.
With Glide AI you can extract numbers and text from receipts and use them in calculations. You can even convert currencies, and categorize the expense just from the uploaded receipt image.
I see the potential for this use case everywhere. I went to the Chiropractic clinic yesterday and filled out the patient intake form by hand. I know someone had to take my chicken scratch and type it into their software for a digital record.
If they were using Glide AI, they could have just taken a photo of my intake form, and the rest would have happened almost as if by magic.
Data formatting
I have seen Glide experts do really interesting things, from categorizing images like we talked about above, to automatically changing date formats based on geography. AI can sort through large amounts of data and quickly associate, link, and categorize data in effective ways.
All you need to do is give it specific instructions via prompt, and the AI can do all sorts of useful things like:
Generate HTML
Order or prioritize items
Find trends in datasets
Filter out information
Merge duplicates
Change tone of voice
So much more…
Turns out, shapeshifting is one of AI's superpowers.
Data Analysis
This is probably one of the most innovative, efficient, and interesting use cases for AI. AI can create insights from large amounts of data—quickly. Here are two great examples I heard from Experts.
First, Miguel has showcased how his client is using AI to automatically sort through thousands of job applicants, to surface the best candidates based on a points system, and how unique the responses were compared to the others. Effectively eliminating thousands of hours a year that go into applicant vetting.
Another example came from Jesus, who showed us in his ‘Billing Buddy’ expense tracker how he’s using AI to look through your expenses to provide insights, such as the highest spend category, search for duplicates, identify overspending in categories, and even suggestions to use specific payment methods to maximize points/rewards.
Data analysis is a time-consuming, high-focus job. Delegate it to Glide AI and manufacture more time each day.
Data Entry
If every business could speed up their processes and make their employees more efficient, wouldn’t they? Of course they would.
Data entry can be very repetitive, uninspiring work for you and your colleagues. Marco, one of our Experts, showcased an application he built for a wine distributor that helps employees add wine to their inventory by automatically filling out the required information based on the name of the wine.
Instead of inputting a whole bunch of wine information manually, now employees simply scroll down and confirm the information is correct. Think of all the businesses that acquire tons of new inventory each week—how much time they could save by letting AI handle data entry on their behalf…
The Sky’s the Limit
The five use cases we’ve highlighted above are being used by businesses today to be more efficient in multiple ways. I hope these examples can demystify AI and shed some light on how you might deploy these solutions to streamline your own day-to-day business workflows.
That being said, AI is still very much in its infancy, and the use cases of today will most certainly evolve for tomorrow. If you’re using AI in your apps right now, you’re an early adopter, and the future relies on you, and how you use your ingenuity to innovate and discover even more powerful use cases with AI.
When you’ve found some novel ways to use it, come back and let me know. I’ll be tinkering as well.
