In episode 158 of the Asset Champion podcast, host Mike Petrusky sits down with Ab DeWeese, serial entrepreneur, investor, polymath, and AI educator, who has earned recognition for turning complex problems into clear, actionable solutions. Mike digs into Ab’s new book, “Essential AI: Your All-in-One QuickStart to Using AI in Business and The Workplace”, as Ab breaks down the different types of AI systems, from generative AI to custom-built tools for specific business needs. Together, they discuss how AI can speed up maintenance and repair tasks by quickly pulling and summarizing technical manuals, while stressing the need for users to verify AI’s output to prevent costly mistakes. Ab calls data “the currency of the future” and explains how the AI boom is pushing organizations to collect, organize, and label their data more thoughtfully.
Agenda
- Role and impact of AI in the built environment, particularly in facility and asset management
- Insights on AI, the importance of understanding AI’s capabilities and limitations
- Practical advice for integrating AI into business processes
What you need to know: Facility and maintenance takeaways
Takeaway 1: Effective communication with AI systems is becoming a critical skill for future success
“The single most important skill in today’s world and in the future is learning how to talk to these AI systems, learning how to talk to these chat interfaces,” Ab says.
To develop this skill, Ab advises consistent daily practice with AI systems. “The only way you can do that is just to spend time every day interacting with these different things, whether they’re for cute little projects or for planning a vacation or planning a meal for a family, just spend time conversing with them.” He stresses that this practice is crucial for understanding how to effectively use AI in both personal and professional settings.
However, he also warns against the common pitfall of relying too heavily on AI without verifying the information: “People will ask AI some sort of question that is either technical or is looking for a factual answer, and they tend to just blindly trust what they receive as opposed to just taking the extra step.” He recommends that users always click on and open links to the specific pages in technical manuals or other sources where the AI is drawing its information from, ensuring that the AI’s suggestions are accurate and reliable.
Takeaway 2: AI systems can enhance data analysis and operational decision-making in asset management, but they need the right data
” There’s a whole other class of AI systems that people might typically use. Words like machine learning or deep learning to talk about these systems where these aren’t necessarily systems that are built to read text and respond with text or make pretty pictures,” Ab explains.
Before you can leverage AI, though, you need to invest in data quality and organization: “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, and the next best time to plant a tree is today. So ideally, people have been gathering lots and lots of data and organizing it well for the past two decades, but if not, there’s no time like the present to start.”
Takeaway 3: The role of an “asset champion” is important for ensuring the ongoing health and maintenance of assets
“So, when I hear asset champion, I imagine, somebody standing there, hands on their hips like a Superman with a cape blowing in the wind, literally championing this thing and making it so that it can work for the business.” He emphasizes that an asset champion not only maintains the asset but also advocates for its care and budget, ensuring it remains operational and valuable to the organization.
In the context of AI, Ab points out that while technology can provide valuable insights and data analysis, the human role of the asset champion remains indispensable. “You can feed all these things into the system and then you would infer, you would be able to infer answers in real time to these business questions that you’ve asked that you’ve designed it to answer. So, there’s this whole other side of AI that has nothing to do with conversational chatbot interfaces, but this, the zeitgeist of today that’s making everybody look at AI and think about AI and become aware of the importance of data.”
Maintenance management insights
- The single most important skill is learning how to interact with AI systems and chat interfaces.
- AI enhances the efficiency of maintenance and repair processes by quickly accessing and interpreting technical manuals.
- Users should always verify AI outputs by checking the source material.
- There are two main types of AI, conversational chatbot interfaces and custom-built systems for data analysis and operational decision-making.
- The best time to start gathering and organizing data for AI systems is today, as more data is crucial for the effectiveness of AI.
- Understanding the basics of AI and how to communicate with it will be essential for leveraging its potential in various business contexts.
Learn more about Good Automation and then do a deep dive into more asset management insights by exploring all Asset Champion Podcast episodes.
