Matt Crowther is on a mission to champion the adoption of AI, transforming the way Hawke’s Bay businesses operate and compete on a global scale. Matt has forged a career as a project and operations manager working for the likes of Firstlight Foods and Sirtrack, a NZ owned telemetry business which was sold to global giant Lotek.
Matt is now embarking on an exciting transition towards integrating technology and strategic consultancy and is studying a Masters of Technological Futures at AcademyEX specialising in Emerging Disruptive Technologies like Generative AI. As part of his study he is undertaking a 12 month project which is based on researching practical use cases for New Zealand businesses.
“There’s been a lot of hype, uncertainty and fear about AI so I’m looking to let down to the reality of how we can harness it to improve both individual and business productivity without losing or infringing IP.
“I’ve worked for and collaborated with several businesses where the prevalent culture of working long hours has underscored a deeper issue—working harder, not smarter, contributing to a gradual erosion of our standard of living.”
Matt says he’s always enjoyed learning and his choice to study AI was driven by the recognition of its potential impact on how we live and work.
“We are moving from the Information age of the Internet to the Intelligence age with AI. I also feel with the speed of change nowadays we need to adopt a continuous learning mindset.”
Matt’s uses an array of AI tools including LLM’s such as ChatGPT and Claude and he’s taking a cautious approach to adoption.
“I think the analogy of ChatGPT and similar tools being like an eager graduate is apt, intelligent but in need of close supervision and training to get the best.
“I think retaining the human-in-the-loop will be critical to successful adoption. Combining human intuition and ethics with AI’s power in data analysis and ideation will enhance decision making and problem-solving capabilities.
Effectively harnessing AI will be like donning your Iron Man suit.” The human/AI interface is where Matt and his partner Mell Anderson are focusing their efforts developing workshops for those individuals and businesses looking to boost their productivity and save time.
Matt’s AI tips for beginners
For those new to AI, I recommend starting with tools like ChatGPT or Claude with a free account.
If you’re not comfortable sharing your email address as a log-in, then set-up a dummy one for access. Be very specific in your prompting e.g. “You are a magazine editor of 30 years experience…help me brain-storm a 6-month strategy for my next 6 issues…ask me questions to clarify what I want before answering”.
For presentations try Gamma. Gamma will convert your executive summary into a slide pack complete with images in seconds saving all that painful PowerPoint formatting.
The paid versions allow you to train your own GPT to your specific requirements. Effectively building your Iron man suit.
