The AI Journey

The past few months have been a little different in terms of my learning journey. This time last year I felt as though AI was in its infancy and it would be another fad that passed us by but then I began to use it. I could see that it was useful on an individual level and never for a minute thought that it would explode through businesses in the way that it has.

There has been massive pushes towards integrating AI into our daily workings in the business where I am currently contracting. CoPilot, Jira AI, Internal AI systems and call transcribing systems have all been integrated and people are using them to get great results. I even heard a team discussing how AI transcribes their calls and gives them actionable outputs that the teams can use in their Sprints. Other teams have been discussing how they can use AI to create Gherkin Specs for their automated tests and Acceptance Criteria or even write stories for them! I never saw that coming but it is great that people now have the courage to push themselves outside the norm and experiment with things like this and companies encouraging it can only be a good thing.

It was time for me to learn more and hopefully help the Leaders, Teams, Scrum Masters and Product Owners that I work with embrace this more. Scrum Alliance have been working hard to produce micro credentials to help up skill people in their use of AI. These micro credentials have helped me get a good grounding on the tools that exist, how Product Owners and Scrum Masters can use them and they also give you some great hand outs to use, covering different types of prompts and how to craft them for your needs. The ones that I have completed are below.

The micro credentials were great but nothing beats a bit of trainer led content and I was lucky to be invited along to a session organized by Scrum Alliance with John Barratt on “Getting started with AI Prompt Engineering” and it really brought home the importance of spending time crafting your prompts with the desired level of detail, using the AI tool in a specific role and maybe giving it your train of thought to help you get the most suitable results.

John is a great trainer who is really knowledgable on AI having been working in that field for a number of years so it was great to listen and be taught by someone who knows what they are doing and this really helped fill the gaps in my thinking and knowledge. I will admit to being a bit of a “Warrior” back in the early days (alright, maybe a couple of months ago!) who would fire up ChatGPT and ask it a wide ranging question and then curse it as not knowing what it was doing when it didn’t give me the exact results I wanted (we have all been there). The micro credentials and the trainer led course really brought home where I was going wrong in the past, how much I have improved and gave me more knowledge to push on further and help others who may be going through the “Warrior” phase.

So where are we now? Will I be changing my Linkedin title to AI Guru? No. AI Warrior? No. Am I more equipped to help people embrace AI and how it can support them in their day to day role? Yes (see how I used the word “Support” there, I feel that AI is here to support us rather than replace us 😉 ). Never for a minute did I think that this time last year I would be sitting here on a Saturday morning writing about how I am embracing AI but here we are.

• You will notice the featured image, well, when I decided to post WordPress asked me if I would like it to generate an image based on my blog post. Here is the prompt it generated!
• “Create a featured image for a blog post titled “The AI Journey.” The main subject should be a diverse group of professionals engaging in a collaborative discussion about AI tools in a modern office setting, illuminated by warm, natural light. The scene should incorporate elements like laptops, AI interface screens, and vibrant charts to highlight the integration of AI in business. The style should be contemporary and professional, capturing a sense of enthusiasm and innovation among the team members. Please ensure the image is high resolution, highly detailed, and in sharp focus to convey clarity and engagement”

You can find Scrum Alliances range of micro credentials here. I am even sanctioned to train some of these and you can find them here if interested. Although, there will be a blog post on this coming soon.