ChatGPT is only the beginning

A software company at Camp North End advises businesses to 'shoot ahead of the duck' on AI

You’re reading Part 5 of The Charlotte Ledger’s “Faces of AI” series, an up-close look at Charlotte-area people and companies that are using artificial intelligence.

A Charlotte software executive helps local companies envision the possibilities — beyond ‘parlor tricks’

By Kevin Carney (as told to Tony Mecia)

Kevin Carney is managing partner of Kingsmen Software, a technology company based at Camp North End in Charlotte that builds custom software for businesses and helps them devise and implement artificial intelligence. He shared his observations on AI in a conversation with The Ledger’s Tony Mecia:

Kevin Carney of Kingsmen Software, who says businesses need to think ahead when it comes to artificial intelligence.

In regards to AI, everyone is still in “figuring-it-out” out mode. It’s cool, but they want to know what they can use it for.

Everyone talks about it. Everywhere! It comes up in conversations at the kids’ swim team, at the neighborhood cul-de-sac at the end of the day, at a memorial service over the weekend.

All most people know about AI is what comes up in their feed, or what they see on the news. No one actually knows what it can do beyond using ChatGPT to create a term paper or a recipe. ChatGPT is the most accessible, but it’s also the most basic form of AI. There is so much more.

When I explain the usefulness of artificial intelligence, I find it helpful to think of it as different buckets.

Let’s start with Bucket Zero, which I call “parlor tricks” — like crafting a photo of Nicholas Cage bare-chested on a unicorn. OK, that’s fun. Or writing a podcast with personalities of Kermit the Frog and Fozzie Bear talking to each other for 5 minutes. That’s gee-whiz. But how does that help? That’s not practical for business. (By the way, we’ve done both of those!)

Artificial intelligence can do so much more than draw images of bare-chested Nicholas Cage riding a unicorn, Kevin Carney of Kingsmen Software says.

The first *real* bucket is the practical stuff you can use for business, like summarizing long meetings you didn’t attend. Bucket One, from a business standpoint, is really about operational efficiencies — things you should have been doing anyway. You should have been automating your processes for years now. And if you haven't, then shame on you.

But as one of our advisors pointed out, “To do this sort of automation now given how transformational AI can be would be like paving the cow path — why automate the stuff I’m currently doing?”