Is there a place for ChatGPT in the mechanical services industry?

“Did you write that with ChatGPT?” (no!). “Should I be using AI in my business?”. “Will ChatGPT make things easier / faster / cheaper?”

We get asked questions like this regularly.

Putting together a thoughtful and carefully researched piece that offers valuable insights into your business/industry, in less than 60 seconds from a one-sentence prompt? Theoretically, it’s possible. Tools like ChatGPT can create written content in the blink of an eye. And it’s making serious waves in most industries, not just mechanical services and HVAC.

What exactly is ChatGPT?

GPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer and it is known as a large language model tool (LLM). And what do LLMs do? A simple definition we liked is that they recognise, summarise, translate, predict, and generate text, along with other content.

ChatGPT was developed by OpenAI — a San Francisco-based research lab with current and former part-owners including the likes of Elon Musk and Microsoft.

Essentially, you type in a prompt on the ChatGPT user interface, and it will provide text to meet your brief. For example, you might type ‘Create an article about design considerations for accurate airflow’, or ‘What is the difference between AC and EC fans?’.

Whatever you’re interested in.

How can mechanical service businesses use ChatGPT — and should you?

There are uses for ChatGPT that we could see being useful for a range of businesses. Some of the best uses we have come across so far are for:

• Summarising information quickly

• Getting ideas flowing

• Generating reports

• Compiling information on a particular subject

It has the potential to save some time, however a word to the wise — use with caution as there are limitations too.

The limitations of using ChatGPT

While it could be useful to spark ideas or summarise information, it certainly has its limitations. The main ones we found in experimenting with getting ChatGPT are pretty major too, especially in a marketing context for mechanical services given the technical nature of the content that is often required:

• You will sound like a robot: It tries, but there was something distinctly un-human about everything ChatGPT generated for us. When businesses are creating content, their ability to make a connection with the reader is absolutely vital. AI writing can lack empathy and personality, producing prose that is dry and, well, robotic. And if everyone is doing it – search engine rankings and your ability to stand out on topics you are experts in, become diluted.

• A nuanced understanding of your audience: You can get specific about what you want ChatGPT to write but it can’t understand your business and your audience on a deeper level. An experienced professional in technical industries knows a business and topics inside and out and writes content that speaks directly to them. AI algorithms on the other hand, can only generate content based on the data they have been fed, and they lack the ability to understand the nuances of your business and audience.

• Accuracy: There have been many instances of incorrect information provided by ChatGPT and the genuine nature of its references can be questionable. If you use ChatGPT to create written content for you, check it and check it again.

Getting straight to the source

For the record, AI didn’t write this article. This is written by a 100% authentic human.

But that’s exactly what a robot would say, isn’t it? But you can check. The creator of ChatGPT himself created a tool that allows you to test content, and it’s called the OpenAI platform. So if you are suss on the source of content you find online, we always find this useful.

We gave it a go and it was successful at identifying which prose was written by AI and which was written by a human each time. When we created an amalgamation of AI and human copywriting, it generated a response that indicated it was likely to have been written by AI. It seemed like a reliable assessment tool, but not foolproof.

The wrap-up

While AI can be a valuable tool in some areas for mechanical services, it’s definitely not the best solution for content creation.

Personally and professionally, we wouldn’t risk producing content that wasn’t written by a human expert in the field. Trust is everything in business, and content that is trustworthy as well as engaging, and technical goes a long way to connect with your reader. So, for now, we’ll be sticking with human writers, especially when we get technical.

Need some assistance with your technical content? We would appreciate hearing from you, so get in touch today.