The text below was created by an AI transcription service created from the epiosde 7 of the Level Up M365 podcast episode link https://open.spotify.com/episode/5yXjXFBCOA9CXzkRyhkSpf
Hello, and welcome to another Fireside Chat.
Today, we are going to talk about the different chat bots that are out there.
The big three that we’re going to talk about from a philosophical perspective is Google’s Gemini, formerly known, the artist formerly known as Bard.
We’re going to talk about Microsoft’s platform and then ChatGTP, and just not going deep into the weeds.
I have experience with all three.
I’ve been using ChatGTP the longest, and I guess my point with this is to kind of think about it from a philosophical perspective of how to fit these into your flow.
And I mean, with that, you know, the nature of these Fireside Chats is unscripted.
It’s kind of like me talking to a neighbor or me talking to myself, you know, before I embark.
So I’m kind of just sharing some high level philosophical lessons learned.
So, you know, getting right into it, I started ChatGTP using it.
I believe it was December of 2022, I want to say.
It was right in the beginning of 2023.
I built a bunch of web APIs and found a way to integrate.
It was right when it was released and I found a way to integrate it within the Microsoft platform.
And full disclosure, I may be a practitioner of Microsoft 365 services, but I do have my domain on a Google workspace.
My wife is fond of Google Docs and it was just easier for so far.
My personal LLC, I do have it on a Google workspace.
So I do have experience exposure.
I don’t use it that often.
I live on the Microsoft world, but I do like to compare and contrast.
I also use GTP 3.5, so I don’t use the new one.
I’m using the freebie account.
So kind of getting into what, philosophically, what do these things offer as a person who pays for it?
I’m a small business owner, so what do these things give me?
I’m also a power user.
I administrate these things for enterprise environments.
And I see I struggle to fit the chat GTP, and I struggle to fit the Google stuff in my environments where open source or Google isn’t already there.
So an example is most people are paying for Microsoft.
Well, if they’re paying for Microsoft, then your CoPilot is going to have access to the Microsoft Graph, which is your data.
So you’re going to benefit from it.
And I see a parallel here between using a form solution and using a bot solution.
If I have a Google Suite, and I get a third party form solution like SurveyMonkey, well the problem is SurveyMonkey doesn’t have my data.
It’s a great service.
I love SurveyMonkey, but it’s disconnected and I need a developer to help keep, to help bring that SurveyMonkey into my environment.
And Google may offer an out of the box API, but again, I need a developer to connect the dots, to make that SurveyMonkey data speak to my environment.
And so the disconnect or discombobulation that I have with all these random chatbots is very similar to a form solution.
If it’s all first party, if your form solution is Google and your back end is Google, or your form is a Microsoft form or a Power App, and your database is a Microsoft M365 database, like Dataverse or SharePoint, then your bot is going to be able to do much more.
A classic saying that I say in consulting is, you get third party solutions, third party solutions give you third party results.
And that’s kind of where I end with that.
If you are a Google shop, my philosophical bias is go with a Google bot, go with a Google form solution.
If you are a Microsoft shop, the same is true, go with a Microsoft bot, a Microsoft solution.
And my bias with the shop bot world right now is the Microsoft CoPilot, because I’ve played around with Google, not an expert, but they don’t have access to the graph, like Microsoft has access to the graph.
And Google doesn’t, a Google site is not as robust as a SharePoint site, or I don’t think Google even has any type of database sources, like Microsoft has, where you have the SharePoint list, you have the Dataverse, you have so many different data sources within the Microsoft M365 world.
So that is important, because that’s the data your bot’s gonna go out sniffing.
And the cool things that ChatGTP does for consumers, great, but doesn’t really offer much value to an enterprise because it can’t see your enterprise data.
So that’s the issue, that’s the disconnect.
If you just ask ChatGTP to write up meeting minutes from your last Teams meeting, well, it’s not connected to your Teams meeting, whereas Microsoft CoPilot license is gonna do that meeting recap, which is phenomenal.
So I guess philosophically, that’s kind of my point there with the first party, trying to keep it all in house or keep it all first party if possible.
But then another caution that I would say is be slow with this.
And what I’ve learned, again, I’m not an expert, but what I’ve learned is my little ChatGTP bot that I mentioned earlier in this post that I said I built connecting APIs, none of those APIs work.
They don’t work anymore.
I mean, my bot’s only a year old, if that, and it’s dead, you know, cause it was just a passion project of mine.
It wasn’t like a project, but could you imagine if I had a heavy dependence, if I’m bleeding edge, if I’m bleeding edge on this technology and I deploy it to an enterprise, and now it’s changing so fast, I guess that’s what I’m getting at.
This stuff is changing so fast.
It’s okay to be a little slow.
It’s okay to be a slower adopter, or maybe you can turn it on in phases, you know, like a staggered approach where you break your end users up into segments of, you know, power users for region one and power users for region two and deploy those power users first.
But this stuff’s changing so rapidly.
I think, you know, within the tech bubble, they always say that 2023 was the year of invention and 2024 is the year of implementation.
So that, I hope that’s the case because then I feel comfortable implementing things, but I’m still a little weary to go heavy into it for a lot of users because of the change is happening so rapidly.
So I think that is really all I had on this chat bot AI world.
Just some boots on the ground opinions, you know, while you’re here, sipping a virtual cup of coffee with me.
I’m actually gonna go get a little workout in and enjoy the rest of the day.
You guys have a good one.
Level Up M365 