How much time do you spend, wishing there were more hours in the day? For most of us, the answer is a lot, but what if we told you that you can use widely available tech in the form of smart devices to get that extra time you’re desperate for?
For many of us, Echo Dots and Google Homes are great presents. We’ve set them up in our homes, and use them for shopping lists, playing music, and watching our kids disintegrate into giggling wrecks as they discover they can ask Alexa to make hilarious fart noises. But the AI technology they’re based on is evolving all the time, and there are so many useful features that could save you time in the office.
Make processes more efficient
Reminders and meetings
You can ask Alexa, Siri, Cortana or whichever assistant you use to book meetings and set reminders. It’s as easy as saying ‘Hey Siri, book a meeting with Lee tomorrow at 4pm’. You can do this quickly with your voice from your desk, and don’t have to stop what you’re doing on your computer to open your calendar and do it manually.
Shopping list
At home, you might say ‘Alexa, add bananas to my shopping list’. At work, it might be ‘Alexa, add a box of 50 Bic biros and some Post-it notes to my shopping list’. Either way, you can easily set it up to order what you need from Amazon, and have it arrive without having to think about it too much at all.
Dictation
This is great for speed, but it’s also great for accessibility for people who have conditions like dyslexia. You can ask Alexa to record and dictate what you’re saying directly into a word document. You could write client letters, or even whole blog posts this way, speeding up wordy tasks a lot. It can take a little while to get used to, but it’s certainly well worth trying.
The Internet of Things (IoT)
IoT refers to the billions of devices across the globe that can all connect to the internet. Kettles and washing machines you can control from an app, lights that can turn off if you ask Siri politely and so much more.
Implementing this kind of technology might feel lazy, but making the most of things like connected lightbulbs and smart thermostats is a great way to save energy. You can even connect these to your smart speaker and give vocal instructions.
There’s so much that can be done with smart devices, it’s well worth spending a few minutes having a look to see what sort of thing might benefit your business – if you can save both time and money, it’s well worth a look!
