How AI helped Visit Orlando’s Adeta Gayah with content creation

Since generative AI burst into the mainstream, its practical applications have become a major discussion point for communicators. One of the most interesting aspects of this technology is its wide range of comms use cases, helping many draft copy, edit their work, streamlining review processes and freeing them up to think more creatively about their function.

As part of the first edition of our new “How AI Helped Me” series, we spoke with Adeta Gayah,  director of social media & content communications for Visit Orlando about how she uses AI, how it’s impacted her day-to-day work, and more.

Sean Devlin: Could you tell us briefly how you first started interacting with AI in your role at Visit Orlando? 

Adeta Gayah: The first time I intentionally started interacting with AI in my role was in early 2022. I say “intentionally” because I’m certain I’ve been using AI in some form before that as the capabilities have been integrated in many tools for a while now.

I was first intrigued with early tests of [image generation tool] Dall-E and how AI could take multiple pieces of information and consolidate it into a simple thought. I began testing out various prompts on ChatGPT when it became available. I also dabbled in Midjourney and Dall-E to see what images my prompts would create.

SD: When you first started using AI, how did you educate yourself on how to use it? 

AG: When I first started using AI, it was very much focused on testing and learning. I played around with various styles and types of prompts, different inputs for image generation, different shortcuts and codes in Midjourney.

At the time, I was not using the outputs externally in any way, so it felt like a fail-forward approach. After that, I started joining online discussions and communities of other early adopters to share knowledge and learn what others had uncovered.

SD: How does AI currently factor into your role at Visit Orlando?

AG: Leading the Social Media & Content team at Visit Orlando, AI plays a large part in the work we do to create content. We use AI to help with blog research, with social media post copy, and brightening images (nothing more than what you can do on an iPhone).

Adeta Gayah of Visit Orlando

AI is also built into a lot of tools we use such as our social media and UGC management tools to help automate tagging and descriptions. I also serve on an AI Task Force at Visit Orlando. We have been instrumental in educating the organization on how team members are currently using AI and developing an AI policy so we can encourage safe AI practices among our team.

SD: Have you seen any changes to your workflow or customer satisfaction since you’ve begun using AI and automation?

AG: AI has helped create greater efficiencies. For instance, the time spent automated tagging images in our asset management system or in our social management tool has been reduced significantly from when we were doing it manually. It has aided our ability to think creatively.

Many times, ChatGPT has given us a spark of an idea that we can build off or a framework that we can further develop.

We’ve been transparent in our use of AI externally, for instance, our blogs note when we’ve used AI for additional reporting or research. I have not seen a change in customer satisfaction about this.

SD: What’s something about AI that you think communicators need to be talking about but aren’t discussing enough?

AG: I don’t think the science of prompt engineering is discussed enough, but it is essential in our ability to use AI effectively. What you get out of AI (including GPTs) is very much reliant on a strong prompt. When it comes to a GPT prompt, you want to apply the RACE method. These letters stand for:

• R = role, assign the GPT a clear role/persona you want it to take on.
• A = action, what task are you asking it to complete?
• C = context, is there any background or data that would be helpful for the AI to know?
• E = expectation, be very clear about what you want out of this, what should the result be?

SD: Do you have a prediction for AI usage in the next few years?

AG: I predict AI usage will continue to increase in the next few years. It’s becoming easier to use and more available so more people will begin (and continue) to test it in their respective fields. I don’t think we’ve tapped into AI’s full potential yet and the learning curve for that will steadily increase.

It’s important to note that AI will get you part of the way, but human intervention is still required. While these tools learn more, it’s still important to apply human intelligence to the outputs.

To learn more about the practical uses of AI in comms, register for our AI for Communicators Virtual Conference, which takes place September 19.