Maui TechOhana<\/a> presentations over two days last week at the Malcolm Center in K\u012bhei, Apy explained how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing business and life in general in ways many of us don\u2019t even know.<\/p>\nExamples of what\u2019s called Large Language Models or conversational AI include: Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude (by Anthropic), Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity AI, Meta AI and Grok (by xAI). Each occupies a niche in the AI cyberscape. Most offer free tiers of service with paid subscriptions for more features like higher usage limits and faster response times.<\/p>\n
Apy, area managing partner with Chief Outsiders, the largest fractional executive firm for marketing and sales, has provided her marketing expertise to Fortune 500 companies such as Mattel, Adobe and Intuit.<\/p>\n
She said AI is no longer a futuristic concept, like \u201cHal,\u201d in the 1968 classic film \u201c2001: Space Odyssey.\u201d Now, artificial intelligence is transforming industries at a breathtaking pace.<\/p>\n
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Apy\u2019s initial session focused on general marketing principles, and it laid a foundation for the next day\u2019s talk on AI and how it\u2019s reshaping business. This technology can empower Maui\u2019s diverse economic landscape, from small businesses to broad established sectors like tourism and agriculture.<\/p>\n
Just as \u201cHal\u201d had a dark and sinister side in the fictional movie, AI raises fearsome questions about ethics, morality, biases and unforeseen negative outcomes, like replacing humans.<\/p>\n
Addressing such concerns, Apy said that AI, at its core, is \u201cusing technology in order to be able to do something quicker, faster.\u201d She encouraged attendees not to be intimidated by jargon, saying, \u201cDon\u2019t get thrown off by all these terms of things. It\u2019s just like a lot of computers, a lot of computer automation.\u201d She said that \u201call functions within an organization are adopting AI as we speak,\u201d indicating its widespread applicability across various business sizes and sectors. \u201cAs humans we need to understand how we can use AI to make our work and lives better, in order to stay ahead of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second day\u2019s session moved beyond definitions to showcase real-world applications for artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
For example, Apy detailed how AI is being used for \u201cgenerative AI analysis,\u201d helping businesses analyze market segments, data and campaigns to identify the most profitable strategies. She showed how a sales file could be uploaded to a tool like ChatGPT, which then acts as a \u201clittle junior analyst that will work with me at 2:00 in the morning,\u201d segmenting customers and calculating potential revenue for reactivation campaigns.<\/p>\n
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She noted that companies are \u201cactively mechanizing a lot of their workflows so that their employees can handle the more sophisticated tasks that you need a human in the loop to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond analysis, Apy detailed AI\u2019s role in content creation, from generating advertising campaigns and personalized emails to drafting full proposals and even e-books. As an example of the latter, she shared how she created a 45-page e-book, fully formatted with graphics and a logo, in about 20 minutes using an AI tool.<\/p>\n
For market research, AI can access vast public data from sources like the US Census and Small Business bureaus, stitching it together for in-depth analysis.<\/p>\n
One client \u201ctook all of their reviews from Amazon and threw them into ChatGPT to identify potential new features for products.\u201d Another instance saw a construction company using AI to scan publicly available school board minutes, quickly identifying new, unstarted infrastructure projects and their estimated revenue, a task that previously took weeks.<\/p>\n
The discussion extended to AI\u2019s transformative impact on customer service. Apy said that AI-powered tools are replacing traditional systems.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYou know how IVR (interactive voice response) systems say, press one, press two?\u201d she noted, contrasting it with \u201cconversational AI tools (that) will understand your question and give you a tailored response.\u201d<\/p>\n
These systems offer a \u201cvoice that\u2019s very human-like that can respond to partial language and anticipate what it is that you want,\u201d Apy said. And, these platforms can \u201ctrain their human agents on the fly\u201d by understanding customer sentiment and \u201ccoaching the agent to say certain things based on what a customer is saying.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Marketing expert Jennifer Apy shows a slide of a \u201cbrand graveyard,\u201d where formerly well-known business brands, like Kodak, Blockbuster and Borders, have failed to remain relevant brands in the digital age. PC: Brian Perry<\/p>\n
For \u201crepetitive in nature and prestructured conversations,\u201d robots are being used to \u201cschedule appointments for hospital follow-up\u201d or act as \u201cmedical receptionist, or hotel front desk,\u201d Apy said. This helps call centers \u201cget through a large volume\u201d of calls, ensuring customers are \u201cnot on hold for five hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Apy also highlighted how AI helps to deliver better customer service.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of saying, \u2018Here are five articles that might relate to your question,\u2019 it\u2019ll say \u2018Here is the answer to your question,\u2019 getting right to the point and saving everyone a lot of time.\u201d Apy mentioned a Honolulu-based company Reef.ai<\/a> that \u201cpredicts customer churn (when customers decide to end their software subscription) based on behavior data, so companies can proactively take action to retain customers.\u201d<\/p>\nHowever, Apy also touched upon other considerations that come with AI adoption. She addressed concerns about \u201challucinations\u201d \u2013 where AI tools \u201care always trying to give you an answer . . . They\u2019ll make up stuff to make you happy, to give you an answer.\u201d For mission-critical research she suggested using different AI tools to fact-check each other.<\/p>\n
She stressed the critical need for data privacy, advising users to turn off settings that allow models to \u201cimprove the model for everyone\u201d when working with sensitive data. Apy also highlighted the potential for \u201cracial biases, cultural biases\u201d within AI models, stressing that \u201cthat, to me, that\u2019s a real big danger\u201d and emphasizing the human responsibility to understand and mitigate these.<\/p>\n
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People face an overwhelming array of advertising, email and other messages competing for their attention. Marketing expert Jennifer Apy said marketers face a battle for survival to connect with customers. PC: Brian Perry<\/p>\n
While there\u2019s much to be wary of, artificial intelligence is here to stay, especially if businesses want to stay competitive, innovative and create new income streams.<\/p>\n
Apy encouraged everyone to work with this technology. \u201cThe only way to learn AI is to try it,\u201d she said. \u201cJump in, jump into the pool, and be a part of that positive social change that will come from harnessing the technology for good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marketing expert and business strategist Jennifer Apy helps entrepreneur Jessica Odell understand artificial intelligence computer models Thursday during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,12728,3195,12729,12730,12731,11458,12732,641,12733,12734,12735,12736,12737,1275,12738,12739,12740,12741,12742,12743,74,12744],"class_list":{"0":"post-13045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-baldwin-high-school","12":"tag-chatgpt","13":"tag-chief-outsiders","14":"tag-claude","15":"tag-conversational-ai","16":"tag-gemini","17":"tag-generative-ai-analysis","18":"tag-grok","19":"tag-interactive-voice-response","20":"tag-jennifer-apy","21":"tag-jessica-odell","22":"tag-large-language-models","23":"tag-malcolm-center","24":"tag-marketing","25":"tag-maui-techohana","26":"tag-meta-ai","27":"tag-microsoft-copilot","28":"tag-perplexity","29":"tag-reef-ai","30":"tag-small-business-bureau","31":"tag-technology","32":"tag-us-census"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2162-1024x711.jpg\")
Marketing expert and business strategist Jennifer Apy helps entrepreneur Jessica Odell understand artificial intelligence computer models Thursday during a Maui TechOhana workshop at the Malcolm Center in K\u012bhei. Odell, owner of Flying Dragon Farm, grows dwarf fruit trees on her Kula farm. PC: Brian Perry<\/p>\n