Artificial Intelligence and iMIS: What’s new?
Keith Stoute, September 3rd, 2024
Trying to keep up with what’s new in AI can be overwhelming, but here’s what we are learning to help customers stay updated. Our first foray into AI is Datascout, a product currently in pilot and developed in partnership with Objeto, granting iMIS customers increased insights throughout iMIS. We are also looking at OpenAI’s assistant as a way to share knowledge with members.
Datascout
Datascout is a joint venture between Objeto, a data analytics & AI firm focused exclusively on nonprofits, and Bursting Silver, the largest IMIS implementer in the world. Datascout has been specifically designed to transform how iMIS is used and how you interact with your members to reach your goals and have the greatest impact. They envisioned a brand-new product that could discuss trends, update IMS profiles and records, send mass emails and other capabilities all through a chat interface, empowering IMS users with tremendous new capabilities and saving them, untold amounts of time. It evolved into Datascout.ai, and many of these dreamed-of capabilities have become a reality!
This year, we’ve expanded the offering from just being a chat interface to being a true part of iMIS our customers use – right inside the iMIS interface. Our new member profile ‘AiPart’ provides an intelligent summary of each member or contact in iMIS based on both the data you have in iMIS and your corporate strategies. It will also provide suggestions on ways to reach out or engage with them, and even craft an email with suggesting that they attend a conference or seminar, volunteer opportunity they should apply for, newsletter they may enjoy… all based on their history in iMIS and your business objectives.
It’s early days for Datascout but if you think your organization is looking to enhance productivity and member service with AI, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
iMIS Chatbot with OpenAI Assistants
As the official partner of the iMIS Users Group (IUG), we were approached regarding building an intelligent chatbot that could answer questions about iMIS. IUG has facilitated technical discussions about iMIS in their community forum for 20 years, and they felt that their tens of thousands of interactions between members asking and answering questions about iMIS may be rich source data train a bot on iMIS. We said we’d love to try!
A perfect candidate to help with this project emerged – open AI assistance. We all know Open AI from their revolutionary tool, chat GPT that rocked the world last fall when this magical new technology we all know now as large language models became, commercially available to all of us. Who didn’t enjoy asking ChatGPT to provide instructions on how to free a peanut butter and jelly sandwich stuck in your VCR, as written by William Shakespeare? (It’s at the bottom of this article in case you are in this predicament and enjoy the classics).
But by now we’ve learned of some downfalls – if not careful, ChatGPT will store your data and possibly even share it. And while you can train a custom GPT, it’s not going to power a chatbot on your website.
This is where OpenAI assistants come in. They don’t store your conversational data or use it for training, and can be called remotely (via API) to power a bot on your website.
As of the time of this writing, we have accessed over 36,000 conversational threads and now are going through the exercise of organizing and cleaning the data before building and training an OpenAI assistant to become an ‘iMIS expert’. Success is not guaranteed; like any AI technology it is largely dependent on the quality of the data it is given. Stay tuned for more!
Keith Stoute will be presenting the results of this exercise September 17th at the IUG Ignite conference in Washington DC. If you’d like to learn more about reach out at any time.
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How to Free a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich from Thy VCR: A Tale of Woe and Redemption
- Summon the courage to confront the cursed machine
In the quiet of the eve, when shadows grow long and the air is thick with despair, approach thy beleaguered VCR. With trepidation in thy heart and resolve in thy hand, prepare to face the foul confection that hath taken residence within.
- Gently coax the beast to reveal its innards
With fingers as delicate as the touch of dawn upon the morning dew, unlatch the VCR’s steadfast jaws. Slowly, cautiously, pry open the maw of this mechanical beast, that thou might glimpse the wretched sight within—an unholy union of bread, peanut butter, and jelly, wedged with vile intent among the sacred gears.
- Commence the extraction of the sticky fiend
Arm thyself with a tool both slender and precise, perhaps a blade or prong, worthy of a surgeon’s hand. With the patience of a saint and the focus of a hunter in the wild, gently ease the crusted intruder from its ill-begotten nest. Beware, for too hasty a move could rend the fragile cogs asunder, and thou wouldst be left with naught but sorrow.
- Purge the chamber of all remnants and stains
Once the vile sandwich is removed, do not yet rest. Take a cloth, soft and pure as the finest silk, moistened with a potion of gentle solvents. With slow, deliberate strokes, cleanse the VCR’s chamber of all traces of the foul paste, that no ghostly smear may linger to haunt future tapes.
- Inspect the wounded beast for signs of further harm
Bend close and scrutinize the innermost workings of the VCR, for even the smallest fragment of bread or jelly may spell doom. Ensure that every gear, every spindle, and every wheel is free from the taint of this misadventure. Only when the machine is as clean as a newborn babe should thou proceed.
- Seal the machine and restore it to its former glory
With the sandwich now banished and the chamber pristine, close the VCR with reverence. Offer up a humble tape, a simple offering to test the machine’s newly restored might. Press play, and listen with bated breath as the familiar hum returns, a song of victory and redemption.
- Vow to prevent such tragedy henceforth
As the VCR once more spins its tapes with grace, let this be a lesson writ in the annals of thy memory: never again shall bread or jelly come near this sacred device. For it is a machine of tapes, and tapes alone, not of sandwiches or snacks. Guard it well, and it shall serve thee faithfully for many years to come.