As Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovations begin to become more widespread and accessible, many businesses in the Daytona Beach region are leveraging the increased efficiencies, enhanced productivity, data management and other advantages that the rapidly expanding technology brings.

One such business is TECHFIT Digital Surgery, a medical technology company that specializes in the surgical planning, design, and manufacturing of patient-specific implants for the craniomaxillofacial and orthopedic segments.

“We use AI in two ways: to improve productivity, we use tools that automate many operational processes, like notetaking in design calls, where we have an AI that joins our calls with surgeons and creates actionable summaries,” says Mauricio Toro, CEO/co-founder of TECHFIT. “The second way is in ways that make the product better; we leverage past data and have created some tools to provide insights that allow us to improve in future cases.”

Mr. Toro also says that he uses AI as a personal assistant to organize his schedule to ensure maximum productivity.

He says that the nature of the medical technology business, which demands that companies discover better solutions more efficiently, drove his firm to start using AI. It has resulted in faster results and increased customer satisfaction.

“It has allowed the team to focus on where we add value and not spend so much time on tasks unrelated to patient recovery and surgeon satisfaction,” says Mr. Toro.

He says that the biggest hurdle his company has faced in implementing AI has been in changing the way things are done.

“Even if we all want to innovate, we’re all reluctant to change how we do things and naturally distrust these solutions. The solution that has worked is leading by example and follow-up,” he says. In addition, he says that his company has implemented some custom AI tools that required that their data was well structured and that they provided big enough datasets to train the AI tools.

Mr. Toro recommends that companies looking to implement AI should take an incremental approach.

“Start with small pilots and ensure you find the right tools for your business. There are many different options at many different price points. Take the time to test several options at a small scale before rolling out anything at an organization level,” he says.

For the personal injury law firm Vasilaros Wagner, also located in Daytona Beach, AI has brought better solutions for its various personal injury and immigration clients.

“We are starting to use AI for our personal injury division to help with medical records review, which, in essence, will get our clients better treatment and more money for their personal injury settlements. AI can analyze data and connect points that are very difficult for humans because of vast amounts of data and complexities,” says Attorney Joshua Wagner (aka “The Lawyer Dude.”)

Mr. Wagner also says that AI has helped immigration clients by uploading passports and other documents as well as helping to fill in hundreds of answers to various forms used by the U.S. government.

“I also use AI for marketing purposes. Although I am an attorney, I enjoy marketing and design. I am a co-founder in a Daytona Beach marketing firm, Placement Labs. All the Lawyer Dude stuff people see around town is from me,” says Mr. Wagner. Recently introduced AI has helped him elevate his marketing efforts through graphic design and writing tools, he says.

He predicts that AI will prove to be a major disruptor in many industries.

“The reason I started using AI in the beginning was for fun. I would just play around with different ones and see what it could do. Now, there are obvious business aspects that are low-hanging fruit for anyone. We are on the cusp of insanity for what is about to happen in almost every aspect of the world for employment and leisure,” says Mr. Wagner.

He recommends that businesses looking to get into AI start by looking at various tools like https://chat.openai.com or https://bard.google.com.

“Play around with it for a few days. Once you get a feel for the basics, you can branch out to some of the cool tech people are building using the various AI machines. For example, you can get some really easy content that you may not have thought of for social media or blogs. If you want to go deeper, start looking into Zapier.com and find automations you can start using with some of the programs you probably already use every day,” says Mr. Wagner.