For the past three weeks, PPR Strategies has been serving up our favorite AI tips and tricks from Canva, Grammarly, and ChatGPT. Have you tried any yet?
Well, we’re not finished yet!
Our team has sifted through the bazillion AI platforms out there (okay, maybe not every single one—we do have lives!) and handpicked a few out-of-the-norm gems that economic development organizations (EDOs) will find useful. While we didn’t do an in-depth analysis of all platforms, we found that some have the potential to enhance efficiencies for EDOs.
Let us know if you’ve tried any of these platforms in your economic development practices!
Reporting and Analytics
Pulling and analyzing data can be draining. While analytics takes time and resources, it also contributes significant insight for economic development organizations (EDOs) on their impact and ways to advance their efforts in the community. So, how can AI make this easier for EDOs?
For our spreadsheet faithfuls out there, the free AI Excel Formula Generator can help your team quickly make formulas to interpret data in Excel and Google Sheets. Tell the generator what you want to figure out, and it can generate a formula to add to your spreadsheet.
Understanding Your Community Assets
For communities that want to identify and capitalize on their unique assets, from partners and organizations to landmarks and industry clusters, AI can be a valuable research tool! Platforms like EcoMap Technologies help analyze large data sets, identify potential gaps in a community, and generate insights for stakeholders that would have otherwise taken massive efforts to identify manually.
Accessibility
Text-to-speech tools like Speechify can have a profound impact on team and community members by providing accessibility and multi-tasking capabilities.
Even in its free version, this tool allows individuals with different learning styles or visual impairments to take in information in a way that better suits their needs, leading to better engagement and understanding. If you’re a multi-tasker, text-to-speech can allow you to keep more plates spinning at once by reading digital text while you go about your other tasks. But we really recommend you listen to a podcast instead! (Shameless plug? Yes, and we’re okay with that.)
Coding
Very few EDOs have the in-house resources to be coding experts. Tools like the open-source PyCharm and OpenAI’s Codex use AI to ease the difficulty of coding tasks and empower developers to be more productive. If you’re lucky enough to have someone with coding knowledge on staff, these tools can take their productivity to the next level.
Connection Tools
Community engagement platforms, like Hivebrite, help EDOs, Main Street organizations, and other community success groups foster connections by delivering networking opportunities within a community, using AI to predict strong connections based on user profiles. The platform also focuses on providing users with valuable resources within their community.
Could these tools help your EDO boost its efficiency or increase its impact? Don’t be shy! Let us know here.
