AI nowadays has its place. It can be used to help find quick information, recipes, or write you some simple code. However, it is not perfect, and it shouldn’t be fully trusted without verification of the information provided. AI learns information by gathering it over and over and over again. The problem for us in the commercial pool sector is that it’s personal consumers that are asking AI most of the aquatics and water chemistry questions not big business, so the answers are tailored to them and not us.
Here is one example, a simple question. If we ask AI how often we should brush our pools, it’s going to tell you that you should do it once a week. For a personal or small consumer pool, that’s great. It will help keep your pool clean, for sure. That’s because you have a very light bather load. In a commercial pool where the bather load might be hundreds a day, they know in practice that they need to brush their pools every day or every other day. The same can go for turnover rates. If you enter your volume for your pool, it’s going to give you a number that may work for residential requirements, but not commercial. We’ve seen it happen already, multiple times.
Here is another example. Water chemistry. Several times already we’ve seen instances where a customer has asked AI how much of a chemical to add to the pool and something negative happened as a result. We’ve seen: not enough chlorine, not enough sodium bicarb, not enough salt, and then a customer will call us and ask why things aren’t right. “But I asked AI” It’s already to a point where AI is making certain parts of our job more difficult due to these inaccurate answers. That might have worked for your personal pool, but not your commercial pool. There already is a slight discrepancy in the calculators that are used for commercial aquatics nationwide; AI isn’t helping that fact. The last thing anyone wants in their commercial pool is to see an active algae bloom.
So, when you are using AI in your daily life keep a few things in mind: is this something that can affect others or their safety? If the answer is yes, you should always take your time and make sure the information you are getting is correct. Don’t just take someone, or something’s word for it. The last thing anyone wants is to accidentally cause someone else’s harm.
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