Your Next Intern is Conversational AI
Dvorah Graeser
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We all feel it. The volume of documents, deadlines, disclosures, and decisions in tech transfer grows faster than the capacity of even the most organized team. It’s no wonder many TTOs are exploring how AI can help. But here’s the catch: If you treat AI like a magician, you’ll end up with more noise, not less. To unlock value, you need to treat AI like what it should be: a helpful, knowledgeable assistant, one that thrives on clear direction and conversation.
What Conversational Interfaces Are (and Why They Matter)
Conversational interfaces - chatbots, AI assistants, voice-based tools - are powered by advanced AI models like those used by ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. You communicate with them the way you’d talk to a colleague: in plain language. They can understand your intent, follow up with questions, maintain context across multiple steps, and offer humanlike responses.
They’re already helping businesses manage support tickets, retrieve buried knowledge, automate email triage, and much more. In tech transfer, these tools could speed up invention assessment, surface comparable licenses, draft summaries, and help educate inventors, all without adding to headcount.
The real key is this: these tools are only effective if you already have a clear understanding of your own processes.
Talking to an AI is Like Talking to an Intern, With One Crucial Twist
If you’ve ever trained a new intern in your TTO, you already know the drill. You can’t just say, “Go assess this invention.” You explain your steps. You show them what a good market fit looks like. You walk them through a past license agreement. And they ask follow-up questions because they’re learning your system.
It’s the same with a conversational AI assistant. You need to be able to explain what you're trying to achieve and what “good” looks like. If your instructions are vague, the AI will struggle, just like a person would.
Here’s where it gets interesting – humans have some definite advantages over AI, especially for contextual and non-verbal clues.
In short, you still need to know your process and your goals—but with AI, you must be even more precise in your communication.
From Oracle to Operator: AI That Works for You
Too many organizations deploy AI in a vague, “let’s see what it can do” way. That’s like hiring an intern and hoping they magically understand tech transfer. Instead, focus on specific, repeatable processes where conversational AI can add value:
AI won’t replace your judgment, but it will give you more time to use it.
Getting Started: Design for Dialogue, Not Magic
The future of AI in tech transfer won’t be about replacing people. It will be about amplifying them. And that future starts with understanding how to design conversations that work.
If you’re exploring how to bring conversational AI into your office, here’s your first step: Don’t start with the tool. Start with the process.
That’s where the assistant can begin helping.
Want help mapping your workflows and identifying where AI can start supporting your team? Let’s talk. I work with tech transfer offices to translate their processes into usable, helpful AI interfaces. No hype, just clarity and results.