Let's talk about the bot in the room

Mar 6

I ignored AI for a long while after ChatGPT was released. I was turned off by the AI-everything hype; sad to think of its impact on art and humanity while the technologists extolled its virtues.

And then I couldn't hear myself think. AI is like that freight train racing towards you as you try to pull your stuck foot from the track. You can't escape fast enough.

And then you wake up. Sweating.

Phew.

“Glad that was just a dream,” you exclaim.

Yet it's not. I realized I couldn't ignore it. So I started dipping my toe in, placing my fears in a box on the shelf. What I discovered wasn't just what AI can do, but what it can't do, and that's where your business advantage lies.

What Can't Be Replaced? Human Connection

The irreplaceable element is genuine connection. Humans want to be around other humans. We need that for our well-being. Your customers crave the authenticity only you can provide.

When things get too futuristic and scary, we reach into our past for what's familiar. We crave nostalgia. Remember 1997 when the dot-com hype was in full force? Some wanted to reach back to the 80s then, too. Innovation has always been both exciting and scary. It’s just at warp speed now.

Beyond the Hype Cycle

The early hype talks about AI for AI's sake. It's baked into products as a talking point without solving real problems. People try some AI tools and say, "That's cool, but I don't really need it" or "Okay, but it doesn't really solve my problem."

This is the hype cycle after all. But here's where opportunity emerges: AI integration that actually serves your business and customers.

How to Make AI Work For Your Business (Not Against It)

I'm starting to see how AI can complement the work we do while highlighting what we uniquely bring to the table: intuition, cultural context, and ethical judgment which are all vital for building brands and marketing to real humans.

Here's where I think AI shines as your assistant:

Automating repetitive tasks that drain your creative energy
Testing marketing assumptions with rapid data analysis
Validating ideas before investing significant resources
Handling production-level tasks that follow established patterns
Creating first draft outlines based on your ideas that we humans can build upon with their expertise (think of it as a junior writer in a newsroom)

Yes, AI can create art too, but only when prompted thoughtfully by a human with vision and purpose (notwithstanding the ethics of feeding it original art). Use it thoughtfully and for good. Not to rob someone of their hard-earned work.

The Human-AI Partnership

AI remains a tool. Powerful, certainly, but it pulls from existing data. That's why AI-generated content often feels similar or generic. We humans are the essential guides and curators who bring businesses to life with originality and emotion.