Of late, A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) is all the rage. ChatGPT. Midjourney. Moonbeam. Synthesia. The list goes on.

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While the mainstream use of A.I. has been brewing for some time, a recent crop up of design and messaging platforms is stirring the online pot in a big way.

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Not surprisingly, this is met with many of the same cries of creative despair (“They’ll replace us!”)  and opposing entrepreneurial dollar-sign-filled eyes (“Show me the money!”) we get any time a new automation flexes its mechanical bicep.

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Once the dust settles, however, logic sets in and reason takes over. What follows is reason…or my version of it.

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(This also may or may not be a tell of my own inner demons as I convince myself that A.I. isn’t the end of us all. Good luck.)

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The Pendulum: A Preface

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Feminism. BLM. Crypto. Gender Identity. Fascination and frenzy are necessary components of progress.

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Collective rallying behind an idea is a natural result of human passion. It builds necessary momentum. It tips the scales. It begins change.

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It doesn’t, however, last forever. Most times we must go far in one direction (like a pendulum) before swinging back to neutral, equipped with information we can now apply to our new reality.

A.I. may be on the upswing, but real, lasting change is always incremental.

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A.I. for Creators: “They’ll Replace Us!”

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Creators, I’m guessing you’ve responded to A.I. in one of the following ways:

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A. You go all in on the trend and hyperfixate

B. You pour over social commentary and hyperventilate or

C. You go about business as usual and ignore the hype

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Here’s the thing, regardless of how much we may or may not welcome change, A.I. will affect how we produce work.

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The good news: If you’re a creator of any kind, you likely won’t replace your entire process with keyword inputs. Your process is sacred. But, if you’ve got any H.I. (Human Intelligence, duh) or aspirations of running a [more] successful enterprise, A.I. could serve as a way of failing faster, livening your pace and working at a higher capacity.

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Research. Learn. Experiment. Make A.I. your beotch.

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Use the hype to become acquainted and find the benefits. Stay open to integrating these tools into your process.

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A.I. for Business Owners: “Show me the money, baby!”

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I’ve been there. As a business owner, there is always a tendency to cut costs and DIY that sh*t. So, A.I. may seem like the untapped road to riches.

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But hold up there, Sally, don’t go canning your team or agency just yet.

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As with any creator, I encourage you to experiment. Find out what these tools do, how they work, and why they matter.

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You’ll realize, however, that without the proper intel, you probably haven‘t achieved what you anticipated. Even with an artificially generated image or message in hand, you may find that it just doesn’t land.

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To execute custom content using A.I., you should have knowledge of the industry for which you’re generating the content. If you don’t understand marketing, design, or even your own target audience or brand, you’ll still need a professional for generating the desired result.

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A.I. will undoubtedly integrate as part of your business happenings and for good reason. But, people are still, and will always be, our most valuable asset.

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A.I. for Capable [Human] Hands

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Regardless of your position, any talk of A.I. is always jarring for humans (Siri was weird for a minute, remember?). For decades, we’ve experienced the effects of machines replacing us. So this isn’t actually news.

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The only thing truly mind bending is that we continue to actually inch towards the stuff of sci-fi movies when we thought (or hoped?) they’d stay tucked in the pages of a Ray Bradbury novel.

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But it’s all good. At our core, humanity needs humans. We need our intellect, our emotion, our heart. A.I. exists because we exist. It’s a tool for our capable human hands to help us inch toward the future. Without us, A.I. is just a digital conveyor belt rattling out regurgitations and iterations of the things we created in the first place.

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Yes, A.I. is having its day. So what. She’s been incubating quietly and now it’s time for her coming out party.

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You can either attend, have a Cosmo and a good time, or sit home and miss all the mess.

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This blog was written by a human. No homosapiens were rendered unemployed due to the writing of this content.