Your conclusion is on point, is down to us ultimately. We must not fall into the trap of become slaves to the tools and offloading every single intellectual tasks… otherwise we are doomed. The ones who will shine in the next era will be the ones who can extract the power of AI.
You say AI can’t be compared to a calculator. I agree, AI is not a calculator it is a hundred calculators, all for different things. A single AI may replace Grammarly, GPS and among other things even a calculator.
Just like a smartphone replaced a camera, a notepad and a telephone, AI is replacing everything, everywhere, all at once.
This was great food for thought! I have noticed that I much prefer to still do my VoC and customer research 'by hand.' There is something about pulling out the context and specifics that means I find it much easier to spot the themes than just scanning a summary a researcher (or AI) created for me.
Does this mean it's better when I do it? Or is it just I'm forced to engage more deeply with it when I do it myself? It makes me think of your martial arts example.
I also find a lot of the 'fluff' that we can outsource is part of how I immerse myself in a client project, and it is the pre-work that gets me ready to start typing a draft when it's all done. So I'd rather set up my wireframes and pull in my research. But maybe I could find another way to immerse myself in the work.
But if that's the case - does it matter which one you do?
I suspect in years to come people will have answers, but I don't know what we're supposed to do for now!
Glad this resonated, Gill! Yeah, I think it's a mixture of both: There's so much nuance to VoC, especially emotional subtexts and context-specific knowledge, that we, as copywriters and marketers, can catch, but AI can't sufficiently infer.
As for the 'fluff', I wonder how much of that is (at least in my case), not wanting to start from a blank page. I find editing easier than writing from scratch, but then if the foundational material is AI-generated, then surely that skews perspective a little. My favourite way for years now has been voice-to-text first drafts and then editing down from there!
I think you're absolutely right about "manually" pulling out context/specific to spot themes ... Georgiana Laudi (Forget the Funnel) shared her experience on trying to train AI to extract insights from JTBD interviews (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxMNtdh8Bkw) and spoiler alert: humans were still better at it (at least for now) 😊
very good essay my friend! it is something i am worried about as well, but as I read your thoughts, I realized that I use it mostly the way you are talking about and to accent things that aren't my best strengths. Sadly, those who use shortcuts, will always use something like AI, to further their shortcuts.
Thanks, Todd! It's a tricky one, but I think one of the biggest things is that whatever effort we're offloading to AI, is that we need to reallocate those same resources into something intellectually stimulating, lest we lose our critical thinking faculties.
yeah, we are going to struggle how to balance these things, but I really like doing strategy, so I won't offload too much of that. I appreciate your thoughts on this! Thinking out loud helps us all.
Wow, this is so well articulated and thought-provoking, Eman. I've actually been too lazy to dive into AI beyond playing with it a bit for research — I'm not a Luddite but I've never been an "early adopter" of anything either, and when it comes to writing, I really like to wrestle with my own ideas & words :-) Your point about "Is AI shaping my thought process?" is absolutely spot on, IMO. Apart from AI's "bias and hallucinations" (LOL), its output may be useful but it's already including/discarding certain ideas and perspectives in a way that isn't transparent. Going to be sharing this piece with other writers in my network!
I'm so glad it resonated! Yeah, and perhaps this is a future essay, but I often wonder if the way we're optimising for AI, not to mention if most of what we read is either AI-generated or AI-augmented, what that means for the way writing and language evolves over time.
I rather like to think AI is stupid because we are, and are becoming more stupid the more we read stupid writings or consume stupid products.
AI might just be a way to reach our bottom level of stupidity in record time without much human labor. I.e., progress in a stupid but profitable maybe short term/medium term, in principle, direction.
"Selective offloading" is the best way to describe my own approach to using AI tools in my everyday workflows.
Your conclusion is on point, is down to us ultimately. We must not fall into the trap of become slaves to the tools and offloading every single intellectual tasks… otherwise we are doomed. The ones who will shine in the next era will be the ones who can extract the power of AI.
You say AI can’t be compared to a calculator. I agree, AI is not a calculator it is a hundred calculators, all for different things. A single AI may replace Grammarly, GPS and among other things even a calculator.
Just like a smartphone replaced a camera, a notepad and a telephone, AI is replacing everything, everywhere, all at once.
As you say mindful use of AI is the way to go.
This was great food for thought! I have noticed that I much prefer to still do my VoC and customer research 'by hand.' There is something about pulling out the context and specifics that means I find it much easier to spot the themes than just scanning a summary a researcher (or AI) created for me.
Does this mean it's better when I do it? Or is it just I'm forced to engage more deeply with it when I do it myself? It makes me think of your martial arts example.
I also find a lot of the 'fluff' that we can outsource is part of how I immerse myself in a client project, and it is the pre-work that gets me ready to start typing a draft when it's all done. So I'd rather set up my wireframes and pull in my research. But maybe I could find another way to immerse myself in the work.
But if that's the case - does it matter which one you do?
I suspect in years to come people will have answers, but I don't know what we're supposed to do for now!
Glad this resonated, Gill! Yeah, I think it's a mixture of both: There's so much nuance to VoC, especially emotional subtexts and context-specific knowledge, that we, as copywriters and marketers, can catch, but AI can't sufficiently infer.
As for the 'fluff', I wonder how much of that is (at least in my case), not wanting to start from a blank page. I find editing easier than writing from scratch, but then if the foundational material is AI-generated, then surely that skews perspective a little. My favourite way for years now has been voice-to-text first drafts and then editing down from there!
I think you're absolutely right about "manually" pulling out context/specific to spot themes ... Georgiana Laudi (Forget the Funnel) shared her experience on trying to train AI to extract insights from JTBD interviews (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxMNtdh8Bkw) and spoiler alert: humans were still better at it (at least for now) 😊
very good essay my friend! it is something i am worried about as well, but as I read your thoughts, I realized that I use it mostly the way you are talking about and to accent things that aren't my best strengths. Sadly, those who use shortcuts, will always use something like AI, to further their shortcuts.
It cuts both ways!
Well said!
Thanks, Todd! It's a tricky one, but I think one of the biggest things is that whatever effort we're offloading to AI, is that we need to reallocate those same resources into something intellectually stimulating, lest we lose our critical thinking faculties.
yeah, we are going to struggle how to balance these things, but I really like doing strategy, so I won't offload too much of that. I appreciate your thoughts on this! Thinking out loud helps us all.
Wow, this is so well articulated and thought-provoking, Eman. I've actually been too lazy to dive into AI beyond playing with it a bit for research — I'm not a Luddite but I've never been an "early adopter" of anything either, and when it comes to writing, I really like to wrestle with my own ideas & words :-) Your point about "Is AI shaping my thought process?" is absolutely spot on, IMO. Apart from AI's "bias and hallucinations" (LOL), its output may be useful but it's already including/discarding certain ideas and perspectives in a way that isn't transparent. Going to be sharing this piece with other writers in my network!
I'm so glad it resonated! Yeah, and perhaps this is a future essay, but I often wonder if the way we're optimising for AI, not to mention if most of what we read is either AI-generated or AI-augmented, what that means for the way writing and language evolves over time.
I rather like to think AI is stupid because we are, and are becoming more stupid the more we read stupid writings or consume stupid products.
AI might just be a way to reach our bottom level of stupidity in record time without much human labor. I.e., progress in a stupid but profitable maybe short term/medium term, in principle, direction.