Are you sick of hearing about AI yet? Are you growing more worried with each AI-related headline? Perhaps you’re frustrated because others seem to have so much success with generative AI, but you just can’t crack the code.
Whatever camp you fall into, rest assured you’re not roughing it solo. AI is perplexing in many ways, and whether you’re for it, against it or entirely unsure, it’s all normal.
So, I’m here to deliver advice you probably never asked for, but that will maybe — hopefully — help put you at ease no matter how you’re feeling about AI. But first, let’s address some typical concerns.
You’re Not Odd For How You Feel About AI
The fear of the unknown is a common one, and there are certainly a lot of unknowns when it comes to AI. There’s a lack of information about what the future holds for both the technology and its consequences on society, and there’s also a sense of a lack of control over how it develops.
These are valid feelings, but it’s important to put AI in perspective, too, which can help you cope. Take the Y2K scare, for example. Folks stocked up on food and water, withdrew money and many thought a computer-induced apocalypse was surely on the horizon. Public and private organizations alike were making bold predictions about how much they’d have to spend to recover, with estimates ranging from $400 million to $10 billion.
When computers’ calendars finally flipped to the year 2000, there were few major disruptions — and no one spent $10 billion on damages. Not even close.
The point here is that it’s not wrong to feel worried or intimidated by things like this. At the same time, however, AI is tough to ignore given the incredible rate at which it’s growing.
Practical Tips To Cope with AI Anxiety
Had Y2K turned out to be as massive a problem as many were predicting, who knows how things would’ve changed? We don’t know what we don’t know, which means we can’t know how the future of AI will truly unfold.
However, we can choose how we approach the technology — in marketing and beyond — to better understand how it works, what it’s good for (and not good for) and how to set ourselves up for success right now. It all starts with education.
Educate Yourself
Learning more about something you’re unfamiliar with can help quell concerns. The more we understand things, the easier it is to put them in perspective. If you’re unsure about artificial intelligence, seek out reliable sources that are talking about it. Read about AI developments to familiarize yourself with the subject and form educated opinions.
Engage with the Technology
Experimentation is a companion to education. There are tons of free and accessible AI tools out there today, and even a lot of paid, premium tools are relatively affordable. So, if you’re unsure, try engaging with AI in different ways to understand their real-world applications, whether that’s marketing or something else.
Sometimes it seems like the most exciting thing about generative AI is its ability to create “good enough” content at extraordinary speeds. It’s like a higher-octane version of content marketing’s early days, with a deluge of new content that’ll probably end up haunting the deepest recesses of Google SERPs.
Well, I’m here to tell you to take a deep breath. Don’t feel pressured to join the rat race. Yes, AI is valuable for marketers in many ways, but education and experimentation cannot be rushed without the risk of diluting its real value.
Instead, I’d encourage you to spend a few hours a week exploring AI use cases that work for your organization. Invest time, money and effort in AI cautiously and deliberately. And remember: There’s a difference between novelty and utility.
Remind Yourself of AI’s Limitations
In reality, AI is not an all-powerful, sentient technology that’s gunning for our livelihoods. In fact, the more we familiarize ourselves with the tech and move toward acceptance and an open-source, decentralized approach, the better.
Here’s why I say that: As AI exists right now, it’s concentrated around a few powerful organizations. This gives them undue power and influence over AI outcomes. And let’s be honest, all-powerful organizations don’t necessarily have a great reputation when it comes to the best interests of the general population.
Decentralizing the technology means humanity can better coordinate AI outcomes and push them toward positive, shared objectives. Built In has a great article about this that I highly recommend.
But let’s bring it back to content creation with this reminder: Don’t be scared, content creators!
It still takes a great designer to recognize great design, and a great writer to recognize the best writing — and these are the people who should be using AI for content creation. People who don’t live and breathe these crafts can be too easily impressed by the novelty of AI at the expense of quality.
Here’s a great example to illustrate (no pun intended) what I mean:
DALL-E made this image after we gave it a few prompts that included the words “thinking,” “pen,” “writer” and “lightbulb.”
“Launching a fountain pen through a man’s head” was not part of the prompt.
And yet, this is what we got …
To be fair, I’ve used hybrid AI for content creation, and gotten some pretty good results. But “hybrid” is the keyword here. Without skilled content creators, you’re gonna end up with a lot of unusable draff.
So, use AI as a tool, which is exactly what it’s meant to be. Educate yourself on it, experiment with it and keep your expectations in check. You’re the creator, and you know best how to craft great creations.
Keep Your Eyes on the Prize
AI makes it far too easy for folks to fall into a trap where trading quality for efficiency is extremely appealing. But keep your eyes on the prize. Companies may be racing toward artificial general intelligence (AGI), but they’re not there yet, and AI tools still need you to produce anything that’s truly quality and of any real value.
Remember: hybrid AI. It’s a tool, not a tradeoff.
