We’ve all been there. You’re working through task 72/100 for the day, your brain is fried and you have to create something to put in front of an important stakeholder.
Do you turn to your 3rd cup of coffee, or consult with your closest AI assistant for a little help?
AI is the easiest path forward, but when you let it take the wheel like I did in this sketch, you start falling into pretty dangerous territory. Why?
If you rely on AI for creative tasks (like writing copy, brainstorming campaign ideas) things start to fall flat and get REAL boring real fast. Content and copy becomes homogenous. And nobody wants to see something that looks like everything else, particularly in this age of constant input and media overload.
Just take a scroll through your LinkedIn feed and see how many noticeably AI generated posts you see. They’re often about the same handful of topics and it’s dizzying.
If you’re using AI the same way everyone else is, your work loses value. Over time, you lose value as an employee. You’re actually slowly destroying your resume with over-reliance on AI because your output is now the exact same as any other technology-competent person on this planet. Keeping the gig you have and ever standing out enough to find another one becomes a real challenge.
AI is already taking our jobs and it doesn’t stop here. We’ve got to become more innovative with the ways in which we utilize it!
You lose ownership over your work. When I look back at documents I have created using AI in the past, I feel zero connection to them and absolutely no sense of pride in the production of those documents. I barely even know what they say, so who is this information useful to?
If I have to read through another 6 page document full of bold headers, page breaks, bullet points and the word “fluff” I will almost certainly lose my mind. Stop asking people to spend their precious time reading words you didn’t even write. This is a love note to my past self and I am taking steps to ensure that if I’m asking someone to read something it is not bloated, repetitive, or containing useless information.
You also lose trust in yourself with over-reliance on artificial intelligence. You are a professional, and you are perfectly capable of your job without reliance on a bot to guide you or “sanity check” you. I promise!
Not only that, but cognitive atrophy is real. Our brains actually suffer from lack of mental stimulation when we have AI run our entire world.
These points I’m making are a bit exaggerated- but it’s sending me down a dark path of thinking with visions of sci-fi shows and movies past. When we start trusting bots and engines over our own brains, or feel the need to check everything we do through the lens of Artificial Intelligence we really lose something about the art of doing, the art of creating, and the art of, well, being human.
At the core of marketing is storytelling, relationship building, connection, and standing out. These are all wildly human traits. As the headlines each day lean more and more toward AI taking over roles, we’ve got to be mindful of how we can differentiate from what we know AI is currently capable of producing.
Now I’m NOT saying AI is altogether bad and should be avoided. You just need to use it like an innovator, not a simpleton.
So, what do I recommend when it comes to using AI to support your work?
Awareness, moderation, and discernment are key.
There are many valuable things we CAN do with AI as marketers, and I’ve seen so many excellent examples of AI usage in the space- just maybe not enough to counteract the slop just yet. Here are some things to try out:
I did a little experiment this month where I took a week “off” from AI. I deleted the app off my phone and computer and had to actually create documents and produce thoughts from scratch (crazy, right?!). It was interesting to notice the times I would have usually relied on it before making my own attempt or giving myself space to come up with a creative idea for content, strategy, or copy.
I recommend taking an AI sabbatical to help reframe it for yourself! Even if it’s just a day it can help you see how often and in which scenarios you’re turning to it where it might actually not be useful, which things you are actually passionate about doing the old fashioned way, and where you can grow your understanding of and improve your implementation of AI.
Don’t let AI take over your brain, instead lean into your passions, find ways to use AI outside of the box to improve (not homogenize), and automate the tasks that slow down your success.
Whether you’re a director of marketing, social media manager, content creator, copy writer, marketing strategist, growth marketer, performance marketer or the entire marketing team- you’ve got to find ways to maintain your value as a human and an employee while utilizing the AI tools available to us well and continue being a learner, not just a mindless prompter.
Since returning to AI usage after my break, I am more mindful of when it makes sense to use the tool and when I am better positioned to complete a task independently.
A resource I have recently come across that I have enjoyed is: Nate B. Jones:
Something that his work focuses on is the importance of learning (yes, especially in the context of AI!) As a former educator of elementary aged students, I found this video particularly interesting and informative: My 10-Year-Old Vibe Codes. She Also Does Math by Hand. Why That's the Only Strategy That Works. While it’s child-forward the same principles apply to all learners, and hear me say again- only learners will thrive in the job market in the coming years.
Step-based thinking with AI usage can also be a good approach. Sometimes you’re entering a task at step 0, something you’ve never done before. If you go to AI and ask it to get you to step 5 from step 0, you and the bot will likely fail pretty miserably.
If you’re entering already at step 3 or 4, this is an appropriate task for AI. If you get good at prompting you could be to the finish line in minutes.
If you don’t have the required knowledge and are at step 0 or 1- have AI create you a learning plan. It can actually lay out all 5 steps, show you where your gaps are and help you cover them one by one. You just have to begin with the end goal in mind and go through the process of learning, which is good for you and your intended outcome.
I am happy to report that this blog was written with 0% input from AI and I sincerely hope that you enjoyed my non robotic tone today. Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Thanks for reading and please follow along for more Office Banter episodes and blogs!