AI stirs up a lot of opinions.
On one side, there are the AI utopians who are ready to outsource all human ingenuity to machines. On the other side are the skeptics who argue that AI is a parlor trick foisted on the public by a tech industry desperate for a new revenue stream.
Employers and the tech industry are sending the message that AI is going to “free up workers to do what they do best.” But what if the thing you do best is also what AI does best? What exactly are you being freed up to do? We all understand how the corporate world works. If companies know they can cut labor costs through automation, very few of them are going to tread carefully, particularly if they’re feeling the heat from the competition.
In our opinion, this approach is shortsighted. There are definitely things you can do with AI that help save time. What you can’t do yet is trust it to do the work for you.
AI does not think. It doesn’t have opinions. It is a probability engine that scans enormous amounts of data and is very good at figuring out, based on the other information it has ingested, what word or pixel is most likely to go next. And that leads to some very impressive feats of technical skill! But what it does not lead to is anything new.
It is designed to find the average. If you ask it to create something for you, it will do its best to create something that is very similar to other things that already exist. And the more companies get rid of their creative talent and start using the exact same tools to create the exact same kinds of materials, the more average your company will become.
Right now, a lot of people are leaning heavily into AI for their creative strategies and content. It may work for a period of time, before we are all able to recognize the patterns AI-created work falls into. We’ve been through this dance before with other technologies meant to increase engagement. The first few times you received an email with your name in it, it probably seemed pretty unique. The ten thousandth time? Not so much.
Innovators know that when everyone else is zigging, it’s time to zag.
Which makes this the perfect time to go human.
To favor the unexpected messiness of human creativity over the predictable safeness of AI. To understand that people don’t want to be inundated with computer-generated content, they want to connect with brands on a human level.
At Remote Control, we use AI for what it’s good for. Synthesizing information. Speeding up outlining. Research. (And we always double and triple-check the output . . . getting AI to provide reliable sources is still a dicey proposition at best.) There are some types of content, particularly sales materials, where AI can come in handy; we can help you develop systems and templates for making sure this material feels human and on-brand.
When it comes to Big Ideas and creative executions, like campaign concepts, writing, design, or strategy, that’s all us. Unlike AI, we don’t have to guess at what people will respond to. We are people.
You can use AI to fill your pipeline with all the average content you want, and we welcome you to do so.
When you’re ready for something exceptional, let’s talk.