TCC #1: Riding the AI wave

Have you seen a robot vacuum cleaner in operation?

When I bought one for my house, I thought I'll never have to clean my house again and the bot will do everything for me.

But no, that's not what happened.

They’re pretty dumb.

It’ll keep bumping into things while trying to clean the floors, Almost like it's thinking: “if I smash myself into a chair 10 times, maybe it’ll move” manner.

We need to guide it in operation, removing obstacles, keeping it away from wires, etc.

There are times I want to pick it up and put it out of its misery. Or we run it and watch it in amusement as it bungles around the house.

We’ve called the robot “Dumbass” for kicks.

OK, maybe it’s just mine?

But no matter how much I complain about my vacuum, it has saved me time and effort. The time my robo-vacuum spends cleaning is time I don’t need to spend physically wiping the floors.

And that to me, is a win.

I bring up this story of my vacuum cleaner because that’s how I’m thinking about AI technology these days.

It’s no secret generative AI is going crazy right now.

• ChatGPT launched end-November 2022 and reached 100 million users in 2 months after launch.

• Microsoft recently announced an eye-watering $10 billion investment in its maker OpenAI

• Baidu and Google are furiously launching their own ChatGPT equivalent.

As marketers, we rely a lot on our creative brains. Maybe you got into content marketing because you enjoyed the act of writing or creating. So to see these tasks done by AI, can be quite disconcerting.

I suspect why this AI wave in particular seems so significant, is that it tugs at something existential in us.

Like, why should I work so hard at generating copy or creative content ideas when an AI can do it all without any effort?

There’s an element of uncertainty and redundancy.

But before you start looking around for a career change, wait up.

How about thinking of AI as tools? Tools that you guide and can help you.

Just like how a hammer is guided by a sculptor to create their next masterpiece. Or heck, how the Internet is a tool to connect with people (just like how you’re reading these words right now).

In content work, AI tools can help you kill the ho-hum parts of your work (staring at a blank page is my pet peeve).

Maybe yours is editing your work - or as people call it - ‘killing your darlings’.

How AI helps me deliver better work as a freelance writer:

• Wordtune helps me rephrase sentences to find the right words to say

• Grammarly helps me fix the odd typo and makes sure my writing remains crisp (i.e those damn commas!)

• ChatGPT and CopyAI help me get title ideas or think about sections to add to an article

Let technology help you with the manual stuff (note, not eliminate entirely), and lean into bringing that precious human element to your content.

Things that AI cannot do (at least, for now)

• Infuse empathy: See things from your reader’s perspective and say what’s in their head

• Storytelling: Personal anecdotes, slice-of-life stories about robo-vacuums, you’ve got it!

• Unique perspectives: Bring in research (that stuff from research papers) + subject matter perspectives + an engaging writing style = stuff AI cannot do on its own.

And the earlier you can work together with the technology means you’re less likely to fear it.

In some ways, we’ve been here before.

• The rise of social media platforms gave marketers and brands a whole new way to build community and connect with customers

• Marketing automation/social media scheduling platforms removed the need to manually set timers for 4 days to send the next email in an onboarding sequence (or panic when you couldn't get on your phone to manually post your scheduled Instagram post for the day)

• CRMs meant we could keep all our data in one place, instead of using excel sheets or pen & paper (or stacks of yellowed business cards after an event)

What about thinking of the rise of AI as another technology wave to understand, adapt and learn?

There’s still that unease when adopting new technology, Our jobs will change, but remember, you’re in the driver’s seat. AI is here to help you

Just like how with my robo-vacuum, I still need to spend time cleaning the house each week.

But when the robo-vacuum takes care of my living room and kitchen, I can turn my attention to wiping the surfaces of my furniture.

Something a robo-vacuum, cannot do.

At least for now.

And even if it does, it's another round of adaptation, learning, and experimenting.

3 thoughtful reads of the week

• How to write like robots can’t: Ann Handley’s writing always oozes personality, and she shows both in form and function how you can infuse more humanity into your writing. In essence, have! some! fun! Oh, and she dislikes the word ‘output’. Especially when related to writing.

• Top Marketers Are Already Using AI. Why Are You Not? Comprehensive piece by Alfred Lua on AI and what it means for marketers Includes some pretty cool examples of how AI can help scale content, and resources to go to if you’re confused by this whole AI shtick and want to learn more.

• can YOU detect ChatGPT’s bullsh*t? A cautionary tale about taking AI output wholesale - if you use AI tools, always fact-check what they give you, and don’t blindly copy-paste what it gives you. Hint: Edit, edit, edit.

1 recommended resource

Verbilo’s editorial calendar template: We’re a month into 2023, and if you’re struggling to get your brand’s content operations under control, Verbilo’s comprehensive template can help you with managing publishing, assigning writers or editors, and preparing your blog articles for publishing.

1 cool tool

Waldo: This free Chrome extension is like Google on steroids. It pulls out the jist of each page so you can skim the page without leaving it. Best part: you can see which pages are most commonly cited to find the heavyweights in the search results. Helps me saves a ton of time on research.

PS: Has AI helped you in your content operations or in planning new content pieces? Are you feeling meh or wow about this whole AI thing? I’ll like to hear more!