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13 minute read
Do you hate AI? Love it? Or are you somewhere in between?
Wherever you fall on the spectrum, you’re in good company. Like many marketing teams, the team at Clariant Creative has reacted to AI in different ways, ranging from “Oh, hell no!” to “Woo! Prompt engineering! Let’s do this!”
It’s been a wild journey, with a few (sometimes heated) discussions along the way. So, we thought we’d peel back the curtain by sharing the viewpoints of three different groups: First, we have our late adopters. (Stay tuned for more from our early adopters, and our leadership.)
If your team is struggling to align around AI, keep reading … or watch the video below!
Meet Our Reluctant Adopters of AI
Krista Elliott is Clariant Creative’s Director of Content, and Liza Park is an Inbound Marketing Associate and our newest team member.
Neither were early fans of AI, to say the least. So, we wanted to know what their concerns were, and how they’ve managed those concerns at a time when AI is everywhere.
We got the conversation on video, moderated by our Senior Content Strategist, Rachelle Koenig. Check it out, or read the transcript below, which we’ve edited a tiny bit for clarity.
“When you first heard about AI tools like ChatGPT being used in the workplace, what was your first reaction?”
Krista
Honestly, my first reaction was, “Oh gosh, no.” Much of my first exposure to AI was the really trendy generative AI that was just making a big splash last year, and everybody was doing, you know, the silly pictures of themselves and playing with AI, essentially, and I saw what was happening, and I had a lot of concerns with it, and I was really worried about a decline in the quality of work because there was a big talk about, oh, you know, AI could perhaps replace writers. Will AI replace writers? Could AI replace writers?
And it was something that we were all very, you know, concerned about at the time. And I thought, how on earth could AI ever, you know, replace a writer? But I was very worried that people would try and that there would be a decline in work and that, you know, even as an agency, I thought, “Gosh, I don't want us to be making our stuff out of AI. We take such pride in the work that we do and try to make really excellent content for our clients.” And I was really worried that AI would just wind up being a sloppy shortcut.
The other thing that I was a little bit worried about, and this was not just across an agency or a workplace point of view, but from a larger societal point of view, was the fact that AI has been known to hallucinate. It doesn't always bring back the perfect answer. It doesn't always bring back the correct answer. And I was really worried that, you know, untrained or unassuming or, you know, people who don't know better would be using it, getting information that's incorrect.
And then, you know, and we've seen that across, you know, all society, AI misinformation and disinformation can spread so rapidly.
So, I was worried about people being misled by it and going down the wrong path, either with their work or with their life. Basically, I just saw no upside to it. I really didn't see any upside to it in the initial days. A lot of the initial conversations about gen AI was its ability to, you know, replace writers and artists, and the idea of AI replacing writers and artists was absolutely horrifying to me. So, I was very vehemently against it.
Liza
Well, honestly, I was disappointed, but not surprised. Coming from a graphic design background, a lot of my early exposure to AI was this generative AI and these conversations around AI replacing artists. I was never afraid that AI would fully take our jobs or replace artists, but I did see people start to conflate AI with actual creative work, which really upset me.
And I also associated AI with this late-stage capitalistic growth at all costs model. I felt that we were willing to sacrifice human quality for operational efficiency, and this concerned me because I was like, okay, are people going to use this in a way that's meaningful? Or are we just going to contribute to more and more content churn?
And I also did have a lot of concerns about how data was being collected and sourced. There's still not a lot of transparency around this, and there's just a considerable lack of regulation moderating its use. And just in general, like Krista said, there's this danger with AI people already. Media literacy is a tough one, but media literacy in the age of AI is also a huge topic that if we don't have enough discernment when we're looking at what AI material or AI generated content is, maybe inadvertently either amplifying or reinforcing, it can be used in some pretty, pretty negative, pretty nebulous contexts.
“Where do you think these reactions stem from?”
Liza
I think it stems from a just in general, I'm pretty skeptical when it comes to tech. I think I have some distrust around the actors behind it and the motivations behind it, and that's where it stems from for me.
Krista
You know, a lot of what Liza said. For me, one is — I mean, other than the artistic considerations, that was a major factor behind my reluctance toward AI. I mean, the idea of creators having their work just scraped and then repurposed and sold was — and continues to be — very gross. I also had, you know, really major concerns about the environmental impact of AI, I mean, between 2022 and 2023, the usage of data centers basically doubled, largely because of AI.
They're predicting that by, you know, MIT is predicting that by 2026, the AI will use as much electricity as I think it'll be, almost like the 11th or 12th biggest country in terms of electricity usage. So that was a major concern, you know, seeing AI used as a cheap toy so everybody can have their own little action figure on LinkedIn and using it for things like that.
[Slight correction: MIT reported the predictions, but it was the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that made them.]
I've just found it to be really disheartening because I don't think people realize that there is an actual cost to this. There is an actual cost. It's a powerful tool and there is a cost to it. And I don't think people are realizing that, they're just using it as a toy.
The other major concern again, came about with the hallucinations and people just now using it as a search engine. And it reminds me of that scene from The Office where, you know, Michael and Dwight were trusting the G.P.S. to bring it to an event, and it drove them straight into a lake because Michael was insisting that the GPS had to be right, that it knew better. And it just makes me think of people using AI as a search engine without necessarily having the knowledge or discernment to give the results the sniff test and go, “Okay, yeah, that makes actual sense,” or “Wait a minute, no, that's not quite right.”
[Don’t do this with ChatGPT, please]
And, you know, Liza had mentioned the idea as well of, you know, AI being used for ill. I mean, we can't ignore the fact that it is a powerful tool and it's being used for deepfakes. And that's very, very scary. You know, there are young people who are having their lives ruined because of these deepfakes. There are political, you know, situations which may, you know, go completely one way or the other because of AI, because of deepfakes.
So, all of this, you know, was basically coloring my perception of AI in the workplace because I was very (and continue to be) concerned about these larger societal issues.
And then on a slightly more, you know, work focused, industry focused issue, my concern was that fundamental skills might go undeveloped in younger generations. We have the discernment to give AI that sniff test to know, okay, yeah, this is what good writing looks like, or this is what a good strategy looks like. Or this is what a good, you know, buyer persona looks like.
But if younger generations are relying solely on ChatGPT for their, you know, their copywriting or their content writing or their essay writing or their strategy or what have you, they won't develop that muscle and they won't know how to recognize what good looks like. So then AI just becomes kind of the standard.
So there were a lot of concerns that really just kind of colored and flavored my entire, you know, perception toward AI.
“Liza, You’re in That Younger Generation: What Do You Think?”
Liza
Yeah, well, I think I'm a part of the younger generation that is raising a lot of these sorts of conversations around AI and its use, especially with people even younger than me. For example, wanting to see more responsible AI usage, included in educational curriculums or having some sort of media literacy training. I know, Finland actually, as an entire country is really, really doing a lot of work to try to make sure people can use know how to use AI responsibly and know how to discern whether or not disinformation has a sort of, maybe inadvertent agenda or bias or presence of bias of any sort.
In general, I think young people see AI as a tool. We don't necessarily see it as something that's going to replace our jobs, but we consider it something that can help cut out some of that rote, mindless work. Or maybe that more like menial, repetitive work.
I think there is a healthy amount of skepticism in certain pockets of young people my age and I consider to be within those pockets. But I've also seen so many use cases of AI where I'm just sort of like, oh my gosh, people, this is not a great use of AI. Like it is going to if you come to AI and you say, “Hey, I have a question for you, and you implicitly say, “I basically want you to give me this answer,” it is going to give you that answer and present it with complete authority, even though it is biased
And I think I'm seeing a lot of young people use AI and treat it as this source of truth. They treat it as this authoritative source, when in reality its goal, its objective, is to essentially reaffirm what you already believe to be true.
And I just think that AI is developing so quickly. It's being marketed so quickly, and so much. But we're not really having a lot of supplemental material about how to use it responsibly and how to actually interpret the information it gives us. And I don't always think it is this huge, you know, one source of truth that I see a lot of people I know treating it as.
“The two of you have had to find a way to accept AI as part of the process within our organization. What did you have to do to get beyond your initial concerns?”
Krista
As I mentioned, I mean, a lot of my concerns are still largely present, but there were a few things that helped me look at it as more of a double-edged sword and less of an unmitigated disaster.
The first thing was actually seeing Liza's work. She did a really great job updating our Clariant Creative buyer personas. These tend to be really time intensive projects. There's a lot of material to wade through, and, you know, you could spend 1000 hours, building out your buyer persona. You always feel like you could go deeper. And Liza used Christopher Penn's prompts and her own expertise to completely transform our personas.
And I had to admit, they were way better than I could have done and in much less time.
So, it was humbling. It was a really humbling moment because, you know, you're like, “What do you mean? This thing does strategy better than me?” But it was a wakeup call to realize, okay, if you know what you're asking it, and if you use it wisely, it's, got potential to save time and really improve your output, which is, you know, very different than somebody just using AI to make a Simpsons picture of their pet corgi.
I was really kind of the lone holdout. And after seeing Liza's work, you know, I thought, “Well, maybe...” And I’d kind of play with it a little bit, but wasn't really all that impressed.
And then the day came. I had a big, big project. Lots and lots and lots of resources to, you know, review and research to conduct and a really tight budget.
And I was like, well, here we go. So I dove in, basing it on, you know, prompting the best based on what I'd seen Liza do and others do. And I was really, really blown away with how well it worked. Just pulling everything together and giving information that I would not have necessarily known how to find otherwise.
And I knew that was good information, because, again, I have that discernment. But, I mean, there's times that I've spent hours and hours and hours tromping all over the internet looking for just the right resource. And it just made it so much faster and easier. So that was really kind of that was kind of the moment when I was like, okay, I can see how I could make use of this in a smart way.
Liza
So, I was very hesitant at the beginning, but I'm also just naturally a very curious person, especially when it comes to tech and its applications. So, it was it was interesting because there was this clear challenge of “We need to update these buyer personas, and this is a super time consuming, lengthy process.”
And then knowing that AI has these capabilities, I was like, well, shoot, you know, let's give it a try. If I'm going to use this tool, I might as well use it to the best of its abilities.So, it's been interesting because I've had to separate AI as a tool, which it's an incredibly powerful, really just impressive tool. I've had to separate that from AI the industry, and all of these other sort of associations with it, which can be difficult at times. And I don't think that's fully possible to do because they're intertwined. I think that we need to have more candid conversations around its considerable detriments to the environment. I feel like this is a big elephant in the room. The sustainability aspect. You don't see people critically engaging in AI's sustainability or lack thereof in these, like in these spaces. So, I'm glad that we're talking about it now. And also just, you know, the big tech giants who have sunk billions of dollars into scaling and marketing this tool to the nth degree.
So, it's interesting because two things can be true at the same time, you know, you can recognize it for its capabilities. You can use it to actually create like really awesome things. But at the same time, it's like you have to contend with the fact that if you don't use it responsibly, if you aren't critical, if you aren't skeptical, then are you really? Are you really using it to the best context?
So again, much of AI's effectiveness is predicated on the competency of people using it, which leads back to like how you actually apply AI and how you look at the output that it generates, and also how you prompt it and then how you prompt it [again].
To me, that was something that this was a big shift, like a paradigm shift in my perspective of AI. I kind of viewed it as like, “Okay, I don't want to write my college essay, so I'm going to make AI do it,” which is a really, really bad use case for AI. Like just straight up a bad use case for AI.
And Christopher Penn over at Trust Insights, he said something pretty revelatory where he mentioned prompt engineering and using AI. It requires you to think very similarly to a programmer, which I found very interesting.
So this was a huge pivot from how I previously viewed the typical AI user. Looking at it in terms of okay, like priming and how to program effectively using logical logic loops using conditional if thens. And it was interesting for me to frame it in that way, because then I can really start using it effectively.
“What’s your best advice to other AI-reluctant professionals, especially creative professionals?”
Liza
Well, I want to say that it is okay to be skeptical of AI — that is okay. I think there is a moral argument happening around AI and its usage, and that has salient criticisms on both sides.
At the same time, it is a really powerful tool, and you might not lose your job completely, but you will fall behind if you continue to resist it. So giving yourself the space to be curious, and to experiment and to actually be curious about the tool itself is important. But also keep in mind that it's important to use AI responsibly. And what it looks like right now that's still evolving.
And one more thing: There's just in general a lot of mysticism around AI, again, treating it as this source of truth or treating it as this something that can gain sentience and take over our jobs. I think that's a bit … that's not accurate. It's a phenomenal piece of technology, but it's still technology. The more you learn how to use it, the more effective it will be for you. It’s not this magic crystal ball that's going to hold all the answers. You have to actually be intentional with the way that you prompt it, with the way that you prime it. So there is a lot more hand holding and trial and error that goes into using AI more so than most people realize.
Krista
I've got three pieces of advice.
So first, to echo Liza. It is okay to be skeptical of AI. Don't feel bad about it. Give yourself space for that. A lot of us late or even non adopters have felt very steamrolled by, you know, the early adopters and by the industry itself. I mean, AI is being shoved into everything from our sneakers to our sports bras right now. So, you know, it's okay to feel very overwhelmed and very oversaturated by the whole thing. But if you give yourself that space to accept your discomfort with it and then just start kind of going, “Okay, I'm just going to experiment with that anyway.” You can find your own comfort level with it. I use it at work. I use it strategically. I don't use it casually. I don't use it personally. And that's my comfort level. That's my line. Everybody has to find their own.
But if you do start experimenting with it — and this is my second point — do a little bit of research on what makes a good prompt. Andy Crestodina, you can find him on LinkedIn. He is brilliant. Orbit Media, I believe. And he is fabulous when it comes to giving really great advice on how to make a good prompt. And he's just really a good person to, just to read up on it, to get some great ideas before you start playing around with it. So if you're worried and you're like, “Oh, I don't want to futz around, and waste 18 litres [Krista’s Canadian – Ed.] of water per however many queries I wind up doing,” read up on it first and then start kind of playing with it, knowing what you know and bringing your own expertise to the table.
And then the third and last point is, you know, don't let the buck stop with AI. The buck has to stop with you 100%. Do not ever, ever, ever send anything to a client that you know has gone through AI that hasn't been seen by human eyes. You really have to have the buck stop with you.
Because at the end of the day, ultimately you're the one responsible. You're not going to, you know, blame the AI if something went wrong. At the end of the day, you're the one responsible.
So, I named mine Igor, you know, from the old, like, Frankenstein movies. And that's my reminder that Igor’s fast, Igor is great at what he does, but he does make mistakes. And at the end of the day I'm the doctor, I'm the one running the show. I'm in control, and I have to have enough knowledge to be able to spot Igor’s mistakes and turn him in the right direction.
