If you drank a shot every time you heard ‘AI’, you’d be drunk by lunchtime.
The letters have been installed in our minds like an undesirable 2014 U2 album on an iPhone, but is it worth the hype or attention?
We’ve been told AI is a gamechanger – the ultimate tool to increase productivity with endless possibilities, and yet, as an actual human, it might be hard to imagine what those possibilities are when so far we’re presented with AI slop on social media and Copilot popping up at any opportunity, guessing the next word of the email before you’ve had chance to think.
Don’t get me wrong, AI has a lot of potential. There’s no doubt it will bring medical advances, scientific discoveries, and enhance data modelling, but on a day-to-day basis, is it the game-changer we’ve been looking for?
We use it to summarise meeting notes, as a critical friend for ideas, and to assist in development projects. It’s made some of the more mundane aspects of work more efficient – but we coped without it.
For a tool that’s largely pitched for productivity, where are the significant day-to-day gains? Is there more free time? More money? No to both. In fact, as Tom Goodwin has identified, AI burnout is the biggest risk, as everyone wants things quicker.
Economies worldwide haven’t seen a dramatic increase in GDP with the adoption of AI, other than the vast injections of cash needed to build vast data centres and semiconductors, and even then, it might just be one big bubble that fails to monetise.
If anything, the daily release of the next revolutionary AI platform is more of a distraction. Grok’s proven to have zero morals and boundaries, leaving governments to catch up on legislation, and last month, Clawdbot (quickly rebranded to Moltbot, and then again to OpenClaw) consumed 48 hours of attention as people clambered to download it to their laptops – with people loving that the agentic tool can tidy up their desktop. Revolutionary.
Of course, there are wider uses for AI, but not without some serious security flaws. Who would’ve guessed that opening your entire device to a third-party open-source tool would potentially present a serious threat to all the data and private information you possess? It might even delete your cherished family photos.
Creatively, it’s hailed as a game-changer. Anyone and everyone can be a designer, although it’s a little bit of déjà vu from when Canva was launched, and much like Canva, AI can’t advise on taste or style.
What’s most striking, though, is the desire to replace people. We’ve been reduced to job titles rather than considering that individual experience, context, instinct, and thought might offer more than a soulless screen can.
A panellist at an event last year claimed it was fantastic that he could have a marketing strategy in 3 minutes rather than 3 weeks. Fantastic! Do you understand it, though? Can you implement it? Or are you relying on another prompt to do the next stage? Good luck if you’ve replaced your marketing director with Gemini, whilst your competitor keeps someone experienced in the position.
Of course, for tech overlords pushing this to increase valuations, and business owners looking to reduce their overheads, disposing of people is great – but human experience, interaction, and processes are what make brands and businesses great and memorable.
It’s why sales of printed books outsell digital versions 4:1, and sales of vinyl rose by 10.5% last year. We crave what feels real. What feels human.
Can efficiencies be made in our day-to-day work? Probably – however, the desire for immediate answers ignores perspective and skips the understanding of what works, and the learnings from what doesn’t work.
The pleasure is in the process. Finding the wrong answer, identifying what doesn’t work, and understanding how things work.
Would AI have created Berghain, the critically-acclaimed album by Rosalía? No, because the algorithm would have produced what you’d expect based on historical data. Berghain is atypical and goes against the grain of what’s expected.
You might think I’m pessimistic about AI. I’m not. I’m a massive tech nerd who once queued for the iPhone 4 on launch day (don’t judge me).
I think AI can be great to use as part of a process (if prompted correctly by a human), but the narrative of replacing jobs is too simplistic and overhyped, and possibly an easy headline for businesses looking to reduce headcount by spinning it as innovative technology adoption rather than cost-cutting.
Do I think it will replace humans? No. It can’t. But, ironically, for something that was meant to make our lives easier, we might have to work harder to be recognised for our ideas and thoughts beyond a prompt, and battle against business execs chasing speed over quality.
Ultimately, brands that prioritise people, high standards, and taste will be the differentiator against the bots.
Take time to find pleasure in the process.