Three Broads and a Pirate Walk Into a Bar: An AI Panel Discussion
I get asked this question by almost everyone I talk to.
How do I feel about AI?
I imagine most copywriters, along with anyone in a service-based, creative business, get asked. The truth is, it’s day-to-day, depending on what’s being advised and how things are changing. So when Dennise Kowalcyk, the Marketing Broad, asked me to join an AI panel discussion she was facilitating with my favorite pirate and brand development specialist, Justin Kerr, and marketing agency owner Deedee Kearney, I was all in.
Right now, AI is this evolving, organic disruptor that people tend to love or hate. We are interested in the gray area of how we can use it to our benefit and uphold creative integrity. Here’s what we learned.
AI can do great things if you learn how to use it for what you need.
Spoiler alert - AI comes with a learning curve. Is it useful? Yes. But only if you set yourself up to succeed using AI as one tool of many. It should not be a copy-and-paste situation. AI is best as the middle of the sandwich. First, you provide the information, details, and direction. AI provides a response. Then you have to edit and check the content, and then add your voice.
DeeDee mentioned that she has trained and treats AI like a highly trained junior staffer. For initial research, idea generation for hooks and headlines, but not to delegate the human thinking piece.
Justin shared that AI is still in its nascent stage. It’s not a seasoned professional but more of an eager intern that needs to continue learning and evolving.
I like to say that AI is for collaborating, not for delegating. It makes mistakes. It can pull from older information that has been replaced with new research.
Want trust? Balance AI with human input.
Is the average person using AI with integrity and honesty? I hope so, but we don’t really know. And if search engines are setting up systems to test for AI-generated content, there’s a valid reason.
If you’re using fake, AI-generated photos to promote the “results” of your work, that’s not trustworthy. It’s deceitful. If you’re copying and pasting content from AI and claiming it as your own, that’s dishonest. It’s also plagiarism.
AI is not generating new, original content. It’s using a Large Language Model that has been created from what already exists on the internet. When you prompt AI, it generates a combination of recycled content. Are we going to trust its level of discernment? I’ll pass for now.
I do think it has caused a rebirth of in-person connection - virtual calls, coffee dates, and in-person networking. People are making the effort to strengthen their community by getting to know other humans.
"Good enough" - the normalization of “work slop”.
One of our attendees is frustrated by not just the replacement of her artwork by AI, but also by the options that are faster and cheaper. It means that she has to get out there and increase her face-to-face opportunities and do some deeper storytelling about the value of her one-of-a-kind work to find her target clients.
Justin reminded us that this isn't a new problem. MP3s came along, weakening the analog music market, but people still buy vinyl records. The same goes for books. And just because there are less expensive cars doesn’t mean that people don’t want BMWs or Mercedes anymore. There’s still a market, and if you want a piece of it, you have to shift your plan for attracting your audience. Services and products made and provided by humans are desired for that individual, hand/mind-crafted benefit. The people who will pay for your expertise want you, not an AI-generated version of what you offer.
Prompts cannot produce personality.
I have been on a handful of networking calls where I’m given a list of services, resources, and resume facts by the other person. This is not memorable for me. What is, is where that person is from. What they did before they landed here. If and where they’ve traveled. What their personal interests are. I want stories, and I want one or two that resonate with me. I want to hear a specific, unusual, and even weird fact or memory that has formed you into the human you are today.
AI is not curious. It does not dig for information on its own. It’s built on the input/output system. It needs you to feed it the ingredients, and it will give you back a recipe. So if you are unfamiliar with your own voice and can’t share who you are autonomously, AI cannot write content that makes you noticeable.
It’s backwards to ask AI to "give me 10 things to post about" before You’ve ever fed it anything about who you actually are. You get generic answers because you asked a generic question using generic information. And if you’re looking at the content of competitors for ideas, you’re possibly using generic information from someone else’s generic question.
The fix is easy, but it takes time. You have to feed it your stories, your opinions, perspective, and ideas. Then ask AI to work with that. Change your settings to prevent AI from sharing your content to learn more about improving the LLM. Ask AI to only work from what you provide. And ask it not to lie to you.
Quality still wins. The algorithm agrees.
Justin had a client who let AI auto-generate monthly blog posts. They were repetitive, generic, and damaging his SEO. The word on the street is that authority and original experience are what rank, not volume.
You are much better off posting less quality content that lets your point of view shine.
Where I land.
AI is not going anywhere, and pretending otherwise wastes energy you could be spending on that learning curve I mentioned earlier. I use it for the operational, behind-the-scenes stuff in my own business. I do not use it to write because writing, for me, is the work. It's how I think. Outsourcing that would mean outsourcing the part of my job I actually believe in.
For the women I work with - entrepreneurs over 40 who've spent decades building their unique compilation of expertise - I think the stakes are even higher. You didn't get to where you are by being generic. Don't let a tool that saves some time replace your knowledge and philosophy. Use it to handle your admin, your first drafts, your "what am I missing" research.
The best way to adapt to technology while still holding loyalty for your voice is to keep the discussion going. Let’s talk about clarifying your voice so you can maximize its impact, with or without AI.