When I set out to write this piece I asked: what might it look like if I empowered AI to write this? Would readers notice? Would it sound like me? Would anyone care?
Those questions are likely to elicit strong opinions. When we assume AI is doing the work, it feels threatening on a lot of levels (and for clarification, AI had no part in writing this post).
But here’s something that shouldn’t feel threatening to anyone, whether you’re a writer, designer, brand builder, marketer, or a client on the receiving end of these services: using AI as a research and testing tool to accelerate deep human thinking.
Consider this opinion by Seth Godin, a marketing expert who has one of the most popular marketing blogs on the planet. In a recent post, he put a stake in the ground with 30 words on this controversial subject using this attention-grabbing headline:
Getting AI to do your work:
That’s the first step, certainly. If you don’t, your boss will.
The second step is to take the time you’ve freed up and do work that the AI can’t do.
While his first step feels daunting, even if true, it is the second step that holds all the upside.
To build upon Godin’s insight is the notion of speed as it relates to business. AI becomes far less threatening if we recognize it as accelerating the speed at which we can get to original thinking faster. And considering everyone is being tasked with moving faster, and ideally smarter, AI has a meaningful role to play.
Not everything you build is for public display
Homebuilding, by way of example, is one way to think about what part of the work AI is doing. A custom-built home and a mass-produced model both require a foundation, concrete and rebar, 2 x 4s, and scaffolding as you build up to what becomes visible. What the custom homebuilder does with these necessary inputs is what makes it original, while the mass-produced builder often follows a prescribed formula where output from one home to the next lacks uniqueness.
If the distinctiveness and separation is what we desire, with envy-inducing elements and finishing details, then to what degree will emphasis be placed on the structural elements that undergird the final work – as long as they are structurally sound? This is a valid question for brand building as it is home building.
Our stake in the ground is centered on truth. When we say Truth, Be Told, we seek to peel back the veneer of modern-day storytelling and reveal deeper truths. But if that statement is to mean anything in a world of skeptics, it also requires us to be forthright and transparent about the how of our story-building process.
The why and how of our AI business strategy
Our decision to incorporate AI into our workflows is in part driven by the ambitious brands we work with. While they understand that great work often takes time to develop, that reality never diminishes an appetite for soliciting our best work quicker.
Also, strategically deploying AI is rooted in smart business. AI has become an indispensable tool in improving our rigors with speed because there are foundational elements we cannot overlook – and chief among them is R&D. With AI, we can lay a foundation much faster so that our human intelligence can adjust and create original solutions from that baseline.
Here are a few critical ways we are thoughtfully incorporating AI technology without compromising our creative human output.
RESEARCH
What once took weeks to frame and develop now can be presented within a week with AI assistance. This helps set the foundation of audience research, confirm an accurate direction, and obtain buy-in on customized research prior to talking to real people. We simply get to those people faster with a confirmed research strategy so we can focus on generating insight for our clients.
By utilizing AI tools such as OpenAI (ChatGPT) and dscout that help us glean general learnings from consumers, we can:
- Simplify the research setup process: We’re often seeking to understand an unfamiliar audience, which can make it daunting to get started. AI can create a starting point for targeting attributes and screener questions, making the role of our research to customize and refine.
- Double-check the work: We’re leveraging insights within a broader project, which means we need to move quickly. It’s critical that research is conducted with efficacy. A pass from AI to ensure our survey questions are not leading can help to improve the quality of the research.
- Help with the bottoms up so we can focus on the top down: dscout has implemented AI tools to help with the tagging and categorization of qualitative research. This eliminates hours from our team to go through the tedious process of tagging data. It allows us to focus on top-down thinking of how to generate relevant insights for our clients and the project at hand.
We aren’t looking for AI queries to be right or perfect. We turn to it so we can cross-reference and refine against our own deep well of expertise with a speed that was previously unattainable.
DESIGN
Even the most engaged client who embraces a strategy will still have that “I’ll know it when I see it” response to the work, which is a natural human response. With AI, our ability to test concepts and sketches, and develop 3D models – taking into consideration a vast amount of input from an entire team – accelerates the visioning process. It gets us closer to what resonates and informs what needs to come off the table, saving considerable time in the custom design process.
While AI can help with early guidance of graphic, product and package design, it can also support project design – guiding the structure and flow of our work. As we see what AI can surface from a bottom-up perspective, we can better maximize our top-down workflows and avoid redundancy or wasted effort, all of which gets us to a desired end point faster.
No application of AI to our process has displaced a single team member. Rather, it allows our people to spend more time creatively considering the data and insights AI yields. Nor does it cheapen or downgrade the output because elements have been AI applied. To the contrary, it delivers on what businesses have made clear they want: increased speed without compromising distinctiveness.
This has been the AI positioning long before tools like Midjourney, DALL-E and ChatGPT became mainstream for the masses – and it remains true today for those who understand how to strategically leverage AI’s true value proposition for business use.
If we blatantly ignore, refuse to understand, or remain unwilling to find value in new tools, we put ourselves at risk of falling behind. Conversely, if we leverage new tools in ethical and transparent ways that can accelerate and inform our creative work, we increase the potential of improving our game. It’s a decision that every business gets to make.
For us, we will always choose to bring our best and original human thinking to the table on behalf of our clients – and we’ll do it even faster with the assistance of the right proven tools.
