A.I. and You

by Leonard Shen
OCTOBER 2, 2024
Design, Brand

When Web 2.0 was introduced to our work lives back in the early 2000s, I was working in a call centre environment for a financial services company. We were told to encourage our customers to log in to their accounts and get whatever information they are seeking, rather than calling our call centre.

As you can tell, we were essentially told to eliminate our own jobs. But of course, that was not how companies sold the technology. We were told that, Web 2.0 will reshape our jobs by freeing us from mundane and repetitive tasks, so we can focus on more creative and critical duties. Sounds familiar?

The argument was seductive, because it was at least partially true.

What they didn't tell us, was that fewer call centre reps will be needed.

Like Web 2.0, A.I. will affect more or less every corner of our economy and our lives. As a marketing professional, how will your role change?

What will you need to do differently to contribute to the success of your employer?
How will you use A.I. to help you do your job?
How many of your co-workers will be displaced?
Will I lose my job??
Where do I learn all these A.I. skills?

These are the challenges we all face as marketing professionals.

A.I. improves our productivity by removing the foundational level of tasks away. As a result, each of us should be capable of taking on a wider set of tasks. You might be wondering, how is it that Leonard is capable of delivering this wide range of services, from web development to video production, by himself?

The answer is two folds:

Leonard has been doing this multimedia thing for a long time.
Leonard will use A.I., and other tools, to help him get things done more efficiently.

I suspect that marketing professional or not, we will all need to adapt A.I. into our box of tools. The simpiest and funnest best way to learn is to do. Have you tried ChatGPT and other similar services? There are some very cost-effective A.I. online courses available to give you some hands-on training (I'm not sponsor by any of these instructors or the Udemy platform):

These courses and others like these will get you started on the right track. Even though A.I. is moving at a breakneck pace, once you learn the fundamentals, you will have an easier time keeping pace with change and keeping yourself informed.