By Kat Lewis
How many click-bait headlines have you seen recently about how “AI is going to take our jobs and take over the world?”
There is a lot of hype in the AI space at the moment. In some ways justifiably so. In the world of content creation and marketing, there is certainly a lot that AI can “take off our plates”. The likes of ChatGPT, Gemini and Cast Magic can create written content for us in seconds.
If, like me, you’ve been a content creator your whole career that can feel scary. And overwhelming.
But my profession isn’t the only one being turned on its head. One survey in September last year found that almost half (49 per cent) of professionals in all industries feel they should know more about AI than they do.
When staring down the barrel of what is likely to be one of the biggest revolutions in how humans work since the Industrial Revolution, it can be really hard to know how to handle it. Do you just pretend that AI doesn’t exist? Do you spend time trying to discredit the work done by others using AI? Or do you embrace it?
I’ve moved from AI overwhelm to AI acceptance in the last year, so I’m going to share what I’ve learned in case it can also help you navigate the stress and overwhelm that can come from the introduction of AI.
Future-proofing
As you may know, we recently launched an AI-powered book writing tool, Cliobooks.ai.
I can still remember how I felt back in 2020 when Georgia outlined her vision for the future of the business – one where technology would do a chunk of the editing work. I felt a bit sick. My mind was racing. What would that mean for me? Would that mean I didn’t have a job in a few years? Would I need to find a new profession completely?
It took me a little time to process the idea that technology could disrupt a creative industry like book writing and editing. It had always felt like such an inherently human skill to me. But the more I thought about it – and the more I discussed it with Georgia – the more I realised that this could be an incredible tool that made my working life easier. It wasn’t going to replace me completely, but I would need to adapt how I worked.
Since 2020, AI has entered our lives and our workflows in all manner of ways. The transcription software Otter.ai was a particular game-changer for us and made my work much faster. Then Airmanual, the software we use to document our business processes, introduced an AI tool which saved me a lot of time. My mindset around AI and what it could bring rapidly shifted.
Of course, my career isn’t the only area where AI can streamline things. It has huge potential to give business leaders and entrepreneurs hours of their time back every week by automating and/or accelerating a range of tasks, from sales follow-up and lead generation to creating marketing copy.
Moving from AI overwhelm to AI acceptance
But if the idea of trusting essential elements of your business still feels a little overwhelming, perhaps what I’ve learned from my experiences of embracing AI can help.
One of the biggest factors contributing to AI overwhelm is the sheer volume of AI tools now available. How do you know what works? Where do you even start? Here are three tips to get the ball rolling.
- How will AI make your life better?
An exercise I found particularly useful was asking myself two questions:
- What task can AI take away from me that I really hate or that is a huge time sink?
- If AI did that task for me, how would it make my life better?
Firstly, this forced me to focus on one task – and therefore one AI solution – at a time. Secondly, looking at what I could do with the time I saved by handing a task to AI gave me the incentive I needed to carry out some research.
This leads me neatly onto tip number two…
2. Introduce one new AI solution at a time
A large part of the overwhelm from AI comes from trying to use all of it. The reality is, introducing ten new tools in a week isn’t practical (or sensible) for most of us. Choosing one tool, embedding it in your day-to-day work and then finding another is the way to go.
Think of this like habit stacking – you introduce habits one at a time and in small increments until they stick. Introducing AI to your business or personal life is no different.
You might not even need an entirely new tool. Many pieces of software and apps are now integrating AI into their offerings. So, if you really don’t know where to start then look at tools you already use and see if their AI additions can streamline your work in any way.
- Educate yourself on AI
The AI landscape is constantly evolving. There is a lot of noise in this space and that can make it hard to know what really will help, and what looks great but has no substance or strong use case behind it.
Taking some time to educate yourself about what AI is and how it works will pay dividends. This can help you work out where AI can really help you, and where what’s being promised doesn’t match up to delivery.
There’s no better way to see how an AI tool works than to play with it yourself. Many AI platforms offer free trials, so take advantage of these before committing any money.
Also look at the wider business community to see if you can learn from what others are doing. Are there any people you interact with who are embracing AI in innovative ways? Are there any webinars you can join that could give you some insights into what the tech can do?
I’d recommend webinars like this one from Mike Koenigs and his team at Ai Accelerator.
Ready to embrace AI for content creation?
If you want to harness the power of AI to help you with a larger content creation project, like writing a book, Cliobooks.ai is a great tool to explore.
You can also speak to us about how our team can support you with your book project – human support that takes work off your plate is just as valuable as what an AI can offer. Book a free Clarity Call or contact us at info@writebusinessresults.com to talk about your book project and content creation needs today.