Reading the social media of fellow creatives, and particularly the 40-somethings on LinkedIn, is becoming fairly predictable.
Post after post after post of how ai is bad, inferior, useless, the bane of society, and stealer of your candy back in 1992.
Here’s the real dilemma – it’s none of those things. And you know it, too. Because in the hands of someone with even just a little skill, ai is pretty damn incredible.
And right there is the problem. ai not only lets someone with no skill produce something semi-passable, it also lets someone with a little skill produce something excellent.
In short, it’s really leveled the playing field – it can help fledgling writers and artists become pretty darn competent, and it can do the work of several people. A company can now get by with one decent marketing person prompting ai and editing the output, both in words and graphics.
This is pretty frightening for writers and graphics professionals who were charging a professional rate for their work.
But here’s the thing – the complaining isn’t going to help you. And pretending ai is terrible at writing doesn’t help either.
Sure, ai IS inferior if all you do is give a basic prompt and use the output verbatim. But who is really doing that? Prettymuch nobody.
So to me, the whole “ai sucks” vibe is more about people concerned with their own place in the business world.
And look, I get it. I know this is scary and uncertain. Because I sort of lived it.
I remember when Fiverr first burst on the scene around 2012-ish. It was frightening to people like me. And yes, the number of stand-alone, full-time copywriters like myself cratered. I was enjoying what I was doing, so I fought hard to keep it. I revamped my messaging. I eventually had to lower my rate to better compete. I got better at selling myself, and I made sure my website was excellent. In fact, I really had to up my website game.
I survived. But it was never again as easy and carefree as 2001-2012 were. 2012-onward became much more of a “gotta maintain” grind. And it’s still like that today.
I will agree that it’s arguably even worse today. Fiverr and the “gig” players culled the copywriting and creative herd back then. And right now, ai is doing it all over again, on an even larger scale.
But besides being mad, how else are you handling it?
Let me ask: what does your website look and read like? Do you even have one? And is it the absolute best it can be? Or is it mid? I’ll be blunt – it better not be mid.
I say this with love folks. I’m a writer. I get it. Maybe if I were 45 I’d be pretty pissed too. But I’m not 45, and being semi-retired lets me see this with a certain objectivity. In short, I can discuss ai without thinking about my career.
That stated, here’s what I think could help someone grappling with this and really wanting to stay in this industry.
- Learn graphics and layout. Learn to use photoshop enough to edit graphics you tell ai to make. Learn layout too. Use your creative mind to make good graphics and deliverables, and add that to writing as services offered.
- Lean heavier into consulting. Are you really good at marketing and figuring out the where, when, and how? If so, I would double down on that. Maybe constantly post about issues and offer advice.
- If you are determined to be a “human-only” writer, then REALLY lean into it. There will be a market for human only, at least for awhile. It may be small, and it may be limited to very high-end companies and publications (like The Atlantic, etc). So you will have to be good enough to appeal to those places.
- Demonstrate all this on a website. Maybe I’m old school here, but I don’t really see how you can get across all that I’m outlining above without your own website. And not just a website, but a really good, informative one that helps drive business. When I had to pivot because of Fiverr, my website grew to 100+ pages once I started really posting blogs, thoughts, articles, and samples. It definitely made a difference.
Bottom line: You can’t just stay as you were. Because ai has changed everything. And it’s not going anywhere.