Don't Use AI to Hide

Speaking is not the same as communicating. And communicating is not the same as connecting.

We've got lots of amazing tools that help us speak, from printing presses to telegraphs to telephone to email to "email automation" to social media to YouTube and lots of others I'll leave out, because you get the point-- you're inundated by people trying to speak at you.

Historically, the bottleneck on speaking at you was publication or distribution, which technology has removed. The remaining bottleneck was creation or production, and now AI is removing that.

This will cause an even bigger avalanche of "content", along with meta-content, as the shovel-sellers move on to the next gold rush ("how to use AI to generate your course to teach people in your niche how to use AI!"). Some of these people will get rich. A few of them may even be helpful. But mostly, it will just be more speaking at people.

With all these increases in "speaking" power, and more people shouting, there's a greater need than ever for actual communication, and human connection-- even (especially?) for us introverts.

Shouting into the void lets some people think they are doing business development. But if you're in a relationship business, you're in a conversation business, and no amount of (real or virtual) shouting into the void replaces conversations.

All these tools should facilitate conversations, not hiding.

The real power in AI will ironically be helping us be more human.

Imagine an intern who can do research, draft content, generate and refine ideas, except instead of taking days or weeks, can do these tasks in close to real time.

Did you put up a LinkedIn profile or website years ago and you know it doesn't really describe what you do or attract your ideal clients, you've just been too busy to change it? AI can take your notes from your favorite clients and pull out key problems and phrases and turn them into a LinkedIn tagline and profile.

(Just as I wouldn't recommend having an intern go off and update your LinkedIn profile, but I would recommend having them draft some ideas-- don't just copy and paste ChatGPT output-- think of it as a sounding board for ideas.)

I'll be covering ways to use ChatGPT to help you be more human and more effective as a consultant, in a webinar on Tuesday (registration link in the comments).

So don't use AI to hide-- as a replacement for connection. Think of it instead as a tool to help you connect with the right people.