Embrace AI Now. Thank Yourself Later.

Whenever there's a new technologoical advancement, scaremongering is rife. We've all seen social posts, articles and reports on which jobs are next in line for the chop thanks to AI. But there are many opportunities here if we put fear to one side and 'pop the hood' on the real state of play.

IBM's latest 'Augmented work?for an automated,?AI-driven world' report is thoroughly worth a read to help navigate how we can use technology to our advantage. The report neatly cuts through the noise to offer us all some valuable tips on how focusing on 'Augmented Intelligence' can be a beneficial partnership between us and technology.

And the message I get loud and clear for marketers and non-marketers alike is this: Embrace AI.

"AI won’t replace people - but people who use AI will replace people who don’t."

Understanding and leveraging current Natural Language Processing capabilities will mean whatever your role, you're using it to your advantage and you're ready for when the currently available "Narrow AI" (the likes of ChatGPT) evolves into "Artifical General Intelligence" (on par with the human brain)...

...and then the White Walkers - "Artifical Super Intelligence" - which, let's face it, most of us don't even want to think about.

We haven't even scratched the surface yet, and it's inevitably going to be a bumpy ride as we peel back the layers.

Sure, there is going to be a huge transformational shift in life over the next few years, but as The World Economic Forum predicts, this evolution will likely create more jobs than it disrupts.

I've recently been studying AI and ChatGPT and I'd absolutely recommend doing that to everyone - regardless of your industry, role or career aspirations. Understanding where we are, where we could be headed, and the pitfalls and potential will never be time wasted.

Back to what we can do right now, IBM's report powerfully demonstrates the need to do a deep dive on operations to determine what you need and how to build around that.

"Automating bad processes won’t make them better."

Look to your existing talent and see what can be done to upskill people - and identify those who have skills that you simply can't get from generative AI right now. Like people skills. Hold onto those who have great soft skills.

Look at your data - what have you got and what do you need? What can be automated and what needs human involvement?

Look at where your work comes from and where you want it to come from. How does your current operating model fit with the needs of clients/customers and help grow the business?

Some marketing teams run the risk of hiring shiny new "in-demand" talent but not knowing what to with that talent once the (digital) ink is dry on their employment contract.

Taking a beat to really look at where gaps are and how you can fill them from within should avoid reputational risk and wasting time and money.

For existing team members at every level, this means making sure we're already on solid ground - technologically literate, open to experiment, and embracing of innovation that helps us focus on more important matters.

It's not ok to say you're "just not good with computers" anymore.

This is especially true of managers and executives who need to be reassuring and communicating with the wider workforce on how AI can enhance their lives, not replace them.

There's loads of great stuff in the IBM report linked at the top of this article, so have a read and let me know what you think.