Leveraging OpenAI Tools to Drive Productivity: A Brief Case Study

As we continue to witness the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, it's becoming increasingly clear that the impact on the economy and the way we work will be nothing short of revolutionary. In fact, the scale of disruption caused by AI may even rival that of the industrial revolution. Initially, many experts predicted that AI would primarily replace low-skill manual labor, such as basic assembly, followed by low-skill knowledge work, like data entry. As AI technology advanced, it was thought that perhaps even high-skill manual labor, like sophisticated machining, could be automated. However, the recent emergence of powerful tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E has turned this conventional wisdom on its head. In fact, it seems that it is high-skill knowledge work and even creative work that is being disrupted more easily and inexpensively than lower-skilled jobs. Many were skeptical that these roles, which are typically higher paying and require more education and training, would even be impacted by AI, but tools like ChatGPT don't need complex parts finely tailored to a specific situation, they just need a single person at the helm of a chat interface to manage the creative or problem-solving output of multiple humans simultaneously.

It was thought that lower-skilled, lower-paying jobs would be replaced and workers would be forced to either upskill or rely on universal basic income (UBI), and that may be true, but I think we may see far more levels of organizational hierarchy shaken up in the coming years. I wanted to understand the tools more and so I dove in a bit over the holiday weekend (a fitting way to see off 2022 and welcome in the exciting year that is 2023), and I wanted to share that story with you here.

I wanted to play with both visual and written AI content generation, so I thought I'd make a print-to-order online store. As a fan of coffee, travel, and urban sketching, I thought I'd explore the idea of some cool travel mugs with art in a style I'd create myself. I actually had this idea a while back, but the labor involved in creating the art just seemed too much to offset the potential for nobody to buy them, so I set it aside... until now.

But where to start - I needed products to sell. That meant both coming up with both the design ideas and the designs. To start, I used AI to give me a list of top travel destinations. This allowed me to prioritize locations to design mug images around. I then used DALL-E to fine-tune the imagery to the aesthetic I wanted. It took some tailoring as the AI bobbled between being on the nose with my line-and-wash style and wildly missing, sometimes looking like a first grader went wild with markers and other times looking like a 5th grader went wild with the original Apple photobooth.

I needed to write some python script to automate and scale my image production, but I hadn't slung much code since college. I used ChatGPT to tell me what tools to download and how to get started, and it even wrote 90% of my script for me. The script lets me input a city, then queries ChatGPT for the top tourist attractions in that city, and then spits out a few drawings rendered in the desired style for my consideration. I selected the best output images for each destination, loaded them onto mugs, and added them to the store. The uploading of the art to the mugs was by far the most time-consuming part, but I think I could have simplified this with RPA if I wanted to take it a step further. However, I didn't really want to dive into another technology that I had limited personal experience with - my wife was already more than generous with her patience as I worked on this while our son has been navigating a teething-based sleep regression. Either way, I don't think Gelato (the print-to-order vendor I used) expected for their user to bulk upload 100+ images in a short period of time, so I will lay off the scathing reviews. Here is an example of one of the final products I was able to generate:

Finally, I needed website and ad copy: I used ChatGPT to generate some decent marketing and ad copy. Just check out this example:

"Looking for the perfect souvenir from your travels? Our sketch mugs are the perfect way to remember your favorite destinations! This mug features beautiful art of Notre Dame, but we have hundreds of mugs available showcasing some of the top destinations in the world. From Paris to Tokyo and beyond, we have something for every traveler. Click to view our full inventory and start building your collection today!"

Not too shabby! While it likely isn't perfect, it certainly made my life easier, and I can tweak and tailor it over time. It also gave me keywords and thoughts on audience segmentation. It was like a marketer-in-a-box. Granted, I don't expect it to outperform my colleagues in marketing, but it certainly can do a decent job in a short period of time.

In total, I got over a hundred product options online, built a website, launched Facebook and Google marketing campaigns, and it all took me about 12-16 hours of work, with about half of that time spent distracted while watching my 8-month-old. The ad campaigns are in review (I've never had merchant accounts with either before, so it's all new to me), so I don't have outcomes to report on just yet. Hopefully, by the end of the week, I can provide updates on how well it has performed.

As the use of artificial intelligence continues to rise, it's clear that it will have a significant impact on the economy and the way we work. Recent tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E have proven that high-skill knowledge work and even creative work can be disrupted more easily and inexpensively than lower-skilled jobs. This means that the way we work and the roles we play within organizations may see significant shifts in the coming years.

My recent experiment with ChatGPT and DALL-E has truly brought this home for me. By using these powerful tools, I was able to create an online store and launch marketing campaigns in just a few short days, all while juggling the demands of parenting. The potential of these AI tools to streamline and simplify our work is truly exciting, and I can't wait to see how they continue to evolve and shape the future of work. Thank you for following along with my journey, and be sure to check out sketchmugs.com if you're interested in seeing the results of my experiment.