Marketers: ChatGPT taking your Job?

Face it, the buzz-worthy headlines on AI and ChatGPT are alarming, click-baity, and mostly negative.

“ChatGPT could make these jobs obsolete”

“Warn your children: Robots and AI are coming for their careers”

“How ChatGPT can launch fake news sites”?????????

“ChatGPT may already be used in Nation State Cyberattacks”

“Can ChatGPT replace human jobs?”

Whether you are a marketer, white-collar worker, or other professional, it is easy to get drawn up in the flurry, with justified concern. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is impacting many roles previously thought to be strictly the domain of humans, due to creative or non-standard work required as a core ingredient. But, the paradigm is shifting.

So, is our collective panic justified? Should we give in to this paranoia, perhaps hiding in the closet? Or do we need a more balanced perspective on the situation, to figure out how lead on the front edge of what is a truly exciting revolution?

Let's look at the last frightful revolution for some directionality.

Parallel to the Robotics Revolution?

An interesting parallel to the experience in today's AI revolution, is that of the robotics revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. It was all about the introduction of robotics technology into manufacturing as the technology became more advanced and cost-effective. As an example, robotics and automation in the automotive industry was driven by a number of factors. It included the need to improve productivity, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. Robots let manufacturers automate highly repetitive, difficult, and often dangerous tasks previously performed by humans. This included assembly line work, painting, and welding. Widespread adoption of robotics in the automotive industry served as a model for other manufacturing industries. This lead to an even broader adoption and acceptance of automation technologies.

During this era, there was a significant impact on the job market, both positive and negative. On the one hand, automation led to significant increases in productivity and efficiency, with the auto sector being a prime leading example. Cars were produced at a lower cost. This was a major factor for the growth of the industry. Lower costs meant more affordably priced vehicles, which drove more purchases, globally - and the cycle repeated.

However, increased use of robotics had negative effects on employment. As robots replaced humans, tasks and roles focused on manual repetitive labor, like assembly line jobs, were often made obsolete. Jobs were lost. Although it is true that many workers were able to find new jobs in other industries; many faced significant unemployment and wage stagnation. These were the negative consequences of this revolution. It seems that we are at this phase of debate on the parallel topic of current day AI technologies.

An interesting counterbalance, that is often forgotten is that this revolution also created new job opportunities in several areas. For example, there was an increased need for workers skilled in programming, maintaining, and repairing the robots and automation systems. Robotics led to the creation of new needs like the rise of robotics engineers, entirely new parts and components development industry (for the robots), and automation consulting, just to scratch the surface. Not only did new, higher skilled, non-repetitive jobs emerge, but these roles were typically higher earning roles reliant on a greater level of human expertise. From repetitive low value use of human resources, to jobs requiring greater skills, troubleshooting abilities, and ingenuity.

Overall, the impact of robotics introduced into automotive manufacturing on the job market was complex. Many workers were displaced, while others found better, more fulfilling roles. Plus, the increased efficiency and productivity of the industry allowed many industries to grow, providing employment for many more workers.

Same, New, and What to do?

Like it or not, as with the robotics revolution, the AI and ChatGPT era is here. In fact, today we look at the robots automating factories around the world with a sense of poetry. Watching videos of robotic welders almost orchestrated to classical music pieces, provides a sense of grace which is almost hypnotic. What was once a revolution creating mass upheaval, insecurity, and turmoil, has become commonplace. It is part our history that we don't even question anymore. Will our latest revolution go through a similar turmoil to acceptance, and new ‘norm’ phase? Yes, we are clearly going through a similar phase of angst.

Will we survive this phase, and come out stronger, wondering why there was so much fuss about it? Yes. Ten years from now we will collectively look back with a sense of amusement about what used to keep us up at night.

Learn from the past ... Adapt

As professionals in industries impacted by our new AI tools; we simply need to adapt. Factory workers of the 1970s and 1980s who did not adapt suffered the insecurities of the time. While some kept their jobs, many were made redundant.

AI, ChatGPT, Bard, and other evolutions of the AI technologies, are our new era tools. They can be very powerful at helping junior coders, code faster, more accurately, and with fewer common errors (bugs). Used effectively, it can bump up a junior coder to perform at the same level as someone with several more years of experience. If anything, tools like Codex, will not replace developers, but improve productivity, and even create greater demand for their skills. In fact, AI is expected to create some of the most significant in productivity gains, in human history.

There are many AI, GPT3, GPT3.5 writing tools that can help marketers, and content developers to script blog posts, or create wholly new content. Currently, the AI does not understand what it is writing, or describing. That is where your expertise as a professional comes in. You must still guide it, train it, and work with it. The tools help you start, but expect that it will need you to rewrite your marketing script or content to read what ‘actually’ makes sense. Professionals are still needed to guide and align the output to the point of view you actually seek to convey.

Keep in mind too, that our AI technology of today does not take initiative. It does not decide to grow sales, lay out a strategy, choose to create a new product, work out the market requirements, or set things in motion to achieve sets of goals. A user sets the direction, takes the initiative, and makes it happen. The AI tools can help them get their project underway faster, with fewer errors, or more efficiently. But, these are tools - to be used by the professional tool wielder.

Your Direction. Your Choice.

Bringing us back to where we started, neither ChatGPT, nor another AI revolution is going to steal away your job. Not yet, anyway. But, marketers, white-collar workers, and other professionals are wise to start learning how to leverage these new tools. They are tools to be used to help augment, speed-up, and improve the impact you bring to your role.

Stay on top of your game. Be creative from the perspective of being the guiding leader of the tool. Human professionals are good at doing the complex, non-repetitive roles. So focus on these. Take initiative, choose a direction, and make it happen. Leverage the new technology to enhance your own effectiveness, and you need not worry about losing your job anytime soon.

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Side Note: Ironically, although I used an AI writing tool to help seed the ideas for a few core paragraphs in this article, this was almost entirely written by me... a human :-p.