Wisdom From The Women Leading The AI Industry, With Iman Bashir of Craftly.AI

Another branch of AI that really excites me are the ones prioritizing education for lower income areas. We are seeing entire curriculum being built using AI, which will result in creative lesson plans and streamlined education that is available to even more students!

As part of our series about the women leading the Artificial Intelligence industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Iman Bashir.

Iman is a 24-year-old SEO specialist and entrepreneur. She is the Founder of Craftly.AI, a female run AI copywriting company. All self-funded, Iman’s team is on a mission to challenge the norms and be the future of marketing, copywriting, and content creation.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you share with us the ‘backstory” of how you decided to pursue this career path in AI?

In the last couple years I became very passionate about the tech world, specifically design and being able to build out concepts. When I first started in marketing and SEO, I got into the habit of outsourcing my tasks to third parties in order to stay on top of all of my projects. Countless amounts of feedback rounds later, I realized that I was spending so much time trying to describe what I wanted to my outsourced developers in my own words when coding is a language in itself! I wasn’t getting the exact look or results I wanted because I couldn’t speak the coding language. After a series of startup attempts and never really feeling a sense of ownership in the projects I worked on, I decided that it was time I learned. I practiced coding from sun up to sun down (and sometimes from sun down to sun up again). I became fascinated by everything I was able to conjure up, and instantly knew that I wanted to use this new skill to create something that was entirely my own. On the side I’ve alway churned out high tier websites, data-driven design, but wanted a challenge. That led me to the world of SEO. Trying to do SEO at scale is how Craftly.AI was founded.

When I first heard about Artificial Intelligence (AI), I thought I would have to be a mathematician or a data scientist. Intimidated but interested, I dove in and was blown away. Of course, what I became the most interested in was the competitive edge it provided. As an SEO-er in a very competitive market, I know that content is key. And with content, both quality and quantity are important to boosting your search engine results. I was pitching several blog posts per day in order to get placements and organic traffic to the websites I managed — it was impossible to scale my business while bogged down by all the writing and editing (plus all the writer’s block and procrastinating). Instead of trying to be in all places at all times, I discovered the world of AI for writing. AI with machine learning not only works with you to create something that is uniquely yours, but it does it in a fraction of the time, which allows you to focus on scaling those big ideas.

What lessons can others learn from your story?

For a very long time I was always looking for a “silver platter” situation. Something that was going to be relatively low risk, where I was relying on other people to get my foot in the door. Looking back I know this stemmed from my insecurity as a woman in the tech and business worlds. It was actually hurting me because by always thinking that I needed others, I ended up keeping myself down. I was accepting situations and amounts that did not correlate with the level of skill being delivered. I wish I could tell my younger self never to settle for less or be less just because you think that you need a male counterpart, you can be that male counterpart for yourself!

When I took that time off to teach myself how to code, I really came into my own. I realized that I didn’t need an experienced man to open any doors for me. I could open my own doors with plenty of hard work and dedication! Not everyone has what it takes to put in the extra hours of work, to spend their time learning new skills, and to get up and knock on those doors that you want to open. You have to be determined to succeed — treat success as an “if” not a “when”.

Another is when it comes to women in leadership positions (especially in fields like business and tech), I think it is really easy to get into the mindset that your success can’t be shared or else you will lose it. That could not be further from the truth. I think the true marker of success is when you feel confident enough to share how others can achieve alongside you, without viewing them as competition. My advice for women in the industry is always to share the knowledge and tips they’ve acquired in the battlefield of business. Women have to work twice as hard to create spaces for themselves in tech, and once we get there it is important to make the space big enough for others to join you. You go farther together, always.

Can you tell our readers about the most interesting projects you are working on now?

The project that I’m currently working on is Craftly.AI (and it is my baby). One of the reasons I’m so passionate about AI is because I’ve done SEO and marketing for so long, and I understand the importance of quality content! There is so much demand for new creative content but that pressure will inevitably lead to writer’s block, or it not being written in the correct way (keywords, topic choices, syntax, anchors). It’s next to impossible to keep up with it all.

With Craftly, you can input information about what you’d like to write, and the AI will craft unique, descriptive content that actually sounds human. It is the perfect tool for anyone who needs a little bit of help writing content! Craftly is an AI copywriting assistant that you can use to jumpstart the writing process, and banish writer’s block forever.

Seeing the capabilities of the natural language processing and machine learning tools I’m working with now have amazed me. I am confident that Craftly.AI will be the future of marketing. SEO is something that I am so consumed by, and I truly believe these new tools are the next step in revolutionizing it. By getting on board with AI now, I am able to use some of my techniques and strategies at scale.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I learned SEO from the expert himself, Joey Burzynski. He is the founder and CTO of MarketKarma, and worked directly on architecting online marketing strategies for a number of Fortune 500 brands. Joey saw my tiring efforts of which it felt similar to herding cats, and encouraged me to learn to code myself. He taught me that hard skills are the most valuable asset, and once you have that knowledge no one can take that away from you.

I also used to be afraid of overpricing my work, thinking that I could attract more SEO clients with competitive discounts. In truth, all that this accomplished was overworking and underpaying myself, and in the end not being able to deliver my highest potential. Right off the bat, he told me to 5x whatever I was charging — that sounded crazy to me! But he was right.

Eventually I was able to not only be paid what I deserved, but also feel confident dedicating myself to the work that I produced for my clients. He taught me that even if 100 people say no, all I needed was one yes, and I put in the work to get that yes. I didn’t need 100 low quality clients, I only needed a few high quality clients — Eventually, one high quality yes will “link” you to other high quality yesses.

What are the 5 things that most excite you about the AI industry? Why?

1. There are so many possibilities! I feel that we’re standing at the edge of something really big. We’re in that sweet spot where there is so much potential to impact everything from finance to schooling.
2. AI copywriting in particular gives small businesses the opportunity to compete with the giants. Those who didn’t have the ability to hire a team of copywriters can now accomplish the same high quality work in a short period of time.
3. Another branch of AI that really excites me are the ones prioritizing education for lower income areas. We are seeing entire curriculum being built using AI, which will result in creative lesson plans and streamlined education that is available to even more students!
4. AI is emerging at a time where women are really starting to establish themselves in the tech industry. Because AI is so new, we’re able to get on board early and make an impact on this new and exciting form of technology right from the start.
5. AI was not created to replace humans, but to enhance our potential. We’re removing the tedious tasks so that creating high quality work is more accessible to all! When AI becomes more common, we will be elevating the type of content we create entirely.

What are the 5 things that concern you about the AI industry? Why?

1. It does sound very human! I’ve conducted several tests to see if people were able to tell the difference between human content and AI content, and almost everybody failed. There is virtually no way to tell the difference!
2. Whenever a new technology surfaces, it is important to make sure that it is being used ethically. I worry that without regulations to ensure that each new branch of AI is being developed responsibly, this powerful new technology could end up in the wrong hands.
3. An example of this would be something like the Obama deep fakes. Using AI to spread misinformation is incredibly harmful. Deep fakes are one of the newest ways to confuse an already murky territory.
4. One fear that I hear quite often is that students will use AI like Craftly to write their essays for them rather than learning the material on their own. In these cases, I explain that Craftly works with the input that you give it to create content. You have to have a general understanding of the concept, or else your output will suffer.
5. When listing what excites me, I noted that it feels like we are standing on the edge of something big — this also terrifies me! We are opening the door to a new world of possibilities. More than anything I am curious to see how projects like Craftly.AI will change my industry of SEO and marketing. When everyone is producing high quality content, what will be the new way to differentiate great businesses? …And I’m back to being excited again!

As you know, there is an ongoing debate between prominent scientists, (personified as a debate between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg,) about whether advanced AI has the future potential to pose a danger to humanity. What is your position about this?

In this case, I side with Elon Musk. There definitely needs to be some sort of ethics committee working on regulations for the use of artificial intelligence. While I don’t see AI leading to our demise like it has been portrayed in so many sci fi movies, I do think that the possibilities of AI being used for selfish or harmful purposes should be caught and stopped early on in the development of this new technology. I think that AI is such an exciting new frontier, but it needs to constantly be evaluated for loopholes and flaws that could potentially work against us.

What can be done to prevent such concerns from materializing? And what can be done to assure the public that there is nothing to be concerned about?

I think it would be beneficial to have an ethics board to review all new development under the artificial intelligence umbrella. As we begin to move towards this new future, there should be more jobs in the industry that focus on discerning what is a good use of AI, compared to developments that don’t contribute to a brighter version of that future. We’ve all heard the quote “with great power comes great responsibility” (Spiderman, was it?) and it is especially relevant when discussing AI.

I have heard some pushback against the widespread adoption of AI into society, and I think it mostly comes from the fear of the unknown. When people outside of this industry hear about artificial intelligence they can sometimes jump to conclusions about how it will be used and if it will go too far. That is certainly a valid concern, but easing those fears is as easy as giving them a more in depth explanation of the tools being created. We’re not using AI to replace human input, we’re using it to enhance human output.

Craftly.AI is particularly interested in ensuring that our website is designed with this concern in mind. We are constantly monitoring how the tool reacts to input, and how we can improve what we’re crafting. We have moderators evaluating the content that we produce, as well as flags that protect against certain language. I feel that it’s our duty to this new industry to have these guidelines in place.

Artificial intelligence is going to make its way into our society no matter what. The technology is there, and we can’t help but explore it! Compare this to social media, another type of technology that sort of just integrated itself into our way of life and took over. I don’t think that we understood enough about social media at its conception to control how it would eventually become what it is today. We have the unique opportunity to understand as much as we can about AI before it becomes widespread, and control how it is used in order to combat any of the potential negative side effects for our society. There is no sense in protesting AI or working against it, the best way to control how we use AI is to work with it.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share a story?

As a young woman in this industry, I know that it is really tough to get your foot in the door. And it is even more difficult for those in harder circumstances. I was fortunate to be surrounded by people with business acumen from an early age, so I was able to envision my success in a similar way. For some young women, they are the first in their family to become entrepreneurs, to work in tech, or to go to university. I noticed this gap when I was in school, and so I helped to develop the Women in Leadership program at Western University. This organization allowed young women to practice leadership roles, learn networking skills, and build relationships with like minded women. This outlook is something that I’ve carried with me beyond school. I hope to always be able to uplift and provide opportunities for other talented young women in these industries.

Once Craftly is up and running, I can see us starting a scholarship program for students anywhere in the world who may need that extra support. It is also a part of my mission to explore Craftly ventures where a percentage of our company goes towards supporting women in AI.

As you know, there are not that many women in your industry. Can you share 3 things that you would advise to other women in the AI space to thrive?

1. As I mentioned above, I used to think that I needed a male counterpart to be successful. If I could give one piece of advice it would be that you can thrive in this industry on your own. Women have and are continuing to pave the way for each other and it is now entirely possible to get to the very top of male dominated industries.
2. My work philosophy is to constantly be building your skills. Spend even one hour every day learning something new, listen to a podcast, watch a video, or read a book or article that will help you scale your success. It is impossible to become an expert overnight, but with daily practice you are unstoppable!
3. Lastly, don’t be afraid of the unknown, especially in the AI space! This industry is so new for everyone so even if you are entering this space right now, you’re ahead of the game. There is no room for imposter syndrome here, we’re all just starting out on this exciting new technology adventure!

Can you advise what is needed to engage more women into the AI industry?

When it comes to AI in particular, education is everything. I would love to see more courses featuring women and being advertised to women. I learned so many of my skills from 10 week bootcamps, and I think that could really engage women who are curious about this new industry. The most important thing is that this education needs to be accessible. Education about artificial intelligence should be made available to all women. We’re at the early stages of bringing AI to the world, I would love to see what new uses for AI women from all walks of life could come up with. There are probably so many blindspots in the industry right now that could be spotted with more diversity across race, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

What is your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that had relevance to your own life?

This may seem sort of counterintuitive, but Patrick Lor from Panache Ventures once told me something to the effect of “hire for personality, and train the rest later”. When I hire new employees, I’m looking for people with that spark, the hunger that makes them want to work hard to create something great. If the most dedicated and passionate candidate is missing some key skills, that is a great opportunity for me as a leader to teach them something that will help them grow alongside the company. I am constantly trying to develop my skills as a leader, and this lesson has always helped me to choose great teams with diverse skill sets.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

My goal is to give back more to women’s education. This is something that I am personally very passionate about and I would love to be able to use Craftly.AI to support more women looking to succeed as business owners, writers, programmers, developers, and entrepreneurs. Eventually, I would be interested in starting my own Craftly course or AI bootcamp for women, where they could learn all the skills that they need to enter this industry with confidence.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Follow me at @imanbashir on instagram and craftly.ai to follow along on our AI journey.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!