Will the Robots Capture All Our Jobs?
We have one big advantage over AI, and AI cannot beat us to it
A long time ago, in 1966, a bunch of kids made a few forecasts about life in the year 2000.
One of the predictions was so surprising that it would leave you speechless even today.
A girl predicted that the effect of automation would render many people jobless.
The link is here.
With the advent of Artificial Intelligence, it seems that this prophecy is nearer than we think.
Or is it?
Throughout history, advancements in technology threatened the social structure, especially the lives of the working population.
The Industrial Revolution, the introduction of computers, and the dominance of software.
Every time, we were threatened with joblessness and huge social upheaval.
But, it never came about exactly that way.
Will it be different this time?
Innovation Increases Overall Productivity
It has been our experience that life-changing innovation always increased productivity. Such productivity increase propelled human civilization, creating abundant new opportunities.
Since the time of the discovery of fire, wheels, and the automobile, it has been like that. Of course, various jobs became obsolete in the process.
Horse carriage drivers were jobless at the advent of the automobile. However, the automobile revolution created much more jobs than it obliterated.
It was the same with computers.
The massive productivity increase that came about after the introduction of computers is unthinkable.
Of course, there was huge fear among manual workers about computers. Almost everybody had thought he would lose his job.
Surely a lot of them did. Especially those who refused to retrain, learn new skills.
You Can Only Use AI If You are an Expert
Let me tell you a small story of my early days in an advertising agency. It was the late nineties, the last century.
The creative director walked into the studio one day and declared sombrely, “You have got to drop your guns, guys.”
Photoshop was introduced then, and spray guns used in the studio were on the way out already.
I remember a lot of my colleagues were caught somewhat unawares. Most of them, although very good at creative artistic expressions, were quite unused to even computers.
There was palpable fear among the older designers that their jobs will be in the line of fire.
A couple of them were fired, actually. But the rest of them took a course on Photoshop and started on their new journey.
Slowly, with time, they became experts in their new craft.
After all, Photoshop is just a tool, You must have knowledge of design, advertising, and artistic communication.
If you lack them, no Photoshop can help you.
You can perform robotic surgery on a patient if you are a good surgeon.
Without that expertise, you cannot master that robot.
For our tribe of copywriters, it’s the same.
If you don’t understand copy, AI cannot help you.
And if you are a good copywriter, you can harness AI and benefit from it.
How to Benefit from the AI Revolution
Before worrying about AI, let’s become great in our jobs.
I see too many copywriters are worried today because of AI. I see them fret in Facebook groups, and on Twitter, or LinkedIn.
They forget that they have one big advantage over AI, and AI cannot beat them to it.
And that one advantage is good enough to fend off the AI threat.
The secret is no longer hidden.
And if you use this superpower, you can be miles ahead of AI.
What is it?
Well, it’s your empathic knowledge of fellow humans, their psychology, and their behavior.
You know the right market for your product, the right way to market it.
So, instead of being a copywriter, be a marketing communicator.
Figure out the buyers, their awareness and sophistication levels, and how to frame a compelling message. Create an offer that they will find irresistible.
For everybody else, there is the opportunity of being an AI trainer and prompt creator.
