You will have heard someone say that “AI won’t take your job, someone who knows how to use it will”. Pithy? Yes. Right? No. Some jobs will disappear and some will be changed for good. Some roles will be transformed with new tools that will give some people a competitive edge.
But if you work in leadership, marketing, campaigns or technology then focussing on the how alone is dangerous. Your work is about impact and change so you need to focus on the why.
And why is that? There is rapid increase in technology, with each cycle it creates more content, data and technology than any other era of human civilisation. This affords a huge opportunity to create impact, only matched by the massive risk of being lost in the noise.
In such a cluttered and volatile environment understanding how it works alone will not give you a long term competitive edge. Only a strong sense of why will give you long term benefits and get you ahead of it.
Strategy is Sovereign
Your Strategy is based on your Objectives and Audience. It ensures that you’re tracking to where you want to be and that you’re making an impact. Or that you have a solid tactical plan and relevant KPIs so you remain on track. This framework will future-proof you, as strategy won’t become obsolete, but tactics will.
Each new AI tool is tactical.
It may be that generative AI can create code to drive up productivity but unless framed within a strategic response that ensures better Quality Assurance you wont meet your Objective of being a good agency. It may seem obvious but it can be lost when ChatGPT is banned because it contravenes your Privacy or GDPR policy but could have added huge efficiency if it was used in a way that didn’t expose personal or proprietary data.
Quality assurance (QA) will be Queen
With a proliferation of content and services available at the touch of a button, you’re going to be spending more time ensuring that it’s right before it leaves your doors.
QA is going to be the end point to Strategy
Currently QA focusses on making sure things work and are accurate, which is definitely a good thing. When the level of automation increases and work is done by machine, then checking against intended Impact and overarching Strategy will become necessary, too.
There will be some howlers.
As the world adapts there will be a stark difference in those who are QAing versus those who aren’t. The impact of sending out something unintentionally quirky may not be terrible but those who are not checking against inherent bias in the tools they’re using may end up discriminating against their own audiences with the associated legal and reputational damages. Again understanding that these are factors to be mitigated against from an Objective level, will ensure proper delivery at scale.
Curation will be King
There’s going to be more stuff out there than ever before. Good stuff, bad stuff and plain ugly stuff.
Leverage your trusted voice.
In this world we can expect to see a renaissance of the tastemaker but now crossed with the idea of an influencer - or those who are taking the time to sort the wheat from the chaff. As someone who is interested in making an impact this may become a key role that you can play in setting the tone and direction of not just content or services, but iteration of the technology itself.
Misinformation is terrifying.
The ability for anyone to create and scale creation of misinformation is now huge, when combined with the the ability to deliver it at scale via social media that often amplifies it, misinformation is a major issue. If that tactic is aimed at your organisation, issue or people there has to be a response that will mitigate that threat. Answers will depend on the exact circumstance but being prepared for the risk of your world being perverted by misinformation, the likely source and nature of it is a very valid planning activity.
