How to Use AI: Toy, Threat, or Tool?

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Voltaire Santos Miran
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Sep 13, 2023 Voltaire Santos Miran EVP, Creative Persona The Compassionate and Charming Aficionado

Experiencing AI fatigue? You’re not alone. The topic of AI has been on heavy hype rotation for several months without any sign of relenting. Every day brings a steady stream of announcements. AI+Microsoft. AI+Google. AI+everything. The question is, what does this mean for AI+you? With so many new AI-supercharged products and services rushing to market—as well as all of the worries and concerns expressed about the technology practically and philosophically—how do you make sense of it all?

The conclusion I’ve come to from all my research and conversations with industry leaders is that we serve ourselves best by taking a pragmatic approach to AI. Treating AI as a tool to improve our work and our lives rather than a bright and shiny toy or an existential threat. Just because AI can doesn’t mean AI should. Even if a tool exists, and even if the tool is great, you still need to decide whether and how that tool will serve your specific needs. 

In a previous blog, we discussed the importance of adjusting your current practices for an age of AI. Now, let’s consider some of the places where AI can be a tool that makes our work easier and which AI programs best match those use cases. 

 

AI Use Cases

Goal 1: Leveling Up Your Grammar, Tone, and Style Game

The following tools can help you catch grammatical errors, write more clearly and succinctly, adhere more closely to your institution’s editorial style guides, channel your brand’s tone and style, and become more confident in your writing.

Goal 2: Solving Writer’s Block, Creating Story Arcs, and Enhancing Plot Development

Need help getting past a blank page? Looking for a way to play around with plot points or explore alternative story arcs? Trying to discover the conflict or dynamic tension in your narrative? Check these tools out. 

Goal 3: Operationalizing Content Production, Social, and SEO

If SEO-optimized content generation for multiple platforms is a current pain point, the following tools can help you speed up production and maximize your efforts.

Goal 4: Generating Multimedia Assets

Need to up your presentation game? Want to quickly edit existing images? Need inspiration through visualization? 

I expect that we’ll continue to see a barrage of new AI-enabled products and services over the coming years, and some of them will be game-changers for us. It’s our responsibility to decide when and how to use these tools and to keep ourselves at the center of our experience. 

If you want to learn more about using AI effectively, sustainably, and in a way that enhances creativity, check out our webinar on Authentic Storytelling in the Age of AI.

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