Did you catch the story by Courage’s Tom Kenny in Tuesday’s SmartBrief Marketing Pulse newsletter? Great advice on how marketers can differentiate themselves when AI is used as the basis for strategies. It’s the end bit, though, that’s key:
“For decades, we’ve been using strategy to outperform commoditized categories. Now is the time to use execution and intuition to outperform commoditized strategies.”
I don’t doubt that we’ve all recognized the key theme in nearly every AI commentary: The importance of the human touch. The assumed well-trained human orchestrating the AI will add the nuance, insight and emotion to make that work successful. Or, at least, not a commodity.
That is true.
But, how do you respond when you combine that need for a human-driven outcome with the pressures to do your work faster, more efficiently and, ultimately, cheaper? It is a balancing act.
At those times, I go back to my economics degree and think about opportunity cost. Just how much do we need to use our human insights to make the AI better and achieve the desired results?
The answer: Just enough.
Anything beyond that is waste and simply the pursuit of perfection.
Writing is the foundation of what I’ve done during my career. And, as a writer, that’s the question that comes up every day (including while typing this). How much is enough? (And no, I didn’t use AI to get me started on this. But this is likely at least the fourth or fifth version, including input from a supervisor.)
Ultimately, that question of how much is enough is a judgment call that goes back to the foundation of what you’re trying to accomplish. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re trying to spur emotion in your audience, a click to a site, a purchase or just something you want your audience to consider down the road.
AI keeps getting better the more it trains on human-powered work, but the reality is, AI can never replace your judgment on how high the cream should rise. And that is what will differentiate your work from others, including AI.
If you liked this article, sign up for the SmartBrief Marketing Pulse, a daily look at the latest in shifts and performance data for marketers.