Before I start I want to make something clear to you. Im not anti tech. Quite the opposite in fact. Throughout my life I’ve learnt each ‘next big thing` as it’s become available and then – because I know all that it can do – I’ve cherry picked only the bits that benefit myself and my business.

I’ve learnt o to code, digital marketing & how to use social media as a digital marketing tool for example. And I’ve always been excited about each new development. Until AI.

Right from the very first time that I saw and used AI I could see its benefits but something felt ‘off’ about it to me. So I started watching, really watching it, over the last couple of years with an increasing level of scepticism.

Now AI is here, and it’s evolving faster than I ever imagined.  But, How do we adapt when the rules of the game are shifting under our feet?  Is the future one of abundance, or are we heading toward disaster?

Will AI change the world?

That depends on who you listen to and who you trust.

On the one hand someone like Mo Gawdat would tell you that today machines are as intelligent as Einstein and every task we’ve ever given them since they’ve become better than humans, they are the world champion at, In everything we’ve given them they are the best, they are the best writers the best artists the best musicians the best anything.

 

When faced with the argument and challenge that humans are uniquely capable of creativity and these are things that AI will never do. His response is that they’re doing every one of hem better than us right now. Because if you take the most complex of them – Innovation for example – Mo insists that Innovation can be turned into a mathematical equation. Basically an instruction to a machine that says find every possible solution to a problem, discard the ones that were proposed before and give me the ones that have never been proposed before. That, apparently, is innovation.

There will be a moment in the near future when machines will be marketing to machines and we will be out of the of the picture all together. Intelligence will become a utility that we no longer consider. Just like Electricity.

In a recent Speech from the TCC Loyalty Forum, May 2024 He said that “with 400 IQ points more I can plant a garden outside where you can walk to one tree and pick an apple and walk to another tree and pick an iPhone. From a nano physics point of view it’s the exact same cost. We are on the verge of being able to do that. We just need to be a slightly more intelligent.”

But, if iPhones that grow on trees sounds a little far fetched to you you’re not alone. Eric Siegel has been in the AI field since 1991. He’s “horrified” by the AI hype bubble. Believing that the difference between what it can do and what humans can do is going to become increasingly apparent. He, along with many other tech savvy commentators would have us believe that AI is nothing more than hype and that its being talked up solely to get huge amounts of investment for tech companies in their unending quest to become all powerful.

I’m not nearly intelligent enough to figure out which of those futures is true. But, whatever AI is, it’s here. And, in the short term at least, it’s going to disrupt and influence business all over the world. Because the short term is going to be full of people attempting to make fortunes by replacing every single human with a machine wherever they can. People will lose jobs and rich people will probably get richer.

I can’t predict how, when or who but – having worked in marketing for over ten years I think I can predict how humans will feel about their short term futures based on how we feel now about our recent past. Over the last century the world has pivoted to an ‘economic productivity’ focused model. But, as productivity has gone up, our satisfaction with life has gone down. We’re ‘better off’ than ever and we’re lonely and miserable. Now – above all else, we, the humans have this scarcity of our most precious commodity which is a sense of meaning, truth and purpose.

Not because of the machines but because of the way that the greedy humans use the machines. Humans could use those machines to solve the world’s biggest problems but instead Tech companies who believe that human behaviours like creativity are simply mathematical problem that can be replaced and mimicked by a machine,  want to replace the very thing that makes us human with  AI music based on mathematical equations, galleries filled with AI art and photography, fake news, fake stars, fake, fake, fake.

The death of truth and
the birth of the meaning economy

We will – almost certainly – find ourselves no longer knowing who to trust or what to believe in. And that will inevitably make us crave genuine human connection even more. The problem that none of the tech gurus can see is that AI generated art – of any kind – is quite simply boring. Tech is a utility, it’s a tool. It, in itself, isn’t fun or sexy And when it tries to replace the very thing that we’re better at we all get bored we’ll start looking for something else. 

• If YouTube becomes full of AI generated videos we’ll stop watching
• If Instagram is full of AI influencers (there’s already over 50,000) we’ll ignore them and when we finally can’t we’ll delete the app.

And that will be the birth of the meaning economy 

Companies and individual artists who value the human, understanding that they often ave more valueable than just ‘the job’ they do. Who capitalize on human connection will actually outperform those who don’t over the 5 – 10 years. Those with authenticity and genuine honesty will become the leaders of the meaning economy.

Slow content will rise, teaching will happen in classrooms, music will be live and all art will be messy and imperfect. There will be no ‘grid’ and we’ll never ‘snap to guides’ 

• A hotel doorman can be replaced by an automatic door but is that ALL that the doorman offers to a business?
  A doormans function and benefit to the business is far more than just opening a door
• A receptionist cannot be replaced by a chatbot but is that really ALL a receptionist offers?
  Recently I had to take a broken camera to Canon for repair. Upon arriving I wasn’t greeted by ‘drop and go’ automated box, I was greeted by a very friendly receptionist who helped me make sure I had given Canon all the details they needed and assured that my camera would find the right department. This was a far better experience than simply chatting to a bot and now when I think of the massive camera company Canon I think of ‘Mary’ the receptionist. She is Canon to me and dealing with the company was a joy.

The Takeaway

Marketing your business in the age of AI means being human. Sweat the small stuff and really get it right, think local, treat people well and give them a valued experience. Nuture Fans not followers. Be honest, Be human. Be silly. Do what machines and geeks cannot. 

Those who replace everything with a machine are going to become more efficient but those who capitalize on human connection will become more loved.

And I’d rather be loved than efficient any day.