Dan, what the heck are you blabbering about?
Well, let’s look at 3 personas, which I will base on a graphic designer.
- The first persona is someone who has mastered the technical tools used by a graphic designer, but is lacking creatively.
- The second persona is someone that is very creative but hasn’t mastered the technical tools used by a graphic designer.
- The third persona is someone who is a true master at their profession - meaning that they have mastered the technical tools and are also very creative.
Each of these personas will be affected by Generative AI in unique ways. Generative AI simplifies how we bring ideas to life. A graphic designer may no longer need to master photoshop in order to bring their ideas to life. A good prompt can output the perfect sepia toned image in minutes, compared to spending hours in photoshop.
The first persona will face challenges. Since anyone can now bring an idea to life, they will encounter more competition, and potentially less work.
The second persona can benefit from AI. Their ability to create is no longer limited by their lack of technical abilities. They are now free to be as creative as they can and utilize AI to bring the ideas to life.
The third persona will most benefit from AI. They can now spend more time being creative. Since they understand the technical requirements of their creations, they can also provide more accurate prompts. An added bonus being the ability to iterate faster and take on more work.
The core idea that I’m presenting here is that although AI removes the tedious nature of technical work (i.e., knowing the right buttons to click for Photoshop) and gets us to our goal faster, Generative AI (at least today) is not creative. It still requires human input and reference to produce an output. It is a hammer that can bash a nail, but doesn’t quite know how to design or build a never-before-seen structure, nor does it understand the strategic sequence of actions required to do so.
The more creative you are, the more you can leverage AI to speed up your process and spend more time creating ideas that do not exist. To be human is to be creative, we can be more than just our jobs.