
As a writer, marketer and product creator, I find myself working with AI every day.
I use it for research, ideation, outlining, proofreading and more. I can barely imagine getting my work done without AI.
And yet…
Does working with AI make me more creative or less creative?
I started working as a trainee copywriter at a London ad agency in 1979. I was just four years out of school.
I hadn’t gone to university, although I had a place waiting for me.
Instead, I worked in a quarry. I went to art school in London. I travelled. I spent a year living in a small village in central Turkey.
And when I went to my interview at the ad agency, it was pretty random. I just needed a job.
And they gave me one.
A year or so later I asked the HR guy why on earth he had hired me, considering I had zero qualifications.
I remember to this day what he said, “You seemed different.”
That doesn’t sound like much of a qualification. But back then, when you were hiring for an ad agency creative department, you wanted different.
My creative partner was also different.
I was the copywriter, and Peter was the art director. We worked together every workday for several years.
Peter was different too. Quite the character. He was also a good 20 years older than me. We came from very different backgrounds. He was obsessively tidy. I was messy. We were chalk and cheese.
Peter was also an incredibly talented art director. He taught me a huge amount. And we did some really good work together, often starting with a brainstorming session over a long lunch and at least one bottle of wine.
A pair of imperfect and different people, bouncing random ideas around, and spilling a little wine on the tablecloth.
That’s how our creative ideas were born.
ChatGPT isn’t like Peter at all.
I miss those times.
And as much as I value working with ChatGPT, it’s not the same.
Plus, everyone else is working with the exact same tools.
Not the same at all.
As a result, I think there’s a danger we’ll become used to a marketing world where creative output that is ordinary and predictable is labeled as being “best in class”.
The solution? By all means keep working with tools like ChatGPT. They’re amazing. And writers who don’t use them are putting themselves at a huge disadvantage.
But recognize that AI isn’t your best creative partner. AI isn’t messy enough, random enough, human enough.
As freelancers, maybe we need to stop working alone.
I work alone from home. But over the last few years I’ve made an effort to build an informal network of creative colleagues I can reach out to when I want to brainstorm some ideas.
Nothing formal. No money changes hands. We’re just available to each other to provide feedback on first drafts, designs, ideas, and so on.
If you can find some fellow creatives locally, so much the better. You can get together over coffee or lunch. If not, email and Zoom can work.
Long story short… AI is amazing and here to stay, and we should leverage it to the maximum extent possible.
But I don’t think AI is your best creative partner.
To achieve your highest level of creativity, you need to double down on being human, being different, and working with others.
Oh boy, do I miss those long, boozy brainstorming lunches…we did have fun! (and sometimes even came up with some great stuff.) 😉
Sadly, if that was still part of my creative process, I’d be spending the afternoon napping in the company’s “meditation room.” 😀