AI Can’t Fix Stupid
Hey there, fellow sapiens and AI enthusiasts! Let's talk about a classic conundrum: can artificial intelligence fix the age-old problem of human stupidity? Spoiler alert: Nope, not gonna happen! But why? Well, grab your popcorn and settle in for a chuckle-filled journey through the wacky world of AI and human foolishness.
First off, let's address the elephant in the room: humans are masters of doing dumb stuff. From putting the milk in the pantry to attempting to pet a wild raccoon, we've all had our moments of sheer brilliance, right? But fear not, dear reader, for in our quest for enlightenment, some have proposed that AI could swoop in like a digital superhero and save us from our own folly.
Picture this: you've got a broken organization on your hands. It's a hot mess of inefficiency, miscommunication, and downright incompetence. Now, in walks AI, our shiny new savior, ready to swoop in and save the day. Senior leadership is ready to layoff 50% of the workforce. They’ve been told this new dog and pony beta AI based software, is about to save oodles of time and money. But hold your horses, folks, because here's the punchline: AI can't fix structural issues – it's like trying to put a Band-Aid on a sinking ship.
Let's break it down with a little comedy of errors, shall we? Take the classic example of a dysfunctional company with a leadership team straight out of a sitcom. You've got the clueless CEO, more micromanaging middle managers than employees, and the disgruntled employees just waiting to stage a mutiny. Now, toss AI into the mix, and what do you get? A recipe for disaster, my friends. You end up with a cacophony of bewildering, befuddling nonsense. But if the organization isn’t at all disciplined and already learned enough to handle and manage these outputs, the situation it finds itself in will not get better by any stretch. To make matters worse, is when leadership doesn’t know they’ve brought the proverbial Trojan horse into their midst. “We’ll be able to do marketing analysis in half the time,” they will say. But what if no one in the organization has the training nor the education and experience to read and understand marketing data? “We’ll be able to get rid of half of our design staff” they will say. But how many AI programs can understand consumer behavior and psychology beyond a data point? How many programs can kick out a perfectly designed product in one go and on-trend? What marketing manager has the critical thinking skills to ocassionally reject what this Beta AI software is telling them and trust their gut instincts honed from years of education and real world experience. What if you know that market preferences are about to shift but the AI doesn’t know or understand that because a feeling is not a data set? What if the product or service you want to introduce to the market has no data to draw from yet? How can AI save you then? I have news for you…it cannot. AI is very much data driven and it is only as good as its input.
Consider what AI might have told Steve Jobs before the iPhone launched. It would have said, “you’re nuts for even thinking a product that has little to no use, that is highly speculative and based on technologies that have yet to exist is a fool’s errand.” Or the AI would have simply still be working on the problem. Decades later, you would still be staring at the spinning wheel on your computer screen, waiting on an answer because it had no data to base its opinion on. Maybe after some other company finally developed an iPhone like product decades later, the AI would then say, “yeah it’s a great idea.” See where I’m going with this?
You see, AI thrives on data – it's like oxygen for our digital friend. But here's the kicker: if your organization is drowning in a sea of chaos and confusion, what do you think AI is going to churn out? That's right, a virtual tsunami of nonsense. Think endless reports nobody reads, recommendations nobody follows, and strategies that make absolutely zero sense. Cue the laugh track.
But wait, there's more! Even if your organization manages to stumble its way into some semblance of functionality, there's still the tiny matter of having a plan and a vision. Will the AI tell the Marketing Manager that the Creative Brief comes before prototyping? Shouldn’t the Marketing Manager already know that? You know, those pesky little details that separate the winners from the losers. Without them, AI is like a blindfolded juggler – sure, it might toss a few balls in the air, but sooner or later, they're all coming crashing down. Side note: it’s probably best to start with balls instead of knives. It’s just a suggestion.
Enter the hapless marketer, stage left. Armed with AI and a whole lot of enthusiasm, they set out to conquer the world of advertising. But here's where things get truly hilarious: without a plan or a vision, they're like a clown at a funeral – awkward, out of place, and completely missing the mark. Often said by yours truly, giving a clueless Marketer AI is like giving an adrenaline soaked chimp a detonator to a live nuclear weapon. The results will not go over well despite the fact that I’d wager that most chimps are smarter than some humans I know. Maybe I just need perfect friends. What does that say about me? Okay, I’m not ready to lay on the chaise and bare my thoughts. That’s not what this post is about.
Note that I’ve referred to AI software a few times as being in “Beta.” How many institutionally scaled software AI programs are ready to and poised to literally take over and run an organization? If you can think of one you should be terrified. Skynet is here! In that case who needs CEOs, or marketing managers, designers or salespeople? Just saying. Be careful of what you ask for.
But in such an event you do get one of these hapless marketers with an AI Fetish thinking it will offset their own personal shortcomings, what will they do? They will flood the market with useless content and information that's about as valuable as a chocolate teapot. Think endless social media posts nobody engages with, email campaigns nobody opens, and ads that are more cringe-worthy than a dad joke at a dinner party. Talk about a comedy of errors!
To sum it all up in a nutshell, While AI may have its place in our tech-savvy world, it's not the magical fix-all we've been led to believe. Without addressing the structural issues within our organizations and having a solid plan and vision in place, AI is just another punchline waiting to happen. So let's embrace the absurdity, laugh at our mistakes, and remember: sometimes, the best solution is good old-fashioned common sense. Keep smiling, keep laughing, and let's keep the comedy show rolling!